From Nikko we took a bus to Shirakawago, further into the mountains. Shirakawago is similar to Hida No Sato in that there are a collection of authentic traditional buildings, but the difference is that they’re all lived in and the whole place is a combination of working village and tourist attraction.
Shirakawago nestles nicely in the middle of some mountains, guaranteeing it bad weather all year round, I believe:
There were an awful lot of traditional houses there, though. Many were complete with electric sliding doors too:
The surrounding mountains themselves were impressive enough:
One of my favourite things to see everywhere was the racoon dog, which is some kind of mischevious thing (I guess a kind of furry leprechaun with a bit of vivisection thrown in). Usually they were plastic and sat outside houses, restaurants and other places, presumably to ward of something or other. This stuffed one was the finest example I saw, though:
A lot of the rivers we saw were very green tinted whilst still being clear. I don’t really know why:
A rice field in Shirakawago:
