Places to seeWhere to go in Gifu
Start with the first of these. Each is worth half a day.
Gifu岐阜県
Gifu is mountain country in the middle of Japan, and it holds two places people cross the country for.
Gifu is mountain country in the middle of Japan, and it holds two places people cross the country for.
Start with the first of these. Each is worth half a day.
Shirakawa-go is a village of farmhouses with steep thatched roofs, built that way to shed four metres of snow. Some are three hundred years old and people still live in them. In winter the village is lit on a few evenings only, and those dates sell out months ahead — if that is what you want, book the moment the dates are announced.
Getting in: No airport — Nagoya is the gateway. Gifu-Hashima Station (shinkansen); Takayama by limited express
Pick the season first and the days will arrange themselves.
Snow leaves the villages in April. Fresh green in Takayama in May, and the spring festival.
Wet in June. The Gujo dance runs through August, all night on four of those nights.
Autumn colour in the valleys in late October and November. The best walking weather.
Deep snow at Shirakawa-go, which is when it looks like the photographs. Roads can close.
