| As many of you may know, the Hinamizawa village where the story of Higurashi is set is actually based on a real life place - the village of Ogimachi, located within the Shirakawago UNESCO World Heritage site. During my trip to Japan last year, I made a short visit to Shirakawago. It was a 'pilgrimage' of sorts as I have been a fan of the series ever since the first episode aired in Japan. This beautiful and secluded village deep in the mountains of Gifu seemed like the perfect sidetrip as I made my way from Nagasaki to Tokyo. However, it is overrun by (nearly all Japanese) tourists every weekend, so I decided to go during the week and avoid the crowds. I was really inspired by this Tomitake cosplayer's travel log and decided to brave the rural bus system and booked the bus tickets with my poor Japanese. I stayed in a minshuku, which is a budget version of ryokan (more like a B&B), for three nights and left on the Saturday when the big tour groups started to pour into the village. Some of the Higurashi locations you may be able to recognise from my photos are: Furude shrine, its main gate and warehouse, Irie clinic, Sonozaki estate, Rika and Satoko's house, the suspension bridge, various gassho style houses and the panoramic view of the village from the anime opening sequence. I've uploaded my photos from the trip to flickr. The full size images are only available for viewing by other flickr members (but it's free to sign up!) You can find the set HERE. Below are the thumbnail previews. |
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| Fucking awesome. I wish I can visit it sometime in the future. It's hard to reach from Tokyo? |
| That is really rather amazing. Looks like a nice place to go to. |
Shuugo said: Fucking awesome. I wish I can visit it sometime in the future. It's hard to reach from Tokyo? It used to be. From Tokyo you'd either have to take a train and head Northwest for Takayama, or Southwest for Nagoya and change onto a highway bus from either of those to get to Shirakawago. It takes over 2 hours to reach Ogimachi from Takayama. Depending on the bus company, some routes only have 1 or 2 buses per day and others may have different seasonal schedules. Since July 2008, the new Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway opened and according to Japan Guide, the travel time from Takayama has been reduced to just 50 minutes. Detailed bus timetables here. I'd recommend booking the ryokan or minshuku a long time beforehand, as the popular ones are often fully booked months ahead. There are also only a couple of minshuku that have Western "bathroom facilities", or so the local TIC told me. |
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Meiling said: Shuugo said: Fucking awesome. I wish I can visit it sometime in the future. It's hard to reach from Tokyo? It used to be. From Tokyo you'd either have to take a train and head Northwest for Takayama, or Southwest for Nagoya and change onto a highway bus from either of those to get to Shirakawago. It takes over 2 hours to reach Ogimachi from Takayama. Depending on the bus company, some routes only have 1 or 2 buses per day and others may have different seasonal schedules. Since July 2008, the new Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway opened and according to Japan Guide, the travel time from Takayama has been reduced to just 50 minutes. Detailed bus timetables here. I'd recommend booking the ryokan or minshuku a long time beforehand, as the popular ones are often fully booked months ahead. There are also only a couple of minshuku that have Western "bathroom facilities", or so the local TIC told me. Sounds like an adventure to just get there lol. Maybe too much for the frist visit to Japan... |
| This is quite amazing. Thanks for sharing! |
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| Sweetness! I plan on visting everywhere when i eventually get to Japan! |
 banana |
| Thanks! I plan on sharing more photos of my trips to Japan on my flickr account, so please look out for new photo sets of other locations. :) The Nagasaki set is up, but I haven't gotten around to the annotation and tags yet. @Shuugo: It's not too difficult or remote to visit on a first trip to Japan. You can easily book the ryokan and the bus tickets overseas first, pick up a JR pass upon arrival and voila, Higurashi heaven! It would help to have a phrase book handy, as absolutely nobody speaks a lick of English in Ogimachi. |
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| oo wow, it looks really nice from the pictures~ i hope i'll get a chance to visit one day ^^ |
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| Omfg I wanna go..... |
| Someday, I will have my honeymoon there! X3 |
     I am the senpai that notices you. |
| Thanks for posting the pics. Extremely jealous. |
| The Rika-chan prayer plaque with the syringe hanging from it is a nice touch... nipaa. ;) |
| Sore wa himitsu desu. |
| woah. haha!! never though it was a real place!! hey, just curious, do they also held a WATANAGASHI FESTIVAL over there? :) |
| If i ever go there, i'm probably not coming back, it would really scare the shit outta me. :> |
| ahh:3 so jealous definitely when i visit japan, im visiting this village:D |
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| Hopefully you haven't contracted Hinamizawa syndrome |
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