Shirakawa

Shirakawa is another of those must see UNESCO World Heritage sites and, although the title has been applied to designate some pretty second rate stuff in places, this being Japan, I was really expecting a fantasy perfect village. I had seen so many brilliant photographs taken in both summer and winter, each perfect in their own way and hoped to find the same; as it was I found a metre of dirty snow on the ground and grey, brown scenery. It did not help that it was neither mid-winter with a metre of snow on the house roofs nor mid-summer with iridescent green of the rice and other vegetation, but I was left, well, disappointed. Ah well, as if I needed one, yet another excuse to go back another day!