Hours to explore Shirakawago by foot

Hi, would be traveling to Shirakawago from Nagoya & planning to take the Gifu Bus that departs at 9am from Nagoya and arrives directly to Shirakawago by 12noon. Can Shirakawago be explored by foot within 4 hours or less? As I'm planning to take the bus back to Nagoya at 4pm. I'm only going there for sightseeing and not planning to have an overnight due to time constraint. Thank you very much!

Yes, unless you want to explore the town in more detail, four hours are enough.

Depending on your interest, four hours will be heaps. Two hours is enough for most people. (Based on experience with lots of people, and I know some people love the place and want to stay longer, so I'm talking averages.)

Thank you so much for the info. I have another question though. How likely it is to experince snow fall or will the village still be covered by snow around early March? I would like to experience snow fall. I have been searching photos posted in instagram around that time and i see that there is still snow. But i'm not sure whether those photos were really taken around that time. I will probably be there on March 5, 2017. Thank you once again.

It is rare but not unheard of for Shirakawago to have no snow in early March. On average, there is still a meter of snow, but in the last 10 years there has been a year or two with almost no snow.

I see. Thank you again for the info.