For those wanting a taste of traditional, mountainous Japan, this tour to Hida-Takayama and Shirakawa-go is perfect. It's a one day, private tour from Nagoya and includes pick-up and drop-off at your hotel. You will see the nostalgic old town of Hida-Takayama, with the original architecture still intact and dating back over 300 years. You will have the chance to explore the nearby Folk Village or try your hand at some traditional crafts of the area. You will then be transported even deeper into the mountains to the isolated villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama, famous for their centuries-old farmhouses built with slanting thatched roofs to prevent snow build up. Explore Japan's countryside, it has so much to offer!
(Note: We include a private driver, however they may not speak English. In this case you can communicate using a "pocket talk" interpreter device. The tour does not include a guide)
Posted By : pashpav
We booked our Shirakawa-go and Takayama trip with Omakase-tour.com I specifically wanted to book with Omakase-tour.com because I have read a lot of good reviews about them. I sent them an email and they were very swift with their response. I booked the one that included the guide, the driver and vehicle with pick-up/drop-off from our hotel in Nagoya. There were 5 of us: 3 adults, 1 teenager and 1 pre-teen. The trip was last December 24, 2023.
During the whole booking process, Omakase-tour.com was very attentive and thorough with the details of our booking. I want to thank them for having Toshi-san as our guide for this trip.
We were very fortunate to have Toshi-san as our guide during our trip to Shirakawa-go and Takayama. Even before the day of the trip, he was already frequently updating us about the weather at Shirakawa-go, about what to expect and clothing/shoe items to bring (because of the snow).
During the day of the trip, the more than 3 hours drive from Nagoya going to Shirakawa-go did not feel long, because aside from being mesmerized by the beautiful scenery around us, Toshi-san kept us entertained with games, trivia and stories. He created a mini trivia game that kept all of us including my teenager and pre-teen hooked. He even arranged prizes for all of us. Before we even noticed it, we were already at Shirakawa-go.
He brought us first to the top of the mountain (view deck) to admire and take pictures of the whole of Shirakawa-go, he then guided us going down the mountain path by foot towards the Shirakawa-go proper. Along the way he told us stories and facts about Shirakawa-go. I was also able to take so many pictures while going down the mountain, it was really breathtaking! We were able to go inside one of the farm houses and learned so much about how life was back then 200 years ago. He never tires of answering our questions as we were very curious about the farm houses in the area. It was my first time to see Persimmon Trees! My teens were able to play snow because the whole town was covered in thick snow when we visited last December 24, 2023. Toshi-san brought us to a store that sold tasty pork buns, beef cubes on stick and sausage. All of them tasted really good especially the sausage, as Toshi-san informed us that the sausage in this area is especially good and you can only find this here. We never wanted to leave the place as it was really so breathtaking.
After Shirakawa-go, Toshi-san brought us to Takayama, He brought us to a store that sold Hida Beef sushi, it tasted so good! He also brought us to the historical houses and shared so many facts about the area. We also went to a shop that sold Hida Beef curry, Toshi-san was so helpful when I was deciding what to buy, he asked the store person which was the bestseller among them.
Toshi-san also brought us to an archery place to try out ancient Japanese Archery, he told us that this was how the Samurai trained during their time. It was very interesting and challenging! I was not able to hit any bulls-eye out of all the 10 tries haha!
It was already early evening when we finished the trip. Toshi-san brought us safely back to the hotel. He double checked the vehicle to see if there were any things left. He gave a special gift to my son which made my son really happy.
All in all the whole trip was so meaningful and truly truly memorable. I know this is because Toshi-san really took good care of us and guided us throughout this whole trip. He is truly a great guide.
I would 100% recommned Omakase tours and Toshi-san to all my friends!
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Posted On : 2024-01-16 06:49:54 
Posted By : Vcyt
It was the best decision ever to go with a private tour, especially when it was snowing heavily at Shirakawago. Our driver, Ms Kojima is very friendly and an excellent driver.
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Posted On : 2024-01-07 09:02:19
Posted By : jievoj
By far one of the best tours we've done in Japan. Not only were the locations breathtaking but the driver was very friendly and compliant. The person I was in contact with from the this travel company was very helpful and informative when talking about the situation and possible limitations of the trip. Despite having a specific amount of time per location, we still felt as if we could freely do what we wanted. Would highly recommend!
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Posted On : 2023-12-24 12:42:14
Posted By : janechg
The tour was indeed pleasant and my family had a great time thanks to Yamada san. We really enjoyed the convenience of having a private car and driver to take us around the region.
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Posted On : 2023-10-10 01:51:21
Posted By : Joe_T
Great hospitality and itinerary. Awesome Hida beef lunch at Takayama. Shirakawa-go is charming. Awesome sights!
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Posted On : 2023-06-17 20:44:26 
Posted By : andreacE4625OL
If you're looking to go on a fun, easy and carefree tour to Takayama and Shirakawago, find another tour or go on your own, because your experience with OMAKASE, particularly Takeshi, the tour organiser, will most likely be awful.
Firstly, Takeshi provided our driver, Yamada, who barely spoke any english, the WRONG itinerary. He then proceeded to keep asking me to show the driver messages he sent to me in Japanese, constantly reassuring me that everything will be fine. Which it was far from being so.
Secondly, my family and I travelled during Golden Week. We expected some delays, but the trip from Nagoya to Takayama ended up taking 4.5 hours instead of 2. Takeshi did not warn us at all about this or even let us know that this could happen or we could have planned around this.
Because of that, and the back and forth with the driver over google translate over who had the right itinerary, so much time was wasted. It did not help that the driver was impatient and rude as well, and refused to believe that he had the wrong itinerary.
Takeshi said that our time would be compensated and we could stay longer at the destinations. Sounds easy enough? Nope. The driver, following his own itinerary, kept rushing us at every stop we had, telling us we were "out of time" if we wanted to make it to Shirakawago. Eventually, we decided it was best to just stay in Hida & Takayama. But even so, Yamada was extremely impatient and kept limiting our time at stops.
We were so upset by his poor attitude that we got back to Nagoya a whole hour earlier than planned.
When I was booking this tour, Takeshi told me that my Viator booking "expired", when he was actually the one that cancelled it from his end. So that he could get us to book directly on his website. Not very honest behaviour.
What's worse is his extremely poor customer service. After the tour, I dropped him some messages about all the issues we had experienced, but he responded to none of them and proceeded to ignore my feedback.
In short, DO visit this amazing town but DON'T book with this tour operator.
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Posted On : 2023-05-10 13:20:16
Posted By : graces713
The scenery was so good and our driver was very accommodating and friendly. Inspite of the rain we enjoyed our tour immensely. Our van was clean and well maintained and I love your service, it was efficient. Will recommend your tour to others
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Posted On : 2023-04-09 02:11:52
Posted By : 928ckl
Kazuo was our guide for the one day trip and we had a great time visiting the very scenic spots with his commentary in English. Even though our group consisted of just me and my wife, he actually managed to bring a long a flag of our country on a telescopic rod so we could spot him wherever we went!!
Hope to visit again soon and visit other areas in the beautiful central japan.
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Posted On : 2023-03-05 06:29:53
