Last night, we spent a happy time with people who would become relatives soon and slept well and truly.
By the way, we were going to drop in at or stay in Itoshiro village for a day, which was known as the home of mountain stream fishing. The mineral-rich subsoil water from Mt. Hakusan pours into the Itoshiro river and it makes the river abundant in fish. Naturally we'd enjoy fishing there, but because it had been raining in the Hakusan mountain region for a week, the amount of water was dangerously high. The fishing became impossible and so we visited Gokayama historical village, which is notable for its distinctive roof structure of houses called the "Gassho dukuri" style. "Gassho" means the shape of hands when people pray for something in a shrine or somewhere like that. Can you imagine? Both hands put together palm to palm. My expression might be incomplete and I hope you'll see them in the picture below.
This region is surrounded by mountains and has been isolated for centuries. The feudal lord of this region made people produce gunpowder evading the inspection of the tycoon in power at that time. Actually, even now, this region is known as one of most snowy areas in Japan. People would build such style houses so as not to be flattened by the weight of snow.
(Vocabulary)
mountain stream 渓流
river-bed water / subsoil flow[water] / underflow water 伏流水
gunpowder 火薬
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