[JAPAN 2014] Day 2: Shirakawago

We woke up early this morning since Subuh prayer times during spring is super early (like, 3am to 5am I think) so we had the shared bathroom to ourselves for a while. There was a small onsen inside the shared bathroom but I didn't want to take too much time so decided against it. During winter the onsen would've been heaven though!

Don't you just love the setting?

After having a great breakfast (although it can't beat last night's dinner), we were ready to go explore Shirakawago. We wanted to rent bicycles again to go sightseeing, but walked around for a bit since we couldn't find a bicycle rental place.

We made our way to the top of viewpoint after a 15-20 minutes' walk, and took a picture at the iconic viewpoint of Shirakawago there. This would've looked excellent during winter!

On our way back from the viewpoint we found the bicycle rental place. Yay!

Renting a bicycle in Japan (Takayama & Shirakawago in particular) is an excellent choice since there's not too much traffic and the places are really bicycle friendly. A+, would do again. 

I would've loved to pull a Takemoto and drive through the tunnel but I chickened out lol.

And then it's time to go back to Tokyo :( 

Just a note of advice, double check the time for the Shirakawago to Takayama bus. We were given the wrong time by the bus station employee and ended up having to spend an extra hour around the visitor's center. So your best bet is to ask the people who manned the Shirakawago visitor's center instead of relying on the information from Takayama. 

Since we missed our bus, we had to re-book our trains back to Tokyo. Luckily it's all free of charge since it's all on the JR pass! So yeah, just plan your trips accordingly and double check to be safe.

Checked into our Airbnb apartment in Shinjuku for the 2 nights - it's a really cozy and small place for 4 people but it was near the train station and it fits our purpose nicely enough :) We were ready for the next day!

Go to Day 1 (Takayama & Shirakawago) | Day 3 (Tokyo)

Japan 2014 Masterpost