If you happen to be in Kanazawa and have the time to rent a car to drive the White Road from Shirikawa-go through Hakusan National Park (or vice versa like we did), do it!
I did not have this on the itinerary but we rented a car to explore the Hakusan NP and due to the rain ended up taking this scenic route and it was amazing. Some more detail below, and for pictures I refer you to my Instagram profile (user: scratchingtheworld). For all costs mentioned in EUR the current exchange rate is around JPY 157/EUR.
We rented our car for 24h from TOYOTA Rent a Car Kanazawa Station West Exit and paid JPY 9,801 with full coverage. There’s many other rental agencies around and prices seemed quite similar, but we were really happy with the service provided here.
The next morning we set off to the National Park from Nomi, a village just outside of Kanazawa where we were staying. We first drove to Ichinose Visitor Centre with some great views along the way and did a small hike there to a viewing platform but it was raining cats and dogs so we quickly decided to revert to driving rather than walking. For avid walkers though the park seemed beautiful and there are plenty of mountain hikes (with overnight stay) to do.
We drove to the start of the White Road on the west side of the park and stopped for lunch at roadside Station Station Sena where there were several restaurants. We ate at the udon place there (https://maps.app.goo.gl/888aGXP2D9JihALa6) which hands down had the best noodles we had in Japan so far. Pretty sure all of them contain offal so if this is not your thing be mindful. We had the yam version and the spicy one (level 3 out of 9 which was already very spicy) and both were really good. We finished with a coffee and ice cream at Yamaneko Kijitora Coffee Roastery next door, also reommended, and then started our drive through the park.
After a few minutes drive you will come at the toll gate where you need to pay JPY 1,700 for a regular vehicle and then the road is yours. As the weather was genuinly awful there were not a lot of other people driving around, which allowed us to stop the car and take pictures from inside and there are plenty of spots where you want to do this. After every bend there is an amazing view, waterfalls, mountain tops… There are plenty of parkings foreseen at points of interest so you can safely park and take it all in. There are also places where you can go for a hike to, for example, a waterfall or hotspring that is a bit further out, but the rain and lack of time stopped us from doing that. I am fairly confident that on a sunny day you can make this an all-day excursion if you want to visit some of these spots.
Along the road we also ran into a few monkey groups that were going about their day on the roadside. They were clearly not as confident around people as the ones in the Snow Monkey Park in Shibu Onsen so try not to alert them and keep your distance, but it is fun to see them out in the wild. One place we saw many was Saruko Bridge, but I’m not sure they are always there of course.
Unfortunately once we passed to the Gifu prefecture side of the road the clouds were too much and we did not really see anything more, but by then we more than had our share of amazing sights. I can imagine this road is gorgeous any time of year, but now with the autumn colors it was particularly beautiful. I do want to mention it was very cold on the mountain top (around 5 degrees versus 18 in Kanazawa) so bring an additional layer maybe.
After passing the exit booth we drove to the Omigachi Castle Observation Deck to have a look at Shirakawa-go but we did not visit the village itself as we were pretty rained out. Driving back to Kanazawa you can drive toll-free which takes around 2h or take a toll road for JPY 1,940 which takes a little over an hour (or a middle ground option, both in terms of time and costs).
In total we spent a little over 2h on the White Road itself, but keep in mind it was cold, wet and windy so ni normal conditions you can probably double this. It was easily one of the best things we did on our trip so far so I would highly recommend this to anyone who has the time to do this.
Any questions, feel free to ask!
3 comments
I appreciate you taking the time to write this. Im doing something similar – renting a car and driving to Shirakawago so this recommendation helps with my planning. Thanks!
This is the kind of trip report I’ve been looking for. I can’t understand why Japan is 70% mountains but there isn’t much about traveling in them.
We did the same thing in early November – rent the toyota at Kanazawa, take it through Shirakawago, Hakusan, Okuhida onsens, Shin-Hotaka ropeway, take it to Kamikochi shuttle, Kurobe Gorge, Tateyama Alpine Route — etc etc. Basically, this whole region is just like autumn mountain perfection. The car afforded SO MUCH freedom and we were able to do things like do a day pass at an onsen we didn’t want to pay the nightly ryokan rate at, things like that.
The landscape is just phenomenal. Thatched roof wooden houses with water mills and cute little gardens, persimmon and apple trees, massive cabbages and daikons. Against a backdrop of mountain views and fall colors and streams. Kanazawa and Takayama were both col, but getting off the main route to actually see the small towns and villages, do the local hikes and drives, that made it way better.