Rainy Days in Shirakawago

For years, I’ve seen the snow capped thatched huts on covers of magazines and the odd web banner. Shirakawago seems to be one of the most iconic Japanese tourist destinations out there, along with Mount Fuji, Kiyomizudera and Itsukushima Shrine.

My mother had formed some sort of romantic fantasy around this little village, and we set out just to visit it. I’m not sure what exactly drew her to Shirakawago, but years of advertising had made it just as appealing and mysterious to me.

As with all over-hyped destinations though, I should have expected the crowds that greeted us. It certainly wasn’t what I imagined, though I’m not sure what exactly I expected in the first place.

Maybe I envisioned it to be more like Ainokura, where we had stayed the night before? Untouched by tourism, quiet and tranquil. Whatever it was, Shirakawago took me by surprise but I still enjoyed it, crowds and all.

We stopped by the day before on the way to Ainokura and was lucky enough to have taken a few shots of the village under clear, blue skies.

Our second visit though was marred by gloomy skies and a constant drizzle that made walking about a bit difficult. I still liked how the rain kept the crowds at bay and at times, we were the only two people running between the rice fields.

I liked the feeling of eating sake-flavored ice cream while watching the rain drops fill the street.

It was raining so heavily by the time we wanted to make it up the mountain for the famed view that we opted for the shuttle bus, though I’m not sure how else we could’ve gotten up there! The journey was quite long, perhaps a good 10 minutes by bus that I’m sure would’ve been thirty minutes on foot.

We had lunch at a cafe named Ochiudo and it was definitely the highlight of our Shirakawago visit. We were ushered into a communal table around a fire, and they let us pick our own cups for our coffee (of course I chose a cute one with a little bunny on it).

The red bean dessert was served in a pot for everyone at the table to share, which for an easy ice breaker! Turns out this was the oldest building in the village and the roof is an easy 350 years old.

When I think back at Shirakawago, I think it’s Ochiudo that I’ll remember the most – sitting around the fireplace, making small talk with our neighbours. The Japanese-American who came to Japan for the first time to visit his grandfather, the pair of Taiwanese mother-son who found the curry too spicy, the group of Japanese university students who were on a day trip.

These were the people that made rainy, gloomy Shirakawago lovely in my mind.

To rainy days and great people!