A few weeks ago, we headed out to a small village called Shirokawa We stopped by the Toyota Eco Institute first, which was basically like a large wild-life preservation of sorts. Mountains, old bee houses, temples, and schools. General bugs and spiders and bears were also in supply, though we only suffered the first two, to my woe.

The tour was done in complete Japanese. It was interesting to pick up on a variety of wildlife facts, especially since our tour guides were fairly young but very helpful and eager (to the point that one dressed up as a bear to illustrate a point concerning the animals). Spiders aside, it was a good way to spend a bit of time waiting for the rain to pass. It was also a nice change of pace from endless cityscapes.

After the Toyota Eco Institute, we headed back down some mountains until we reached Shirokawa. It’s in a large group of villages considered the most beautiful in Japan, and while it was fairly small, it was, in fact, quite pretty. Shirokawa translates to White River, and one of the most notable things about this village was that over its river hangs a large concrete bridge with no supports in the middle. It’s quite a piece of construction, as it sways with every step and gust of wind, and yet continues to stand.

Both sides of the river were fairly populated with gift shops, though we also went into an old Japanese historical house that actually had its own small temple in the back. Katie tried sake-flavored ice cream and I bought myself candied figs. Most of the residents of the village make their living off their souvenir stores while they live on the second floor, but it clearly makes good living, considering the amount of Japanese that come flooding in as tourists. It was a bit rainy and dreary, which made for a very quiet sort of exploring, but all the same, it was a very nice place to visit.

Finally, the last bit of our trip was to Takayama. We stayed the night there first at our traditional Japanese inn, and then the next day, we went out to explore one of the oldest remaining traditional city halls in Japan, where officials lived and did business, heard officials, met monks and the like. It was an interesting tour, to be sure.

Later, we got to explore a bit of Takayama, peruse some farmer’s markets, eat some food, and we rounded off the trip by stopping by a village that specialized in making wax food and food samples and proceeded to make some of our own.

We made fake tempura, which consisted of taking pre-made rubber food, pouring yellow wax into water, and then wrapping the food in the wax. Not very exciting, but it was interesting to at least peruse the shops. We also made leaves of lettuce, which in retrospect, look quite realistic. Unfortunately, they were impossible to transport back home so almost everyone’s broke before we even made it back to Nagoya station.

It was a fun trip. Unfortunately, a lot of us were tired and didn’t get that much exciting stuff out of it, but it was a nice way to spend a relaxing weekend, nonetheless. Our next trip and, unfortunately, last trip of the semester will be to Kyoto this coming week!

Location: Takayama, Gifu, Japan