If limited time or other constraints on your itinerary will keep you from visiting Shirakawa-go, Takayama’s Hida Folk Village offers an admirable alternative.

Just twenty minutes walk from the JR Station (shuttle buses are also available), this excellent open air museum preserves more than thirty historic regional buildings, including some fine examples of the thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses that draw so many visitors to Shirakawa-go.

The village is beautiful, centered on a millpond and featuring farmhouses, warehouses, a watchtower, the tiny Takumi Shrine and an old festival stage, all brought here from their original locations throughout the area.  Inside the houses, fires are lit in the irori hearths each morning, and the mountain air is redolent with wood smoke.  Near the ticket gate, a series of workshops situated in the old buildings showcase local arts such as weaving, lacquer and woodcarving.  Be sure to get your English map at the ticket gate.  A taped English tour is also available.  All in all, a very pleasant way to pass a few hours.

>>Access
1-590  Kami-okamoto-machi, Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture
Nohi Bus Center (Near JR Takayama Station)===(12 mins. by bus)===Hida no Sato

>>Open Hours
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

>>Holidays
None

>>Admission Fee
Adult: 700 yen
Child (Junior high school student or younger): 200 yen

- Matt Mangham

Hida/Takayama Travel Guide at JAPANiCAN.com