Today we took a school trip up to two mountain villages in Gifu and Toyama prefectures. The road through the mountain to get there is full of long tunnels through the tall lush mountains and bridges spanning the narrow valleys. At Gokayama village, we had to take an elevator down the cliff from the parking lot to get there. There were several wooden gasshou-zukuri houses with huge thatched roofs.
Shirakawa-go is a larger community which we accessed by crossing a suspension bridge over a wide river. Both villages were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995 because most of the few gasshou-zukuri houses left are located there. In the house that we entered, they used to raise silk worms in the attic to make silk for kimonos!
After a black sesame ice cream, Alexis and I walked around the town with the little time we had left there. It is very picturesque and would be such a peaceful place if it wasn't for the groups of tourists. The shrine was especially beautiful, very rustic, surrounded by huge cedar trees.
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