I am really glad that I did make it to Shirakawago after all.

When I was planning this trip, it was too early to make a booking (you could only book a tour like 1 to 2 months before the tour date). And when the date was finally open for booking, I entered the wrong departure city and didn’t find out until too late. By the time I tried to rebook the tour, it was full. I contemplated whether or not to make my own way there with the highway bus, but I didn’t feel confident. It was truly divine intervention, that when I was checking into the hotel at Takayama, there was an advertisement for a half-day tour to Shirakawago from the hotel and the concierge confirmed that they could accept my booking, like last minute.

Even before making the decision to do a day tour, I had originally tried booking a ryokan at Shirakawago. ALL the ryokans I approached refused my booking and one was honest (and direct) enough to tell me that all ryokans in Shirakawago do not accept booking from single travellers as they found single travellers “too troublesome”. I swear I did not make this up. Even when I was willing to pay for 3 persons (the number of persons per room), my booking was rejected. I wasn’t offended because I understood that the Japanese culture is excruciatingly polite. For them to take such extreme measures, they must have had really bad encounters. That said, now that I have seen Shirakawago, I don’t think I would be able to handle the communal way of life here e.g. shared living spaces and shared bathrooms. I might ended up whiny and sulky and truly became a “troublesome” guest.

Do you know? There is NO trash bin in Shirakawago. Instead there were notices asking visitors to bring their trash with them and not leave them behind in the village. Woah!

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