Day #9~ Shirakawa-go & Matsumoto Castle

It’s funny that as I’m making these posts of our Mainland trip, which was over 2 months ago, I’m remembering each day and without fail I say to myself during each post, “That was the best day.” Every single day on our trip was memorable and beautiful and full of once in a lifetime experiences. They were all the best days. Our visit to Shirakawa-go was among my favorites. It was just SO BEAUTIFUL!

We didn’t realize it when we pulled over and took this video but this little village neighbors our destination. We were just one exit away from Ogimachi Village.

 

 

Let’s see how many times I say ‘beautiful’ in this post, shall we?

The bridge we crossed to get to the village.

 

 

 

 

 

Ogimachi is known for it’s farmhouses with the unique roof. In the country setting they were just beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

It was fun to see them working on one of the roofs. Talk about tedious!

 

 

 

 

Rich took some up close pictures of the roofs and you can see just how incredible they are.

 

 

 

 

We walked up a path to get a scenic view.

 

 

 

 

 

Just another one of those pictures that you look at and wish that it did the moment justice. It’ll have to do.

 

 

We hit up the gift shops…

 

 

 

ate at a restaurant…

 

 

 

These drinks were kept cold by the stream water.

 

 

Then, we were on the road again. Destination-Matsumoto Castle!

 

 

 

The drive was beautiful and we couldn’t help but stop and take some pics.

 

 

 

Then, we arrived at one of my favorite castles.

 

 

These goof balls needed some time to be silly for pictures so I let them have at it.

 

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite pictures ever! She did these poses completely on her own and they became her ‘go to’ poses.

 

 

 

The sun was going down and we still needed to get some dinner so we loaded back up.

 

 

We had the most delicious ramen!

 

 

A continuation of the steep stairs theme that Japan seems to have.

 

 

 

Nice shot of me mid chew.

 

 

Eva loved the broth but needed a little help keeping clean.

 

 

Our lodging for that night was more comfortable than the night before.