Ōuchi-juku

I found long-forgotten pictures while I was looking for data. This is called Ōuchi-juku (in Fukushima, Japan). It is used to be an important post town, and is famous for the numerous traditional thatched buildings from the Edo Period. Now buildings have been preserved well and it has been a popular tourist spot.

I visited there in 2008 with my parents. Old buildings are used as shops, restaurants and so on. You would be happy just browsing at shops' items. People enjoyed buying local crafts and food. 'Negi soba' is the famous dish there. 'Negi' means green onion and 'soba' means noodle. It's very unique and interesting, because this 'Negi' serves a dual purpose; a cutlery and a spice. You use a stick onion in place of chopsticks! I tried to scoop a bunch of noodles, but I struggled it and eventually I gave up to use onion to eat...

It has a strong impact, doesn't it? Though eating with 'Negi' is not a local tradition. It's just the restaurant owner's idea to boost the development of the area and attract people. It succeeded and became famous. 

What I bought at a shop was this, 'Kiseru'; an old Japanese smoking pipe. Hahaha... I am not smoking, but I thought this is cool;) Typically Kiseru is made from metal and bamboo (or wood). It always reminds me of a Japanese old lady, who was my father's old acquaintance. She is dead now, but she always tightened her hair, wore Kimono and smoked tabaco. She was like a strong lady who time-tripped from the Meiji era.

images source; Wikipedia

All in all, it was very nice trip to Ōuchi-juku. I enjoyed feeling an old town's atmosphere and tasting local food very much.