Shirakawa go

The 9th January was a national holiday of coming of age day.  This is where people who have turned 20 celebrate them becoming an adult basically.  The girls wear these beautiful Kimonos and go around and celebrate with their friends.  I saw one or two girls wearing these beautiful kimonos but did not manage to take a photo :(

As it was a day off for us at university we decided to go to Shirakawa go.  It is a UNESCO heritage site in Gifu Prefecture.

We started the day quite late and didn't arrive at Shirakawa go until about 2pm.  The scenery is very beautiful with snow everywhere!!!

 One of the shops you see when you get off the bus. 

 The amount of snow that the guy has to shift is huge!

The picture doesn't show well but that is the height of the snow, about as tall as people! 

Then we had about 2 hours to explore and look around the village.  

 This is the bridge that connects between the village and the bus area

 A small cute store house maybe?

As the pictures show the roofs are a distinct style as there is so much snow it helps the house roof not to collaspe and they say that it looks like Buddhist monks in prayer with the /\ shape. 

We were told that you should eat two things here, first dango! It is sticky rice coated with soy sauce.

 I found these snowmen soooo cute! especially the expressions!

 After more walking around we ate the second thing we got told to eat the beef croquette!

 It was really nice!

 The girlies!

The famous symbol of Gifu prefecture! It is called Sarubobo which means 'baby monkey'  They were originally made by grandmothers from leftover cloth to be given to their grandchild or daughter for protection or having a good marriage and good childbirth.  Today it is deemed like a good luck charm.

Soon after we left on the last bus of the day and made our way back to Kanazawa!

I've got two more trips to write about! One to Osaka and then the day i came back from Osaka i went on a group trip as part of my project work.