Shirakawago Village

I don’t know how long this post will get. It feels like a ton happened. Anyways…I have wanted to come to this village since I was a teenager playing Final Fantasy VII, but didn’t really ever think I would get the chance. And to see it in the winter time is super difficult because that’s when everyone wants to see it. However, due to corona, there was basically nobody around. We booked this trip last November just to make sure we could find lodging, but it ended up not being necessary. We had it booked for 2 weeks ago originally, but due to the Japan State of Emergency, we delayed 2 weeks and still had no problem finding lodging.

Its a 6 hour drive from Utsunomiya all the way to the west side of Japan. Japan is like Cincinnati, easy to go North-South, impossible to go East-West. So we had to cross through a lot of mountains.

We arrived at 10pm on Friday to the owner of the Airbnb waiting outside in the freezing cold, bowing, and guiding us into the obvious parking spot. He then gave me a tour around the house while the kids and Heather waited in the car staying warm. We then unloaded our stuff and explored the house. The owner didn’t give me a tour of the upstairs, and its probably because it was too scary. We only went up there once.

The downstairs is where we spent all our time and slept. We all had to sleep together in a tiny room because it was too cold to be separate. And we ran a space heater in there all night.

On Saturday morning we got up and played outside in the snow for a bit before walking to the village.

The walk to the village was fun because the snow walls were so high. The kids would walk on them at some points and other times walk in the shadows. It was about a 20 minute walk. And we had to walk because only residents of the village are actually allowed to drive there.

The nature was also really beautiful during the walk into the village.

We got there around lunch time, so we stopped in for some lunch at a little restaurant.

Then we went out and explored the village for a few hours.

Like I said before, there was really nobody around. It was great for taking pictures. And having a snowball fight on the snow walls!

After that we went to a traditional tea house to warm up and rest a bit. The kids and Heather got hot chocolate and I got coffee.

Then we went home around 5pm and ate some broccoli cheddar soup that Heather made at home and brought with us. It was the perfect warm up meal. And watched the Japanese dubbed Spongebob Squarepants.

That night, back in Utsunomiya, was the biggest earthquake since we have been here. It was around a magnitude of 5 at our house. We didn’t get to experience it since we were all the way across the country though. But when we got home Monday, we saw the “damage”. Our Dr Pepper cans fell over, the book shelves moved away from the wall a few inches, and our unlocked windows upstairs shook open about 5 inches.

So when we woke up Sunday, I had 30 texts from friends and people at work asking if we were OK. We watched the news a bit and then drove to a ski resort only 20 minutes away. It was actually super warm that day. We took off our coats and under clothes. We ended up in long sleeve t-shirts and snow pants by the end.

Caroline and Heather used my snowboard to practice a bit. Caroline did really great. I think our next ski trip we will rent her a board and let her practice with stuff her own size.

Then we drove home on Monday morning. We had a little mishap on the way home when we turned down a snowy covered road and got stuck. I had to use the kids’ toy shovels to dig us out. But after that it was pretty much smooth sailing. We even got to see a full rainbow and a beautiful sunset as we got close to our house.

That was it! Finally got to experience Shirakawago after all these years. And it pretty much lived up to expectations. Like we had gone back in time.