Shirakawa-go -> Kanazawa -> Kyoto -> Osaka -> Home :-(
DAY 5: SHIRAKAWA-GO
Early in the morning, we woke up, got ready and caught an early bus ride to Shirakawa-go. Throughout our journey, we were greeted by scenic snow-covered views, which made me feel like I was in a winter wonderland. Shirakawa-go was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 and is famous for the traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses. Some of which are more than 250 years old! These farmhouses have successfully caught my attention and I decided to find out more about their uniqueness as well as the criteria to make it as a world heritage site. I did some reading and research and here's what I have learned. What makes the gassho-style houses unique include the 60 degrees thatched gable roof which eases the falling of snow during winter
. Next, the roofs were made without nails, and the space inside the roof is utilised as a large attic space, consisting open-trussed frames filled with mulberry leaves to raise silkworms. The most common problem which is the lack of resistance to the lateral forces perpendicular to the truss frames was solved in gassho structure by using diagonal bracing within sloped plane of roof which provides strong lateral resistance. Finally, these farmhouses are unique because they were nearly extinct after World War II and were only found in Shirakawa-go and Gokoyama areas with only 1860 gassho-zukuri farmhouses at their peak.
Moving on, I will talk about a few criteria to make it into the world heritage list:-
1. Represent a masterpiece of human creativity
2. Important interchange of human values
3. Bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or a civilisation which has disappeared
4. Be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural which illustrates (a) significant stage in human history
5. (b) meet the test of authenticity in design, material, workmanship/ setting in case of cultural landscapes- their distinctive character and components (reconstruction only for conserving and preserving), existence of protective legislation
6. Outstanding example of traditional human settlement which is representative of culture
7. Directly or tangibly associated with beliefs
(I will attach a few photos from the book itself to showcase the structure of the gassho-style farmhouses)
managed to capture this scenic view while I was in a moving bus, travelling from Takayama to Shirakawa-go
Gassho-zukuri farmhouse in Shirakawa-go
Once we have reached, we walked from the bus terminal to our resort. The resort which we stayed at is the Shirakawa-go Terrace-
Postcode 501-5629
331-1 Hatogaya Shirakawa-mura Ono-gun Gifu JAPAN
Phone:+81-5769-6-1223
I highly recommend any of you who are interested to check out this place as it offers a unique traditional Japanese homestay experience for visitors. Fun fact, this house which we stayed at is 97 years old but fret not, as it is very well maintained and has been renovated in 2017 to serve its purpose as a small hotel for travellers.
surrounded by mountains, houses and trees covered with blankets of snow, so much winter wonderland feels
after we left our luggages at the resort, we went to seek for food to feed our growling stomachs
the only drawback of Shirakawa-go is that there were many tourists, and not enough restaurants to cater for all of us.
all restaurants were full and we had to wait for a solid 30 minutes before we get to enter the restaurant itself.
the foods served in the picture above were 2 bowls of udon noodles with tempura.
layers of snow by the road was super thick so we decided to play with them while exploring the town
there I was, attempting to make a hat out of snow
the little houses in the background are the gassho-zukuri farmhouses.
unfortunately, we were only allowed to explore the village by driving in with rented cars which we did not rent any, so this picture was taken at the deck, reachable via the bus service provided
the friendly staffs of the resort offered us these cute tiny cups to drink the sake beer from, how cute
the picture-postcard view we woke up to, right outside our resort
snow everywhere! you should by now have guessed that I have deep affection for snow because it's white in colour and my favourite colour is white heh
not a 100% sure if this was the resort my family and I stayed at for one night
took a bunch of photos the next morning before we leave Shirakawa-go
My family and I spent 2 days at Kanazawa. The first place we stopped by is the Omicho Market. It is Kanazawa's largest fresh food market, with most stalls selling seafood and fruits. I bought a box of strawberries which were ginormous compared to the ones harvested in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. I think that this market is worth visiting as it was an eye opening experience to how the locals sell and purchase their fresh produce in Japan. Other than that, the restaurants as well as the foods sold in the market did not catch much of our attention because we do not have access to the kitchen in our hotel, let alone cook our meals. Since our attempt to have lunch at Omicho Market turned out to be a failure, we walked back to the station and found ourselves in this pan fried noodles restaurant. The restaurant itself is pretty small with huge grill tops which serve as our table. The staff then took our orders and proceeded to prepare our food right in front of our eyes. The way the noodles were served to us was pretty interesting, at least to me, because as you can see from the picture below, the cooks prepared several orders simultaneously. Once our meals are ready, they then served it by spreading the noodles right in front of us. This reminds me of the scene in the Mulan movie when Mulan fed her chickens in the farm (ha ha ha! can you relate?)
Omicho market
I am not a big fan of pan fried noodles so the food was alright for me, but it was considered a new dining experience to me
strawberry acquired from the Omicho market
they were indeed sweet & juicy, definitely worth trying although they were slightly pricey
The next place we visited is the Kanazawa Castle Park. Right at the entrance, there was a warning notice stating that there may be wild boars roaming around which was fairly intimidating. Fortunately, we did not encounter any wild animals during our visit. The Kanazawa Castle Park itself has a big compound, with unique traditional Japanese architectures. I have read that the castle had been burnt down several times over the centuries and the most recent fire occurred in 1881 and only 2 storehouses and the Ishikawa-mon Gate survived. There is a lot of interesting historical stories behind the castle and I shall stop at this point before my blog gets boring. So I will be posting some interesting pictures taken in the park itself instead:-
The Kenrokuen Garden was only a stone's throw from the park so we had to stop by after touring the castle. This garden was originally the outer garden of the Kanazawa Castle, located on the slope facing the castle. Again, I will not go into the history of this garden as it will take days to narrate. The picture below features the Karasakinomatsu Pine, a majestic pine tree which is one of the best known trees in the garden. The 13th Lord Nariyasu obtained the seed from Karasaki, near Lake Biwa, and it has grown from that seed to its present size as shown in the picture. Recently, the gardeners begin setting up yukizuri (the brown ropes) to protect the branches from heavy snow.
