HOME > Japan’s Local Treasures > Shirakawa-go and Ainokura Bus Tour
Visit two world heritage sites renowned for their unique traditional houses and mountain scenery
Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture
This tour takes you by bus to two World Heritage Sites, Shirakawa-go Village and Gokayama Ainokura Village, both renowned for their unique “gassho-zukuri”-style houses. You’ll have plenty of time to relax and explore each village on foot.
Shirakawa-go, a World Heritage Site in Gifu Prefecture, is a mountain village of 114 gassho-zukuri houses that preserve the nostalgic Japanese landscape of old. “Gassho-zukuri" refers to the steep triangular thatched roofs, unique to regions with heavy snowfall, which resemble the “gassho” shape of hands joined in prayer.
Gokayama Ainokura, a hillside village in Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture, has 20 surviving gassho-zukuri houses, including a thatched-roof temple. People still live in the houses in this beautifully preserved community.
The tour runs every day. The bus departs from Takayama Nohi Bus Terminal at 8:30 a.m. and returns to the terminal at 3:50 p.m. Reservations can be made up to three months in advance (if seats are available, you can join on the day of the trip).
You are free to stroll through each village at your own pace. Both villages have restaurants where you can have lunch on your own.
How to get there
From Nagoya Station, take an express bus to Takayama Nohi Bus Terminal (about 2 hours 45 minutes).
6-125 Hanasato-machi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-ken
