On Monday we visited an old town and walked through what was the official government offices in days gone by. It was such a beautiful building. Every piece of wood fitted perfectly into its groove, the whole building was impressive.

After that we walked about in the old town and I found a Sashiko shop. I wanted some embroidery templates and with the help of Google translate the shop owner was able to point me in the right direction. The template cost 300¥, a jacket made using that template cost 48,000¥! I’ll be working on one very soon.

The craftsmanship is exquisite. Everything is made with care and detail, I’m very impressed with the order of everything…my kind of place!

After a couple of hours in the bus, we arrived at Shirakawa, a world heritage village. It was fantastic! The houses have thick thatch roofs and there are small open drains taking water to the fields and past the houses. Covers for the drains direct the water elsewhere when required. We spent a couple of hours just wandering around the narrow streets in this village, where people are living in houses constructed a long time ago.