Shirakawa-gō

Three historic mountain villages across 68 hectares of the remote Shogawa river valley, spanning the border of Gifu and Toyama Prefectures and inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shirakawa-gō, White River Old-District, lies in Gifu; the Gokayama area, the Five Mountains, is divided between the former villages of Kamitaira and Taira in Toyama. The valley is ringed by high, rugged mountains and takes particularly heavy snow, and the farmhouses are built in the gasshō-zukuri style, whose steep roofs are designed to shed it. Remoteness and difficulty of access are what kept the villages as they are.