You must visit Shirakawa-go when you're in Nagoya, it's a stunningly beautiful town that fulfilled my fairytale dreams

Originally, I went to Hakuba for skiing, but I added a day trip to Takayama and Shirakawa-go at the last minute, and it was totally worth it! This small village is by far the most beautiful town I've ever been to! It's no wonder it's a World Heritage village. The lighting ceremony only takes place in winter, six times a year, between January and February. First, let's talk about Takayama A small town, they have super delicious Feitian beef, pronounced as 'tuó' haha. The last few photos are of beef sushi and ramen, super good, no wonder it's one of the three famous Wagyu. The grilled meat skewers on the street can be skipped. You must make a reservation for meals (the most painful thing in Japan might be that you often can't get a meal )! Really! Because many Nagoya groups arrive at about the same time, so those top-notch or nice-looking roadside shops all have queues, or they don't accept you to walk-in directly. The most famous is Mikura Tengoku, which also has the most people. It's a bit far from the parking lot. We took photos along the way, and when we arrived at the shop, there were already 12 tables in front of us, so we just found a random one... There's an old lady's rice cake shop on the main road, emmm I personally think the taste is really average, you can skip it. Depart for Shirakawa-go After about 2 hours of playing in Takayama, we set off for Shirakawa-go. This place can only be visited with a tour group, because they limit the number of permits issued to foreign vehicles to enter the village (roughly this is the meaning, when we booked it ourselves, the tour group said that as of September 23, the number for January 28 had already been issued. But it might be because January 28 is the 5th lighting of the year, a special date) Yes, we entered the village on a special lighting day! I'll talk about the lighting later. After 3 pm, the tour group's chartered car will stop in the parking lot, and everyone will line up with their village entry permits, take the village bus (private cars can't enter), about 10 minutes, to the parking lot in the village, and line up to enter the village. At this time, it's almost 3:15, the first thing is to rush to the observation deck (requires a certain physical strength, uphill climbing), it will close at 3:45, only the observation deck can take the whole panorama! It's deep inside so hurry up and go there first, after taking the panorama, then go down to find the snow and small houses to slowly create! There will also be a map when you enter the village and wait for the bus, the places with a camera logo on the map are the officially recommended photo spots. There are also coffee shops and souvenir shops in the village, you can rest when you're tired from walking and shooting. So actually, the lighting is said to have a ceremony, starting at 17:00, but we were too tired so we ate udon noodles in the coffee shop and missed it, so I don't know if there was a ceremony. As for the lighting, it's actually just spotlighting the houses, it's very beautiful in photos... other than that, because it started to snow heavily as soon as it got dark, so we just took a few random photos and got back on the car. Finally, Everyone, bring your camera, prepare for snow scene shooting and dressing, it's best to bring a friend who is good at photography, then you can have beautiful photos! Actually, I have friends who went to this small town in autumn, the autumn leaves and persimmon trees are also very beautiful. I plan to go again in autumn next time~