Shirakawa-gō
Good to know
- Best time to go
- January–February for snow scenery; May for green fields
- Budget
- $$
- Accessibility
- limited
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
A remote mountain village in the Shokawa valley preserving a concentration of gassho-zukuri farmhouses, whose steeply pitched thatched roofs are engineered to shed the region's heavy snowfall. The village of Ogimachi, the largest of the three settlements that together form the UNESCO World Heritage Site, retains a working agricultural landscape alongside its heritage structures. Winter illumination events transform the snow-covered rooflines into one of Japan's most atmospheric nocturnal scenes.
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