Gujo Hachiman

I took a Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya to meet up with my family on the 26th. We were going on a tour around Gifu the next day.

We got a tour with Klook and got on a bus departing from Nagoya station. The first stop was Gujo Hachiman. A quaint and sleepy town famous for the koi swimming in its canals. We first went to the Sogi Spring, where the water originated from. It's natural and divided into several sections including one for drinking, laundry, and washing vegetables. It had a shrine on top of it symbolizing the sacredness of its waters. I had a little drink to get a taste.

We walked to Miyagase Bridge to cross over to Yanaka Lane and then down towards Jiozen-ji Temple where a statue of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha stood sentinel. From there, we went to Igawa Lane where the famed koi were. We walked along the pretty canals and noticed just how large the koi were here. One of the residents gave my parents some fish bait and they fed the fish happily. It seems like we didn't have enough time to visit Gujo Hachiman Castle this time around.Read more