Shirakawa-go, Gifu

 Sato and I on our way to Shirakawa-go. We were already in Gifu prefecture, but we still had plenty of ground to cover before we got to Shirakawa-go.

 This tree was the first thing I took when we got to Shirakawa-go. We had just gotten off the highway and were still in the car.

 Here is Shirakawa-go! The about the second stop light that we had to get through to get to where we were going.

 This is the first shop of many gift shops that we passed by. Each gift shop sold pretty much the same thing, but some places had higher prices than other places. If you go I would compare prices before purchasing.

 One of the many old houses in Shirakawa-go. The houses are made to last through the heavy snow. At one of the houses there was constant running water on the roof to keep the snow from piling up. At another house, I saw a man walking along the roof and knocking off some of the snow.

 Passing through the gate to the town shrine. Or in this case Sato stopping and putting his hands together before passing through.

 The view from the bridge that goes across to a another little area with some more houses and gift shops.

 It's a little hard to tell but on this shed there was a cut out of some turtles in the wood wall.

 Looking across a snowy field. At the top of this mountain there is a look out point where you can see the entire town. We didn't go up there, but maybe next time.

 This was a persimmon tree that actually had some tiny persimmons growing! The birds were having a feast!

 The persimmon tree.

 This was hanging in front of one of the houses. It is of zouri, shoes, and hyotan, which is a plant that is dried and then used to carry water or more commonly sake. Not used nowadays, but they used to be common place items.

 Sato and I posing with one of the towns snowmen. lol There was also one of a rabbit since it is now the year of the Rabbit.

 The two snowmen that were on the other side of the one that we posed with. The red bucket is supposed to have water in it in case of fire, although I think in this weather it would have been frozen anyways.

 A close up of some of the icicles coming off of the roof tops.

 One of the two town temples. For how small the town is I'm surprised that there are two!

You can see the Koma-inu on the bell tower. They are like guard dogs for the temple. Their mouths are painted red with white teeth, every where else is natural wood.

We had a lot of fun walking around this town and it didn't take very long to walk around, but by the end my toes were frozen even though I was wearing boots and TWO pairs of socks! I was wearing a down jacket so the rest of me wasn't frozen.