Exploring very famous places in Japan | Shirakawa-go

In this last leg of our Japan winter trip, we set out for the world's famous UNESCO World's Heritage Site, Shira Kawago Village, where we'll be staying there for one night. But before that, we're going to check out another famous spot, the snow monkeys at Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park, as well as making a pit stop at the beautiful city and seafood haven of Kanazawa. And that is the famous snow monkeys. We traveled all the way here to see those monkeys. So we're done with the snow monkey. How was it? Oh man, the monkeys are just damn cute. Kawaii desu. But yeah, the park is actually very, very small. And the only sad thing is, I mean, okay, the monkeys are wild monkeys, but they do feed them here at the park. That's why they're always coming back to the hot springs. I don't know. It's up for debate, but yeah, still worth it to check out for the first time. Now that we are done with the Nagano region, we're headed for Kanazawa. All right. Ohayougozaimasu. So before we hit the famous Shira Kawago, we're making a pit stop at this city called Kanazawa. Guess what? Let's look for some seafood. This is Omicho market. Everything looks so good. Still a lot. So Kanazawa is very well known for their snow crabs and we really wanted to try some snow crabs, but unfortunately at this market, they mostly sell it wholesale and the prices are crazy expensive. So we had to pass. Fresh scallops. Oh my gosh. Fresh as hell. 300 yen oysters. Yes, please. 600 yen tuna sashimi. Let's go. That's why it's charred right here. Let's go. Yeah. When in Japan, definitely have your tuna. It's way better than the ones in Singapore. Yakitori. Oh my gosh. Expensive fruits. 400 yen. 500 yen. Wow. It's like grape juice. The Kyo grape juice. Let's go. Round two. Ready to feast. Carnival. Okay, let's try the roe. Oh, the roe is heavenly. And so it's time for the highly anticipated Shira Kawago. We are on the bus onward to Shira Kawago and just to take note that you have to book a reservation online for the bus ride. So I'll leave the link in the description. The weather definitely wasn't the best. We finally reached the world-renowned Shira Kawago village, okay. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and it's super super famous. Currently we are on the main street of Shira Kawago village. There's this just one long stretch of shop houses and whatnot. So it's pretty nice to just walk around this place. And yes, the main reason why people come here is to which literally means prayer hands where they have this iconic straw rooftops that allow the houses to shed heavy snowfall during the winter. A lot of people come here for a day trip but we are going to take it one notch up. We're going to be a bit more extra. We're going to stay here for one night at one of the gaso houses. So it's going to be very interesting. But anyways, the weather as you can see, what a bummer. Like it's raining and it's in the middle of January and the snow is melting. Quite bummer lah. Hida beef skewers. One famous thing in the Shira Kawago village is their Hida beef skewers. It's highly recommended. So we got, it's pretty expensive. One is 600 yen, six dollars. And one is the premium one, 1000 yen, ten dollars skewers. Let's try the 600 one first. It is so soft. Yes, the flavor is just 10 upon 10 on point. Go for the premium one. You come all the way here, just go for the 1000 yen one. Now we just ordered ourselves Hida beef bun. Cheers. Very heartwarming. But yeah, can't really taste the beef. It's not mind-blowing. It's like a normal pork bun actually. Okay, so we went up the observation deck. This is expectation and this is reality. What is this? Shira Kawago. Okay, never mind the view. At least we got a delicious matcha churro. And a new subscriber. Wow, steady. I got a new subscriber. What's up Vincent? Nice to meet you. You're on the channel now. Hello Singaporean. Yes. Now despite the bad weather and view, the mist still did give the village a very different and I would say somewhat magical feel nonetheless. Famous three houses of Shira Kawago. So we just checked in into our inn. Nice and cozy, warm and comfy. Carpet is actually heated which is a bonus point. So let's set up our futon mattresses because we're gonna sleep on the floor. All right, so just to do a short house tour. So we are in our bedroom right now with our futon bed set up and when we move out of the room. So this is the dining space where we'll have our dinner and breakfast. And when we move on to this corridor, this is the toilet and shower. It's a pretty small inn. Yeah, we didn't have the budget to go for a crazy big one but anyways it's still pretty comfortable and I can't wait for dinner. Okay, so it's dinner time and our host has prepared our set dinner. Looks so good, smells so good. We have tempura, salad, some meat, oden I think, karage, soup. There's this small fish as well and beef with veg. Hot pot. Itadakimasu! Oh, the beef is so soft. Man, Shirakawa is definitely known for the beef. Dinner was solid. Ah, this is so warm and comfy. We have scrambled eggs, some veg, some pinker skin, tofu, apple and miso for the rice. So cute. There's this mini plum thing. I don't know what it is. Let's try. Crunchy. It's like a very strong concentrated plum. All right, we are finally done with Shirakawa-go and to be very honest, I think it's not really needed to stay overnight here at Shirakawa-go. I think at least in my opinion, in my experience, it doesn't really make much of a difference staying in the farmhouse itself. It was pretty much like a normal traditional Japanese house. The food was good but not crazy amazing. You don't get much of a different experience other than having a bit more time at night and maybe, you know, more time in the morning to explore the village. But the village is quite small so there's also not crazy much to do and the weather itself is, that's quite sad but other than that, it's still a nice place to visit. Enjoy myself, my time here. Yes, it's time to leave. The bus is here. Let's go. And with that, it's time to say goodbye to Japan for now. It's been a great winter trip.