Day 8 - Shirakawa, Japan

We left Takayama on the 7:50 bus bound for Shirakawa-go arriving at 8:40am. The journey went through many tunnels and we saw snow on the ground too. On arrival we beat most tour groups, this allowed us to wander around the village, where there was still a bit of snow in places.

We then toured Kanda housd, a gassho house and went through the 4 levels. After this we treked up to the lookout point for a great view over the village. At 12:20 we boarded the bus for Kanazawa, another journel of lots of tunnels, arriving at 1:35pm.

Kanazawa is beautiful. We walked the 15mins to our hotel - the Shara Hotel kumu - its very industrial modern. Our 4 bunk room cost 31,100¥ for the 2 nights. After dropping our bags we headed for Kenrouken garden. Turns out it was free due to Cherry blossoms which were everywhere, as too were the people.

The gardens were a spectacular sight, as to was the Kanazawa castle grounds that we wandered through to get back to the hotel. On deciding to head to dinner, we ended up at the samurai district. We had to wait an hour to get into 'The Godburger' for dinner, then nearly as long for them to make it. The kids were good for such a long day.Read more