Shirakawa-go is a mountain settlement that is famous for uniquely designed Gassyo-style buildings and registered as one of the World Cultural Heritage sites. In Ogi-machi, over sixty Gassyo-style buildings will welcome visitors. Enjoying the whole landscape of the village from the hill, you will stroll around the village visiting some traditional Gasho-style buildings such as Wada House, Nagase House and Myozenji Temple Museum.
This itinerary can be customized to meet your needs and preferences. Send me a message with your requests!
Meeting Point
At JR Takayama Station or Shirakawago bus terminal
9:30 JR Takayama station (meeting point)
10:40 Shirakawa-go (Ogi-machi) bus stop
11:10 Observatory
The observation point on the hill provides you the best place to overlook the whole landscape of the village of Gassho-style houses. You will get the best of photogenic view.
12:00 lunch break
You will enjoy a variety of local cuisine such as Hida-beaf, Gohei-mochi and Japanese backwheat noodles etc.
12:40 Wada House
This is the largest three-story Gassho-style house in the village, which was constructed in around 1800. The second floor and some parts of the first floor are open, and a variety of artifacts and traditional daily-life items are exhibited.
13:20 Nagase House
This is one of a few five-story houses and the big thatched roof is impressive. Visitors can see the footage-video of re-thatching roof and learn the details of the process with some documents and pictures.
14:00 Myozenji Temple Museum
The Gassho-style buildings of Buddhist temple are open for visitors as a museum, consisting of three parts; residence, main hall and bell tower gate.
15:00 Tea break
15:30 Shirakawa Hachiman Shrine
This shrine enshrines the general god protecting Shirakawa-go. The site of the shrine is very calm and good place for travelers to take rests, not disturbed by other travelers.
16;00 Shirakawa-go bus stop
17:30 JR Takayama Station
Ending Point
At JR Takayama Station or Shirakawago bus terminal
This tour can be customized to meet your needs and preferences. Click below to send me a message with your requests.
Guide fee and hotel pick-up
Transportation(bus) fee about 5,600yen/person for both guests and guide
Lunch & coffee fee about 2,500 yen/person for both guests and guide
Entrance fee about 1,200yen/person only for guests
1) If you stay in Kanazawa, it is possible to meet on the Shierakawago and start the tour.
2) If you want, it is possible to arrange plans including visiting Takayama city.
I can guide in Kyoto in case you support transportation fee.
Hello everyone. I am Tetsuji. I worked as a public servant in the local government for 35 years. I belonged to the department of Redevelopment, Town-Landscaping, Preserving historical areas and Architectural Guidance. (I have a national 1st-class architect license.) I devoted myself to revitalizing the city by making plans and improving infrastructure for citizens.
Gifu is located in central Japan near Nagoya. As just being the crossroads of the West and the East, there are many unique attractions that are hard to discover in hectic big cities like Tokyo or Kyoto. I had a hand in restoring and preserving some of them throughout my career and want to introduce them to tourists from abroad. That’s why I became a guide-interpreter in Gifu.
I also enjoyed traveling around the world. My favorite part of each trip was walking around the city and talking with local residents. Traveling has taught me lots of things during my lifetime. Now, I would like to help others have similar experience in Japan. Shall we enjoy fantastic journey in Gifu?
Renee M.
“A great tour that took full advantage of everything Takayama has to offer”
Tetsuji was a wonderful guide! He showed us all that Takayama and the surrounding area had to offer. He was knowledgeable, flexible and enjoyable to be with. With his knowledge we discovered a Takayama that we would not even known existed. Thank you Tetsuji!
Tetsuji Y.
I appreciate an excellent review for my tour. I am happy guiding a nice American couple who are so curious about Japanese culture, especially foods and drinks. Above all, the scene two of you enjoyed tasting Sake in a brewery is impressive. I hope that you will visit central Japan exploring attractive places with my guidance in other seasons.
Kelioniu A.
“Great time in Tsumago & Magome”
We liked our Nakasendo hike very much. With help of excellent guide, we were even able to visit local museum. Great time and really recommend our guide Mr Tetsuji.
Tetsuji Y.
I am grateful to hear that you are satisfied with my tour, including some praise for me. I hope to accept new requests of guiding from you.
Michelle B.
“Beautiful tour!”
We thoroughly enjoyed our day on the Nakaswndo trail with Tetsuji! He added to our experience with explaining history of the trail and stories of edo era Japan. The walk was beautiful scenery and we loved the tea house we stopped at halfway between Magome and Tsumago. He also did his research prior to the tour to find a Gluten free place to have lunch and helped explain my allergy to the staff of the restaurant. Tetsuji was great and I highly recommend! I will add, the bus system was different from everywhere else we went so it was super helpful to have him there to guide us through it. We added money to our IC card the day prior and found out the day of that the bus system only used yen so keep that in mind. Thankfully we had enough yen on us, but just keep that in mind...you cannot use your IC card for transportation.
Tetsuji Y.
I appreciate lots of praise for my guiding with useful information on transportation in Japan for others. Your explanation is persuasive for others to travel around Japan. I hope to see you without difficulties near future.
$130/ per group