Gifu: Shirakawa-go, Hida Takayama and Mountain Traditions
Gifu is home to some of Japan's most storied mountain landscapes: the World Heritage gassho-zukuri farmhouses of Shirakawa-go, the preserved old town of Hida Takayama, the quiet castle-town streets of Hida Furukawa, and the hot springs of Gero Onsen.
In and around Takayama, Halal Gourmet Japan features restaurants serving Hida's local flavors in Muslim-friendly form: a long-established Western-style restaurant founded in the early Showa era offering sukiyaki made with halal chicken, handmade soba using 100% locally grown buckwheat flour, and a regional restaurant that describes preparing dishes without pork or alcohol for Muslim guests. Some soba restaurants describe letting guests pray on site before or after lunch. Halal meals may require an advance reservation, so check each listing's page before your visit.
Takayama is also a town for snacking and souvenirs: the listings include a fruit daifuku (soft rice cake) shop in the old town, a pudding shop on the morning market street, a miso rice cracker maker in Hida Furukawa with a history of more than a century, and a Muslim-owned bakery that describes using Japanese flour and Hokkaido butter with no alcohol, pork or animal fat. On the road toward Shirakawa-go, there is also a drive-in overlooking Lake Miboro.
For prayer, the listings include mosques such as Babul Islam Masjid (Gifu Mosque), Fatiha Masjid in Kakamigahara, Ogaki Jum'a Masjid and Al Hidayah Masjid in Toki, along with prayer spaces at the tourist information center in front of Hida-Furukawa Station, Hida Furukawa Sakura Bussankan and Gifu Miyako Hotel. Qibla direction and other facilities are noted on each page.
Use the Halal Gourmet Japan map to line up meals and prayer along your route, and take your time over Shirakawa-go's farmhouses, Takayama's old streets and the slow pace of the Hida region.
Content reviewed: August 20, 2026
