Thursday, August 27, 2009

Gifu : 岐阜県

can't go all the way to gifu prefecture without going to the city of hida-takayama (飛騨高山)
and you can't go to hida-takayama without stopping by at hida folk village (飛騨の里) and shirakawa-gou (白川郷), the later being a UNESCO world heritage site.

basically both these places have extremely well preserved examples of traditional steep thatched-roof buildings. sounds geeky i know, but hey, traditionally such roofs were made to protect the building from the heavy snow fall this region gets.
so there you have it.
oooh, and guess what people used to keep in their attics??!
silk worms...

hida folk village (entrance fee 700-yen) is somewhat like an open air museum where you can walk around checking out how people used to live back in the day.
the homes are no empty so you can walk through them all you like.







shirakawa-gou
on the other hand is a village where local residents are still living in some 112 preserved homes. there is no entrance fee here however if you want to go inside some of the homes you need to fork-up. fair enough, i know i wouldn't want "tourists" traipsing through my home!

check out all the people crossing the bridge! eeek








tried a soy-sauce flavored ice cream here... mmm, not something i would buy again.
the regional-famous goheimochi (五平餅) was however pretty good!
what the heck is goheimochi... i guess it's best described as sticky rice on a stick which is then grilled with a special sauce made from soy-sauce and walnuts.



2 comments:

pascale said...

oh how beautiful! looks like something I would find in a story book. :)

world of sekimachihato said...

* pascale
japan truly does have some pretty amazing scenic spots to offer!
such a shame that thatched-roofs are now a dying trade...

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