Changelog

The village year on one page: the Doburoku Festival's fixed October dates at all three shrines (with the no-takeaway and don't-drink-and-drive rules), the reservation-only Winter Light-Up — including the just-announced 2027 dates — the fire-cannon drill, rice planting, and the December-through-March winter-tyre reality. Every date checked against the village office's own pages.

The Japan Meteorological Agency's warnings and advisories for Shirakawa-mura, read live from JMA's own open data file for Gifu — heavy snow, snowstorm and avalanche in winter, heavy rain and landslide the rest of the year — with the wind right now and the road cameras to check before driving in. Pinned on the town page with a live summary.

The 9am–4pm vehicle restriction in the village applies every day of the year, not just April to November, and tour coaches must pre-book their parking from 1 December 2026 (bookings opened 1 June 2026) — not from October 2025 as the page previously said. The winter light-up notice now points at the 2027 dates, which the village has yet to announce, instead of last January's.

Shirakawa-gō has no train, and the last buses out leave in the late afternoon while the village stops admitting day visitors at 5 p.m. — so day trips can end with people stranded. A new page lays out the bus routes in and out from Takayama, Kanazawa, Nagoya, Toyama and Takaoka, which ones you must reserve ahead, the last-bus reality, and where to book — and sends you to the operators for exact times.

Almost everyone arrives by car or coach, and the rule that catches people out is that sightseeing vehicles are kept out of the Ogimachi village lanes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. The new 'Driving In' tool reads the clock in the village's own time and tells you, right now, whether you can drive in or should park at the Seseragi and Midashima car parks and walk across the bridge — with the parking hours and fees, who's exempt, the winter-tyre months, and whether the Hakusan Shirakawa-gō White Road is open today. It points to the village's official live parking webcams, and it's written for a place where 1,500 people live, not an attraction with gates.

The snow page relied on a live snow-depth measurement we can't yet confirm is published for the village, so we've taken it down rather than show a number we can't stand behind. We plan to bring it back for the winter once the official measurement is verified. The live village cameras and the village road pages remain the place to check the snow right now.