Blessed with Nature’s admirable beauties and rich in cultural treasures, Japan is a great travel destination for tourists! In this 7-part series, join this author to explore the “Land of the Rising Sun” enormous beautiful sceneries. Read on to learn about Japan’s “Famous Hidden Regions.”
The Shirakawa-go
The historic Shirakawa-go village runs along the Shogawa River at the foot of Mt. Haku-san, in northwestern part of Gifu Prefecture. Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, it is quiet village famous for its more than 110 Japanese thatched-roof farmhouses built around 200-300 years ago. Known locally as Gassho-zukuri (”hands in a Buddhist prayer”), these farmhouses were built with steep rice straw covered thatched roof, made without nails, and were designed to suit massive snow fall during the winter.
Ogimachi, Shirakawa-go’s largest and most popular village for visitors contains about 150 structures, with around 60 of them Gassho-zukuri houses. Many of these thatched houses were transferred there during the construction of the Miboro dam. Having the largest numbers of preserved Gassho-styled houses, more tourist visit this place. Visitors can reach the village by bus from Takayama or Kanazawa and can stay overnight at several Minshuku (Japanese style farm house).
Iya Valley
The Iya Valley is a scenic area that runs through the Shikoku Mountains in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. Before, 2 villages occupies the valley; the East Aya and the West Aya, but since March 1, 2006, these villages were merge to form what is now known as the Miyoshi City. The region is characterized by the presence of several rivers among them the Iya River and several cliffs that reaches up to hundreds of meters. Today, the Iya Valley is fast gaining a reputation as one of Japan’s famous hidden regions and a popular tourist destination.
There are still several vine bridges, once used in crossing the rivers, that are now sites for tourist destination. One good adventure for tourists is to cross the 45 x 2 m meter long, Kazura Vine Bridge, suspended about 14 meters above the river. Tourists will have to shell out 500-yen to cross the bridge. Also, going deeper upstream is the “Oku-iya Niju Kazura-bashi,” a double vine bridge.
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