Can I Still Get Connected with Japan Prepaid SIM/Pocket WiFi? / Case 8: The Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go Gassho Style Houses (Gifu)

Checking map, contacting with people, searching for something, etc. etc.
Internetting is essential, especially when you travel abroad.

Japanese 3 major mobile phone companies NTT DoCoMo, au (KDDI), and SoftBank provide the maps, showing how far each company’s frequency reach.

Case 8: Shirakawa-go Gassho Style Houses (Gifu)

Shirakawa-go is one of the most unique places in Japan famous for its Shirakawa-go Gassho Style Houses, or Shirakawa-go Gassho Zukuri (白川郷合掌造り). Along with Gokayama, a village the houses located, Shirakawa-go Gassho Style Houses have been registered as a UNESCO world heritage in December 1995.

According to a page focusing on Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama at the UNESCO world heritage website, they are described as the following:

Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama

Located in a mountainous region that was cut off from the rest of the world for a long period of time, these villages with their Gassho-style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are the only examples of their kind in Japan. Despite economic upheavals, the villages of Ogimachi, Ainokura and Suganuma are outstanding examples of a traditional way of life perfectly adapted to the environment and people’s social and economic circumstances.

*This paragraph is sourced from UNESCO world heritage website under the license of CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Keep traditional ways and live in that tradition. That attitude may be attracting people all over the world for a long time.

Even though if we do not get interested in such, simply, isn’t it very exciting that we can stay at night in a world heritage by the way?

The Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go Gassho Style Houses are one the most popular tourist spots in Gifu prefecture at TripAdvisor. You can read over 500 feedback in English over Shirakawa-go villages at TripAdvisor website.

As for connectivity in the area, you may need to pay much attention as Shirakawa-go is located in the middle of mountainous area (as you can see on the Google Map).

But don’t worry. I guess that because of Shirakawa-go is a world heritage and has attracted tourists, you can get connected exactly at the spot with whichever provider you choose.

Other than that, if you want to keep using the internet on the way of Tohoku Expressway, one of major expressways to Shirakawa-go, you may be better off to choose networks provided by NTT Docomo or au (KDDI) as they are relatively more stable than SoftBank’s.

Although they are available only in Japanese,
I just put links to network compatibility maps offered by them in one place.
If you want to check it through the links below by yourself, put Japanese word “白川郷” into their search windows.

NTT DoCoMo
SoftBank *Hard to search by yourself alone
au (KDDI)

If they can not help you at all, or if you have a specific area to be checked,
feel free to send me an inquiry through the link below or just comment here.
LightPocket Website Contact Form

Good trip starts from good preparation.
Hope your travel in Japan will be memorable.

Shirakawa Village Official Website:Shirakawa-go tourist information

[Disclaimer]
The contents of this article are from the data taken as of October 7th, 2018, and each company’s connectivity is changing (mostly improving) monthly.

lightpocket

Published: October 7, 2018