Shirakawa-go Bus Terminal — Local services in Shirakawa

This is basically the only bus station available here in Shirakawa-go. There is only 1 tourist counter in which you can buy bus tickets or get information from the operator. There is a display with bus information, hours and status -with English language as well. At the entrance, on the left, you can find a local stamp as well in case you are collecting stamps during your Japan trip.

Please note that during peak seasons this place is extremely crowded so I would suggest to buy ticket in advance online and come here just to get on your bus. When I visited there were no available seats, a long line for the counter information and it was super dirty as well due to the...

The buses leave for Takayama every hour but some are reserved seating and some aren't. The reserved seating buses sell out in advance during high season. The queues for the unreserved buses start 40+ minutes before the bus is scheduled to leave. There are people who make announcements in English about what line to stand in. Also if there are more than 40 extra people waiting for the unreserved bus, they'll add a second bus. In my opinion, this is a poorly managed bus system. There should be more buses for the volume of people. A much better system would be all unreserved seating buses that leave every half hour in...

The waiting room is a bit small, but all the important information is easily visible there. There's also an announcement system telling you which buses are coming in and out. The stamp area has this poll about where tourists are from, which I found pretty interesting. If you're here on a day trip and you have luggage, there are coin lockers in the bus terminal. I was easily able to get a locker for my 26in suitcase when I arrived at 9AM. The large locker here is a LOT bigger than the "large" size in typical train stations, so it's really handy if you have big luggage or you're a group with several...