Modern life has intruded: traditional thatched-roof houses on stilts have given way to corrugated iron topped by power lines and satellite TV dishes.

We arrived in Shirakawa one weekend in April, the month when the whole town turns out to build a new thatched-roof house in the rice fields.

"Living in a thatched-roof house is therapeutic," said Ronald Hobson, the founder of a London company.

Once inside the gates I saw two rows of thatched-roof houses, and everywhere the leatherclad barbarians.

They travel in small dug out canoes and live in thatched-roof houses made from trees and palm fronds of the nearby forest.

We pass aging thatched-roof houses and smell twigs burning.

The ceiling of the thatched-roof house where I was lying on a bed was blurry.

Two images that suggest thatched-roof houses levitating against lurid skies signal a greater craziness.

Bracklin was little more than a collection of a dozen small, thatched-roof houses clustered behind the inn.

The Lattings sold marsh reeds for thatched-roof houses.