statue of Prince Yamato Takero in the Kenrokuen Garden (Meijikinen Monument)
on one night, we had our dinner and spent our time at the shopping mall right across our hotel
I ordered a salad because I did not eat enough greens on that particular day :p
Before travelling to Kyoto by train, we enjoyed our buffet breakfast in a restaurant at the train station. The variety of foods offered by the restaurant was not extensive, I only had salmon, eggs, salad and a few slices of apple for breakfast. However, this was one of the best restaurant we could find, considering that it was early in the morning, around 7a.m, and that most restaurants serve only noodles such as ramen and udon which we kind of did not feel like having at that point of time.
I am not a fussy eater when it comes to food, I just prefer healthier and cleaner food options
so this tray of food was actually more than okay for me :)
DAY 7,8&9: KYOTO
My memory on my Japan trip has faded partially as it has been 7 months since I visited. So I am afraid that I will not be able to write about my days in Kyoto in a chronological order anymore, sorry! However, I will still be listing down all the places I have visited and the meals which I had back in Japan. Based on my observation, I find Kyoto to be a city which is extremely dense with temples and shrines. The places which we have visited are the Kinkakuji Temple (金阁寺: the temple where the emperor stays in if you have watched the Japanese animation 一休), the Nijo-jo Castle and Arashiyama. It is not a complete trip to Japan without the shopping experience in their local shopping malls, and all three of us (my aunt, my mum and I) requested to shop at the Shinsaibashi Shopping Street as well as some shopping malls located around the Kyoto Tower. We travelled to these places in Kyoto easily by purchasing the Kyoto City Bus & Kyoto Bus One-Day Pass and by train.
Here, I will briefly go through the specialties of the places which we have visited. Nijo-jo castle is well known for their wall paintings and I have learnt a lot on how the title of Japanese Shogun came about, their duties and responsibilities and how the wall paintings actually depict the setting of each era in which the paintings were created. Next, I did not enter the Kinkakuji Temple as I have already visited the temple when I was 16 on a student exchange programme. But visitors who enter will be able to enjoy the sight of the golden pavilion, though you will only be viewing it at a distance. The Arashiyama area is big and it contains about 5-8 temples/shrines in that place alone. It also has stores selling souvenirs, lcoal snacks and restaurants along the streets just like Kiyomizu-dera. The Arashiyama Koen, to me, is the highlight of the place as visitors get to take Insta-worthy pictures among the sprawling bamboo grove. Sadly, I did not visit the bamboo grove as I was not aware of it s existence while I was there.
I hope that you can see the details of the map after you enlarge it, but yeah there is almost one temple at every bus stop
NIJO-JO CASTLE
KINKAKUJI
the entrance ticket for the Kinkakuji Temple, and here's a picture of XXX attempting to be a Chinese zombie
so glad that I finally tried this Matcha soft serve
the matcha flavoured foods sold in Japan tastes so much more authentic and rich compared to the ones in Malaysia
definitely will recommend those who visit the Kinkakuji Temple to get this soft serve on your way out
ARASHIYAMA
this is the bamboo grove area which I mentioned as an Insta-worthy spot
FUEL-UP
As expected, the signature GHY's breakfast: Salad and Yoghurt
I like how the convenient stores in Japan have both the healthy and unhealthy selections sold, unlike 7-eleven or KK Mart in Malaysia which sadly do not sell any healthy products
on a side note, the smoothie was slightly pricey but it contained pure fruit juice and was delicious
Tan Tan Noodles @ Arashiyama
packed with flavours and was mildly spicy
The popular Ichiran Ramen
I was reluctant to queue for it in the beginning, but I am so glad that my cousin insisted on having the ramen because I feel that it deserves its fame; on top of that, the price of the noodles was pretty reasonable. (Disclaimer: I am a not a professional food critic in any way, just offering my personal opinion heh)
Had dinner twice at the food court in Kyoto Tower as the foods sold were great in variety, ranging from Western to Chinese to Japanese and even Mexican cuisine
Mexican dinner on the first night
I believe it was a chicken burrito
Japanese Cuisine on the second night
Gyoza and rice with side dishes and miso soup
DAY 10: OSAKA
Spent our last night in Japan back where we first started our trip, Osaka. We stayed at the same hotel and even ate our last dinner in Japan at the same hotel and restaurant as we did when we first landed in Japan on our first day. The next day, we took the train from Osaka to the airport and bid goodbye to the land of the rising sun.
Our last night in Osaka was actually on Christmas day itself
Before our flight back home :-(
I am aware that this is an extremely long post, documenting my last few days in Japan. I decided to cramp up all these days together as we allocated more time in these bigger cities for shopping, which was not much to talk about. Besides, my memory was fading as it has been a while since I came back from Japan. I hope that these Japan travel posts were able to reflect how much I enjoyed myself in Japan and were helpful or entertaining enough for my readers. I can confidently say that this trip was one of the best trips I have ever been on. Also, I noticed that this trip to Japan is the first trip oversea out of all the other posts which I have written about in this blog. I will definitely document my every other trips abroad from now on. Overall, my trip to Japan had been an amazing, adventurous, tiring yet spontaneous and fun one, not forgetting my the amazing people whom I travelled with who made this trip an even more wonderful one. I hope that one day in the future, I will be able to stay and work for a short while in Japan as I absolutely adore the place, and everything that comes with it!
