Shirakawa-go

UNESCO World Cultural Heritage villages. Located located in a river valley surrounded by the rugged high mountain Chubu region of central Japan. This mountainous region was cut off from the rest of the world for a long period of time, the villages with their Gassho-style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are the only examples of their kind in Japan. To get there I took the Nohi Bus from Takayama; a 50 minute journey. I have not added description labels to the photos in this album.