Where is Shirakawa-go?

Have you ever seen this kind of building on the internet or travel magazine? The design of the roof allows snow and rain drop straight off, avoiding rotten roof and preventing the roof being crushed by heavy snow. The shape and structure of the building is called Gassho-zukuri, which can only be found in the heavy snow area of Japan, and now it is one of UNESO world heritage site.
Nowadays, the Gassho zukuri village remains few sites only, one of the most famous place is the Shirakawa-go. But where exactly is Shirakawa-go? Shirakawa-go is a small village locates in the Gifu county, the central Japan, where is a quite rural place and hard to access.

Before the Hokuriku Shinkansen (the north of high-speed rail train) started, Kanazawa and Toyama can’t be reached within just few hours, it was a long way to visit Shirakawa-go from Tokyo. Nowadays, the travel time from Tokyo to Shirakawa-go has shorten a lot. Another way to visit Shirawaka-go is to take flight to central airport and go to the central cities, then transfer by bus afterward. However, there are more flights to Tokyo and Kansai airports, besides the price are much cheaper than the flights to central airport. Therefore, this article is going to introduce how to go to Shirakawa-go from Tokyo and Kansai area.

Travel from Tokyo
Tokyo→ Take Shinkansen or bus to |
Kanazawa |
Transfer by bus or drive to →Shirakawa-go |
Toyama |
||
Takayama |
Travel from Osaka and Kyoto (Kansai area)
Osaka or Kyoto→ Take limited express train Or Shinkansen to |
Kanazawa | Transfer by bus or drive to
→Shirakawa-go |
Nagoya |
Travel from Nagoya
Nagoya→ |
Take limited express train Or bus to Takayama |
→Shirakawa-go |
Take bus to →Shirakawa-go directly |
For further transfer details please see the following articles: