Susan's Blog: Japan Day 13 - Shirakawago, Tokyo Odaiba

30/03/2023

Shirakawa-go, Tokyo Odaiba

This was the bus time table, departing from Kanazawa at 8.10am and back 12.20pm were the best slots they could offer.

Looked cold from the weather forecast but we were roasted by the sun.

Bye bye to this lovely hotel.

We kept our luggage in Kanazawa Station. We could had keep it in the hotel but we decided it would be more convenient as we could collect our luggage and continue our journey from here.

Bought some onigiri for breakfast from a stall in the station.

Not this queue, thank goodness.

Biggest piece of bus ticket.

1hr bus ride.

Scenery was very nice along the way.

So, this was it.

Nice but not the wow wow kind.

Declared as UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, with their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some were more than 250 years old. The roofs were very huge and thick in real.

We were finding our way to get to the observation deck. Found shuttle bus that would bring us up.

It's run half hourly per bus, need to pay a few hundred yen, haiz...

Took some photos around while waiting for the bus.

660yen lucky charm, bought it.

Got bigger ones lolxx...

Love it, too cute.

It was a 5mins bus ride up to a hill for this view. Without snow, it was like that nia.

Felt a bit cheated cos there were only a few gassho-zukuri farmhouses, say about 40%, the other 60% were modern houses.

Oh well, at least I had been here.

This was the little white shuttle bus, went back down with some view of snow alps.

Back on ground, continued to look for historical huts, they actually looked very comical.

I suddenly understand why they control the number of buses coming into the village... to prevent this place from being overcrowded by tourists. They don't need another tragic like Kyoto...

The place was peaceful and relaxing to walk about, though kinda roasted by the sun.

What do you call this emergency water point?

The most beautiful scenery of Shirakawa-go was crystal blue Sho River, which made the trip worth it.

Ogimachi Suspension Bridge, 107m in length.

The crystal blue color was out of the world. My kids also went waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....

Found something attractive... joined the short queue.

Stall managed by one man only.

Food map.

Holy gawd...

Rice cracker was used as a plate, which I ate up at the end. Not the cheapest but was insta-worthy and delicious.

This was another part of Sho River, pic taken in the mid of the village.

Slightly more crowded when we were about to leave.

Chao da liao. I never thought of putting sunblock on my hands... before I know it, I had a pair of freshly roasted pork knuckles.

Went to the bus to wait for our bus. They sell bus tix here but were slightly more expensive, I had no idea if any tix were available though.

Bus ride back to Kanazawa with nice views of mountains and alps.

Sho River was very long, this part was greenish blue not as magical as the part in Shirakawago.

Passed by Hatogaya Dam.

Must be very pretty in winter...

More of Sho River.

So much land...

The moment we saw Mcdonald's sign board, we decided to have it for lunch lolxx... We still had 2.4km to reach it heehee...

Last look of Tsuzumi Gate.

We were running out of cash, had to queue at the ticket office to buy tix to Tokyo so that we could charged by credit card.

Got it, S$140 over bucks, knee caps cried with pocket.

Timing was great, we could had Mcdonald's in the station for lunch before boarding the train.

YEAH!

Love it! (Not available in Singapore).

Last look in Kanazawa Station, probably no chance to come back liao. Always felt a little sad whenever I had to leave a place, but at the same time excited to move on.

The bullet train.

3hrs ride, let's go!

So this was the interior.

The toilet in the train, super nice and clean.

Enjoyable scenery, snow alps!

Behind should be a river but was endless and looked like sea.

Reached Tokyo Station, could knock down by the crowd sia. It was more crowded than Osaka.

The crowd won our MRT, luckily we were not taking this train.

Gotten Suica Card. Surprisingly it was a great relieve. We need not dig for every penny in every possible corners of our pouch to buy tickets from the machine on every trip.

Our train bo lang one, thank goodness.

Totally taken by surprised by the stunning night view of Odaiba. Nobody mentioned it online, or am I the only one thought it's nice??

Sotetsu Grand Fresa Tokyo-Bay Ariake, this was by far our most comfortable (and expensive) accommodation.

My blur kid left his backpack at the lobby, luckily the reception kept it for him.

Then I tried to take a video of the room and got locked out, went to the reception again.

The next day, did laundry and was locked out AGAIN in pyjamas. Went to the reception, embarrassed until could die.

This was how my room looked like with super single bed.

Love the big table.

4 nights stay for 2pax shared room was S$686. My room was S$548. Nice hotel with Lawson at the 2nd floor and Family Mart at the opposite. It's away from center and crowd of Tokyo, so you either hate or love it's location. It's LOVE for me.

Went to a Family Mart to buy dinner.