Hinamizawa, the fictional village in which the manga/anime Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is set, is based on the village called Shirakawa-go located in Gifu prefecture, about an hours drive from Takayama. Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO heritage site famous for its distinctive Gassho-zukuri houses which have steeply angled thatched roofs. This page shows a comparison of some of the popular sites in Hinamizawa with photographs of their ‘real-life’ counterparts that I took during my trip to Shirakawa in April 2009.