Day 10: Shirakawago
Today we moved on from Takayama, heading to Kanazawa by bus. We wound our way through the incredibly hilly terrain in Heida, travelling through some fairly lengthy tunnels.
We even went through the second longest tunnel in Japan (wow! What a claim to fame), the Hida Tunnel, which at 10.7km long took us 8m 40s to get through!
After burrowing through the landscape, we stopped for a couple of hours at Shirakawago, a small traditional village showcasing the gasshō building style. It's a world heritage site, and had the crowds to prove it!
It was quite fun to potter around, although it was incredibly hot. We ducked into a lovely cafe to get out of the heat for a bit, and had a beautiful view out across the village.
It was good to see, although probably not one of my highlights of the trip so far! We then got back on the bus, and traveled another hour to Kanazawa. After a terrifying taxi ride through the city (apparently pedestrian crossings are just advisory), we arrived at the hotel, and had some downtime in the afternoon.
Thatched rooves slope down,
the straw baking in the sun:
Many feet stomp past.