Ainokura and Shirakawa-go

So the weather is a bit crook in Kanazawa today. Not much value in walking around the city so I decide to drive to Shirakawa-go.
Along with Ainokura and Suganuma, Shirakawa-go is World Heritage listed because they contain gassho-style houses. Most of these houses are 100 to 200 years old but the oldest could be 400 years old.
The houses have been built to withstand heavy snowfall with an alpine like shape and are built from local trees. No nails are used.
I find that while it might not be raining on my drive, there is considerable fog. This gives an eerie look to some of the photos.
I drop in to Ainokura village first. It costs 500 yen (6 AUD) to park and look around. There aren't too many other cars here so it's comfortable to browse around. I took a number of photos with eerie fog backgrounds.
I drive through Suganuma and notice more gassho-style houses. By the time I get to Shirakawa-go it is later in the day. There are a horde of tourists here so I backtrack to Kanazawa, where it's still raining albeit quite lightly.Read more