When we arrived, we headed right out of the bus station to avoid the standard tourist route and walked up the 61 steps to the view point overlooking Shirakawa-go and giving great views of the mountains in the distance.
We went in the Wada-ke house which cost ¥300 each and we braved the tea again - it was much sweeter than the green tea in the geisha house in Kanazawa, a real comfort that it's made from wild grass and boiled in the iron kettle on the fireplace - yummy! It was Ben's birthday so the dated photo was a bonus.
We didn't stop for any food but there are a few restaurants if you wanted lunch or dinner and there are huts serving ice cream and takeaway foods. We covered the whole area and took a walk over the bridge to the other side where there is an open museum that costs ¥600 per person but we didn't have the time to go in.
We stayed for 3 hours as we were booked onto the 13:30 bus to Takyama but found out there were also unreserved buses at different times. However 3 hours was about right as we sauntered along the village roads.
To carry on the celebrations I booked us in to Yatsusankan Ryokan in Hida just outside Takyama. We arrived about 4pm, checked in and walked around Hida then we took advantage of the hot spring baths before an amazing dinner in our own dinning room, the number of courses was insane, so many little tasty dishes that were full of flavour, I can guarantee a food comer! It was a bonus that the cherry blossoms were out so they took us on a 10 min bus tour to see them lit up - it was well worth it!
