I did this trip last year during Autumn. Japan has always been my favorite holiday destination, love the culture, the food & shopping. Have always wanted to visit the town of Shirakawa-go ever since I saw pictures like this of this lovely place
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| Shirakawago like a Christmas Wonderland during winter |
Me & my bestie Celest usually visit Japan, on our own & never joining tours. This time around Celest argued that, she just want to relax & let someone else do all the planning for once. Well she has a point, though we have been to Japan many times, their transport system is still a mystery to me. I just can't imagine finding our way to this place on our own! So this time around we joined the SA Tours, Alpine Route Tour with a short stopover at Shirakawa-go. We decided to go early Autumn as we were tired of dragging along those heavy winter wear. It'll be cool & light, perfect.
Flight out was midnight by Singapore Airlines (we were very please with that).
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| Beef sushi on a rice cracker so yummy! |
Day 2: When we reached Nagoya, it was already morning & we began our tour. Local tour guide is a lovely petite lady who speaks perfect Mandarin: no English speaking guide available. Thank God both of us are bilingual.
First stop, Takayama Castle Town, it's a small quiet town, with quaint traditional Japanese houses- pretty! Here I ate the most delicious sushi from a road side store on Kami Sannomachi Street. Wish I ate more ...lol...
Day 3, we went to a local Takayama Morning market. We found some very interesting fruits & other things there. Next was the Yatai Kaikan Hall, this place displayed traditional festive floats. It's different & very interesting seeing them upfront. They were beautiful with exquisite details & very heavy. I was thinking, we will never come to places like these if we do this on our own! The planning itself will probably drive us nuts ,Glad we join the tour:) Nice place:)
Next was Shirakawa-go, we visited the Gassho Village, famous for those steeply thatched-roof farmhouses. What a place...... I've been thinking of this place for like 3 years now...finally here... it's almost emotional ...lol...... Though there's no snow, the autumn scene is not too shabby either. Look at this:
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| Charming isn't it? |
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| Kenrokuem Garden |
I'm sure you have seen countless pictures of those famous steeply thatched-roof farmhouses. So I wont paste anymore of them here. But the above, taken by me, is my favorite picture. I call it "the Little House on the Prairie", after an old famous American show :)) look at the beautiful color of the wheat fields or was it malt? Kinda artistic don't you think? I love it! We vow to come back to experience the winter scene & maybe even to stay in one of those farmhouses.
Next we proceed to Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa. Very beautiful. They have very interesting trees there too. Something like giant bonsai plants:)
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| Tateyama Cable Car |
Day 4 was the most exciting day as we went on the famous Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. If you are thinking of doing this on your own, STOP THINKING NOW ......... you wont be able to do it smoothly without any mishaps, I can assure you! It's just too complicated.
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| Tateyama Trolley Bus |
Join a tour, it'll take away all the pain ....lol.... not a thing to be done by yourself, you'll badly need some expert guidance :))
We did the right thing joining the tour as the guide took us through a distance of 86 km from Tateyama station on the Toyam Chiho tetsudo line to Nagano Ogisawa using the famous 6 modes of transport: Tateyama Cable Car, Tateyama Highland Bus, Tateyama Tunnel Trolley Bus, Tateyame Ropeway, Kurobe Cable Car & Kanden Tunnel Trolley Bus.
Lots of queuing & running to board some of these transport, & if you are not familiar with it, chances are you'll spend much time trying to figure out what to do next, it's confusing! Our guide just go " Quick, join this Q"- " Quick board that bus"- & we obey like little sheep- works like magic... we were all very grateful ....lol..... The view of the Tateyama Mountain Range was lovely. The different kinds of transport we have to go through makes the whole experience very unusual & interesting. I really enjoy the Kurobe Dam- the place was breath-taking .
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| Beautiful scenery at Kurobe Dam |
Day 5 was unexpected, we visited Kusatsu Yubateke, an impressive field of hot springs, another place we might not go if we did it on our own. This place was charming, I felt as if I've gone to Switzerland, it has that feel, well a little:)). Wish we have more time there for coffee or something. Next was shopping at an outlet before driving to Tokyo.
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| Yes it's piping hot sulfur, incredible |
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| Charming place: Kusatsu Yubateke |
Day 6, The trip was coming to an end. Today we spend sometime shopping at Tokyo's SkyTree & visited some famous ramen place at Harajuku.We leave for home the next day.
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| It's as good as it looks ! |
In all I enjoy myself very much. I finally get to visit my dream place Shirakawa-go. Though I didn't get to see the snow, I figured, winter might be too cold & uncomfortable. Anyway I can & probably would come back. I'm one of those who's never keen on joining tours, but after this I'm totally changing my mind. It's really not bad at all. I get to see some pretty interesting places. Places I'll never dream of going if I'm on my own as it would be too tedious :)) Imagine navigating through the whole itinerary , it's an impossible task. Also imagine booking all the different hotels, .. this trip is totally worth it:)
Good Trip!
