Inside Student BlogsGolden Week TravelsNagoya, Spring 2012
In Japan, the first week of May is known as Golden Week. Since several national holidays occur one after the other, many people get the week off. Although I had classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, my host parents took the whole week off and insisted that during at least one of my free days, we go on a trip somewhere all together. Lucky for me, one of the places they suggested was Shirakawa-go, a World Heritage old-style village I had actually been wanting to visit during my stay in Japan.
We ended up leaving early in the morning (around 7 am) and driving down to Shirakawa-go. It took almost 5 hours. Apparently, that is the longest it has ever taken them to get there. That’s the one big downside to Golden Week. No matter where you go, it is super crowded.
Since Shirakawa-go is colder than Nagoya, the cherry blossoms were still blooming! We walked around, enjoying the scenery. Then we drove to Takayama and did a bit of shopping before heading back to Nagoya. It was exhausting but very worthwhile. The whole day is filled with memories of my host family that I won’t soon forget.
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- Picture taken at a rest stop.. snowy mountains!
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- Shirakawa’s famous roofs!
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- The houses here hardly look Japanese, even though they are actually very traditional.
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- The roofs also do a good job protecting against the snow.
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- A cute little fire hydrant.
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- A small shrine by a pond.
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- So many colorful flowers!!
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- It was a nice change from the city.
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- There were dozens of these houses all scattered about.
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- I couldn’t help taking more pictures of the pretty flowers.
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- A view of Shirakawa-go from up the mountain.
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- We had to get at least one picture with the whole family!
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- All different types of cherry blossom trees were blooming.
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- It really was like a farm village.
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- My host mom and I by the fire. It was smokey in there!!
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- Some cute decorations inside the house.
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- Sakura trees and traditional houses.
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- It really was nice to be able to see a few more cherry blossoms.
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- Some more flowers!
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- There was a small river flowing through the houses.
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- There was also a pond with some lily pads.
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- My host mom is so cute.
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- A bit further away, there was a lake.
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- Everything was so green!
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- More flying fish!
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- The cherry blossoms trees really added to the scenery.
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- There were flowers of all different colors.
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- I felt like I was in Holland whenever I would see these flowers.
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- Can you believe you could still see snow on top of the mountains?
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- Even rocks can be beautiful.
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- The weather kept going from sunny to rainy. We even got to see a rainbow later that day.
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- The bridge in Takayama.
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- This was a bit before we saw the rainbow.
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- Apparently, the people who run around pulling these carts make a lot of money. Future job opportunity?
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- Shirakawa-go and Takayama are both famous for “Sarubobo,” a doll shaped like a monkey that is supposed to bring you luck!
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