Gokayama is one of the best day trips from Toyama if you want to see a quieter side of rural Japan. Hidden in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, the region is home to two UNESCO-listed villages: Ainokura and: Suganuma. Both preserve traditional: gassho-zukuri farmhouses with enormous steep thatched roofs designed for Gokayama’s heavy winter snow. … Read more
Ainokura or Suganuma? If you’re planning a trip to Gokayama, this is one of the first decisions you’ll face. Both are tiny mountain villages. Both contain traditional: gassho-zukuri houses. Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. And both are considerably quieter than: Shirakawa-go. But they aren’t the same. Ainokura is larger, has more traditional houses and … Read more
Getting from Kanazawa to Gokayama looks complicated when you first look at a map. It isn’t. But there is one important thing to understand: there is no train station in Gokayama. For most independent travellers using public transport, the easiest route is: Kanazawa ↓ Hokuriku Shinkansen ↓ Shin-Takaoka ↓ World Heritage Bus ↓ Ainokura + … Read more
Suganuma is tiny. And that’s exactly why you should visit. Located in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, Suganuma contains just: nine traditional gassho-zukuri houses. Together with Ainokura and Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go, the village forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama. But Suganuma feels completely different from Shirakawa-go. There … Read more
Ainokura is one of the most beautiful traditional villages in Japan. Hidden in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, this tiny settlement contains around: 20 traditional gassho-zukuri houses. Some of the houses are centuries old. People still live here. And unlike the much busier Shirakawa-go: Ainokura feels remarkably quiet. It’s one of two UNESCO-listed villages in … Read more
If you’re planning a trip through the Japanese Alps, there’s a good chance you’ll come across two names: Shirakawa-go and: Gokayama. Both are famous for traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses with enormous steeply pitched thatched roofs. Both sit in remote mountain valleys. Both become spectacular under snow. And both form part of the same UNESCO World Heritage … Read more
If you want to see Japan’s famous gassho-zukuri villages without spending your entire day surrounded by tour groups: consider Gokayama. Located in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, Gokayama contains two extraordinary traditional villages: Ainokura and: Suganuma. Together with Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go, these villages form the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama. … Read more
Japan is unusually well suited to a honeymoon because the trip doesn’t have to feel the same from beginning to end. You can spend one evening looking across the Tokyo skyline, the next few days sleeping in a ryokan with a private onsen, then walk through Kyoto’s old streets before finishing beside the sea on … Read more
Three weeks is one of the best amounts of time you can have for a first trip to Japan. You have enough time to see Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka without treating them as a checklist, but you can also go beyond the standard Golden Route and experience places that many shorter itineraries have to leave … Read more