Shirakawa (Saturday, April 30th)

Finally, here's a post that isn't all about me studying.  I took advantage of an opportunity to visit Shirakawa village in Gifu prefecture, a UNESCO world heritage site.  As Wikipedia describes it, the village is "well known for [its] houses constructed in architectural style known as gasshō-zukuri (合掌造り). The Gassho-zukuri, "prayer-hands construction" style is characterized by a thatched and steeply slanting roof resembling two hands joined in prayer. The design is exceptionally strong and, in combination with the unique properties of the thatching, allow the houses to withstand and shed the weight of the region's heavy snowfalls in winter."

We're basically talking about an authentic village of thatch houses nestled in the a valley in the middle of nowhere, surounded by mountains.  The photos below don't do it justice, as it really is a thing of beauty.

Incredibly, it is still a real village and people do actually live in many of these homes.  Here's some pictorial highlights from my visit:



Here's the small suspension bridge, on the approach to the village.



We went in and toured through one of the houses.



It was certainly busy, since today is the start of Golden Week, and although my photos don't necessarily show it, the streets were packed.



The village is known for the "sake" they make at the shrine and sell locally.  It is very strong and has a large amount of actual bits of rice in it, as you'll see in a later picture.



It still seems very isolated even today.  Massive tunnels were bored through the mountains, in recent years, to provide a convenient means for visitors to get here.. I can't imagine how they would have made it here a century ago.

These little rascals are "Surabobo" dolls or talismans unique to Gifu prefecture.  They come in a variety of colours and bring different kinds of good fortune to their bearers depending on the colour.  They are also a little creepy since they don't have faces.  I noticed there were far more of the red version on display (which I believe signifies "love") compared to, say, the gold ones (bringing the bearer weatlth) which is kind of telling.  Maybe all you really do need is love!  I was kind of hoping to find one that brings the bearer the ability to "memorize massive amounts of kanji characters quickly" but it was not to be.

Kirei (beautiful) as they say in Japan.

By the time we climbed up to get this bird's eye view it was raining pretty heavily, and was quite overcast, unfortunately.

Here's that special sake I was telling you about... it's hard to see from the picture but there are bits of rice floating in it, and it is POTENT stuff.  It was tasty (oishii) enough, but I can't see downing more than one of the bowls full.