Ouchi-juku
Important Preservation District For Groups Of Traditional Buildings (1981); Former Post Town On The Aizu Nishi Kaido · Shimogo, Fukushima
A former post town in the mountains of southern Aizu, where a single broad street is lined on both sides by heavy thatched-roof houses much as it was in the Edo period. Ouchi-juku was a stopping place on the Aizu-Nishi Kaido, a road linking the castle town of Aizu-Wakamatsu with the Kanto plain and Nikko, used by lords, officials and merchants. When the railways and new roads passed it by, the village was left behind, and its houses survived; in 1981 it was designated an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. Today the old inns and farmhouses are shops, restaurants and small lodgings, and clear water runs in channels beside the street. Ouchi-juku is known for negi soba, buckwheat noodles eaten with a whole leek instead of chopsticks. A stair at the top of the street climbs to a viewpoint over the thatched roofs, and in February snow lanterns light the street during a winter festival. The samurai city of Aizu-Wakamatsu and the cliffs of To-no-Hetsuri are close by.
Ouchi, Shimogo-machi, Shimogo, Fukushima, 969-5207, Japan
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the street is open at all times as a lived-in village, but shops, soba houses and the Honjin hall keep daytime hours, roughly 9 am to 4 or 5 pm, closing earlier in winter, with last orders before closing and some places shut on irregular days. The seasonal bus runs only some months and a few times a day, and taxis should be booked. Winter snow can close roads. Confirm current times, bus days and the snow festival dates before relying on them.