Kanazawa region
The UNESCO village of Shirakawa-go.
Being a UNESCO World Heritage Site makes it a very attractive tourist site for both Japanese and international visitors.
And all the parking is kept across the river from the village, though in off hours, the road through the village is drivable.
The homes are required to remain essentially in the old construction formats.
The crowds concentrated on the main road through the village, so once we got away from the main road it became much more peaceful.
Problem: Foreign tourist standing on a grave to take a mountain picture. The Kanazawa region was the only location in Japan that I felt harrassed by local drivers.
All rental cars have the same symbol on their licence plate, and all licence plates show the prefecture the car is registered in. So everyone knows we were tourists from the south.
So why the anger towards tourists? Well, they stand on graves, for one thing. Also the main city in the area, Kanazawa, is beginning to experience the joys of excess tourism.
Apparently the early buds of these flowers are edible.
The buildings were "original" looking from a distance, but as you got closer you could see air conditioning systems, plumbing and wiring, and even satallite antennas
There seemed to be a lot of ground water, either from rain or springs, and it was channeled through pipes and ditches through the village.
This is a mountain village, so there was still a lot of snow.
You can see the mix of old and new in the roofs.
...next page.