One of the places that we really wanted to visit during our Japan 2022 trip was Gujo Hachiman. This small riverside town is situated in Gifu Prefecture, about 1.5 hours away from Nagoya. The rural town is visited particularly for its waterways and hilltop castle, and also for the large koi that inhabit a small waterway along an alley. We ended up dropping the place from our 2022 itinerary though, as we only had a few days to spend in Nagoya.
For this 2025 trip, I was determined to try to visit this rural town, but I soon found that day trips to the town were usually coupled with visits to Takayama and also Shirakawa-Go, both of which we’d already covered in the 2022 trip. I guess that makes sense, because while I could try to get to Gujo Hachiman on my own using public transportation, it just is that much less of a hassle to hop onto a guided tour and visit a few other places in the area. Even more so when the day trip I booked through Agoda cost very little: just SGD44!
The Nagoya area had been seeing a lot of rain since Day 07 Friday, and while it had mostly stopped after Saturday, when we got to the town yesterday Sunday there was still a slight drizzle.
The tour spent about an hour in this small town, which is enough time to visit several bridges that cross the Yoshida River, but not enough if you also want to visit the castle or really check out the numerous quaint shops, including those that manufacture the food replicas we see at restaurants. If you’re coming here on your own, I reckon you would want to allocate at least 2–3 hours.
The day trip continues on to Takayama in the next post!