Takayama - Shirakawa-go (Day 8)

Shirakawa-go was not part of the original itinerary until the day that someone posted (Visit Japan) in Facebook about places to go to during winter. And in all of the places, Shirakawa-go is the most feasible place to go as we will be coming from either Osaka or Tokyo.

To go to Shirakawa-go, you must go to Takayama first (or Kanazawa). From Tokyo, take shinkansen to Nagoya then transfer to Limited Express Hida Wide View to Takayama.Or, with the new shinkansen line to Kanazawa (starting March 15), take that instead for a shorter trip. If coming from Osaka, there's a limited express train to Kanazawa as well or take the shinkansen to Nagoya and transfer for Takayama. Either coming from Takayama or Kanazawa, there is a bus operating and you may find the time table at Japan Guide web site. 

Well, I suggest what we did. We arrived in Takayama by noon, had lunch and walked around and took around 1 million pictures then went to Shirakawa-go by 3 pm. The light up starts at 5:30 pm and the last bus departing Shirakawa-go is at 5:20 pm. So because we want to see the light up, we arranged for a van months before. Hato Taxi is by far the cheapest I found. So yeah, after the light up which was at 7 pm, we headed to Kanazawa instead of going back to Takayama. I know that 3 hours in Takayama is not enough to enjoy the place and explore the Old Town, hence it is already on my list of places to return to.