Nouhi Bus Shirakawago Light-up Bus Ticket Purchase Guide

Post date: 2025-09-28 | Categories: Japan Travel

Nouhi Bus is a bus company based in Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, providing highway bus, route bus, sightseeing bus tours, and guided taxi services. During the Shirakawago illumination period in January and February each year, Nouhi Bus offers sightseeing bus tour services from Takayama City to Shirakawago. Taking these sightseeing buses is the primary way for tourists to attend the Shirakawago light-up event. This article introduces the reservation method for Nouhi Bus during the Shirakawago Light-up event, serving as a supplementary article to the “Complete Guide to Shirakawago Light-up: Dates, Transportation, Ticket Purchase, Accommodation, Itinerary Planning Detailed Guide“.

2026 Nouhi Bus Shirakawago Light-up Sightseeing Bus Tours

During the 2026 Shirakawago light-up period, Nouhi Bus will operate two sightseeing bus tours on each illumination day: “Course A Shirakawago Light-up Bus” and “Course B Shirakawago Light-up Bus with Observatory Ticket”. Course B includes the Tenshukaku Observatory ticket. Based on previous years, each tour generally has 1-3 buses, but Course B, which includes the Tenshukaku Observatory, might only have one bus.

Here are the webpages for Nouhi Bus’s 2026 Shirakawago Light-up Bus Tours:

1. “Course B Shirakawago Light-up Bus with Observatory Ticket”

This bus tour includes the Tenshukaku Observatory ticket, but requires walking up and down the mountain. The round trip takes about 1 hour, and the path can be difficult due to snow. This bus tour does not include dinner, but offers some Shirakawago local specialty snacks. This bus tour departs at 15:10 from Takayama. The boarding and return drop-off location is the Nouhi Bus Center next to JR Takayama Station. The price is 15,000 JPY for adults (12 years and above), 13,000 JPY for children (6 to 12 years). Children under 6 are free but do not get a separate seat; if a separate seat is required, a child ticket must be purchased. Here is the itinerary and schedule for this bus tour:

Outbound: Takayama [15:10] > Shirakawago [16:20]
Return: Shirakawago [19:45]> Takayama [20:45]

2. “Course A Shirakawago Light-up Bus”

This bus tour only includes round-trip bus tickets to Shirakawago. It does not provide dinner or snacks, but includes the “Gassho-zukuri Minkaen” admission ticket. The departure time is 15:40 from Takayama. The boarding and return drop-off location is the Nouhi Bus Center next to JR Takayama Station. The price is 12,000 JPY for adults, 10,000 JPY for children. Children under 6 are free but do not get a separate seat; if a separate seat is required, a child ticket must be purchased. Here is the itinerary and schedule for this bus tour:

Outbound: Takayama [15:40] > Shirakawago [16:40]
Return: Shirakawago [19:30] > Takayama [20:30]

The boarding point for Nouhi Bus’s Shirakawago Light-up Bus Tours in Takayama City is the Bus Center next to Takayama Station, and the return trip also ends at the boarding point. For information about the Shirakawago Light-up and light-up sightseeing bus tours from other bus companies, please refer to this article: “Complete Guide to Shirakawago Light-up: Dates, Transportation, Ticket Purchase, Accommodation, Itinerary Planning Detailed Guide“.

Nouhi Bus Reservation: How to Purchase Shirakawago Light-up Bus Tour Tickets

Many tourists choose Takayama as their base for attending the Shirakawago Light-up, making Nouhi Bus’s Shirakawago Light-up sightseeing bus tours the most popular. Bus tour tickets are sold online on a first-come, first-served basis. In previous years, tickets for all illumination days went on sale at the same time, but starting from 2025, this practice changed. Now, tickets for different dates go on sale at different times.

Here are the sale start times (Japan Time) for tickets for each illumination day of the 2026 Nouhi Bus Shirakawago Light-up Bus Tours:

Ticket Date	Sale Start Time
January 12, 2026	October 3, 2025, 14:00
January 18, 2026	October 10, 2025, 14:00
January 25, 2026	October 17, 2025, 14:00
February 1, 2026	October 24, 2025, 14:00

Since 2024, tickets for Nouhi Bus’s Shirakawago Light-up Bus Tours have been sold exclusively on the Japanese bus ticket purchase websites “Hassha Orai Net” and Japan Bus Online. The “Hassha Orai Net” website is only available in Japanese, but Japan Bus Online has Chinese and English versions. The operation is not difficult. For the purchase process, please refer to the tutorials in these two articles:

The online travel platform KKday also sold Nouhi Bus’s light-up bus tour tickets last year, but it is unknown if they will continue this year. Here is the link to purchase Nouhi Bus light-up bus tour tickets on KKday:

【Limited Observatory Option】2025 Light-up Bus Half-Day Tour | Departing from Takayama・Guanteed Seat

If you ultimately cannot secure bus tickets, you can also join one-day or two-day local tours organized by travel agencies to visit Shirakawago for the light-up. These Local Tours can be booked on Klook and KKday.