Our walking tour ends at a former local government building that housed offices and living quarters for officials. The building illustrates the various types of rooms used for officials of different levels, and there is a small garden. The most interesting exhibition, however, is a display that shows how prisoners were tortured by placing heavy stones on their knees. The wooden building is constructed with few nails, and those that were used are hidden behind small metal plaques shaped to represent rabbits. As usual, we are required to remove our shoes before entering this historic building. The next morning we depart for Shirakawa which is about 50-kilometres northwest. The journey on Highway 158 takes us about an hour as the coach negotiates several tunnels on the mountain road, including the Hida Tunnel (10,712-metres long), the second longest in Japan

Shirakawa village is located in the Shokawa Valley, a remote mountain region with unique thatched houses. Shirakawa is noted as one of the snowiest places in Japan. Yearly average snowfall averages in excess of 10 meters  As a consequence of the frequent heavy snow, characteristically thick thatched roofed gassho-zukuri houses were created. Less than 150 of these gassho houses remain, a few of which are re-thatched each year, one roof taking 200 villagers and volunteers two days. 

We firstly go to Wada House, which was constructed in about 1800. This is the largest gassho style house in Shirikawa, and although still occupied is partially open to the public. After removing our shoes, we explore the interior of the house which is constructed in the typical fashion of rooms divided by sliding doors that we have seen before. The most interesting features are the roof’s construction (with huge round wooden beams lashed together with straw rope - no nails are used in the construction of the house), and a fire in the floor over which a pot is suspended; a small child is warming her toes in front of the fire

The Wada house is just one of several gassho houses in the village. These houses are named for their steep thatched roofs, shaped like gassho (“praying hands”). The straw used for the thatching is miscanthus, a type of pampas grass. Generally having three or four storeys, they traditionally accommodated extended families of 20-30 people, all involved in silk production. The houses are surrounded by fields and waterways and we explore these as the rain ceases and then the sun appears. 

Our exploration of the village includes a search for coffee. We refuse to pay ¥500 where we are required to remove our shoes and sit on the floor, and get cups at¥400 where there is proper seating (right). After almost two hours in this area, we depart at 11:50am for our next destination: Kanazawa.

Kanazawa is located near the coast of the Sea of Japan, and is approximately 75-kilometres to the northwest of Shirakawa, and it takes about an hour to complete the journey on Highway 156. We again pass through some wonderful mountain scenery with snow-capped mountains in the distance, and thickly wooded valleys interspersed with some paddy fields (below)