Shirakawa

Hi,

Is there a way to utilise the JR pass to travel between Takayama/Kanazawa/Kyoto and Shirakawa? The bus that travels between Takayama/Kanazawa and Shirakawa isn't covered by the JR pass so I'm not that keen on using it, but from what I read, using the JR pass involves a really convoluted trip around the region - hope I'm wrong though.

Planning either a day trip or just one night in Shirakawa depending on advice.

Thanks in advance!

The only way to get to Shirakawago without a car is via bus, and the only bus I know that goes to Shirakawago is the privately owned Hokutetsu/Nohi bus. Maybe there's a JR one too but I haven't heard of it. It's not that expensive to catch the bus (a return ticket to/from Kanazawa is around 2500 yen).

We found for 2 adults and a 5 year old that hiring a car from in Takayama was better value than paying for the bus. We were able to spend as much time as we liked and got to drive to the other grass hut villages. We did a 12 hour. We drove the tollway there to get to shirakawa quicker and then took the non toll back roads which was quiet and scenic.
We then used our JR pass to go to Kyoto via Kanazawa