Ouchi-juku is a post-town in a mountain in Minami-Aizu Province, Fukushima Prefecture. There are hip-roofed Japanese traditional private houses on the both sides of a road with a total length of about 450m.
In Edo period, Ouchi-juku was a post-town on Aizu-nishi Kaido which was a road from Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture to Imaichi in Tochigi Prefecture with a distance of 130km. People in Ouchi-juku lived by farming and lodging.
Still now, Ouchi-juku retains the atmosphere of the Edo period. The private houses have kaya-thatched roofs called Kayabuki. Kayabuki is a type of roof structure using Japanese pampas grass or cogon as the material for thatching.
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There is a museum in the location of Ouchi-juku Honjin that exhibits lifestyles of Edo period. Honjin was an inn officially designated as a lodging for a daimyo in the Edo period.
By using private houses, people there keep lodges, gift shops and buckwheat shops. Especially for the buckwheat shops, Takato soba is famous buckwheat noodles in Aizu province. Unique custom of Takato soba is to eat saba with long green onion instead of chopsticks. You can try this in Ouchi-juku.
If you would like to feel the atmosphere of the Edo period, Ouchi-juku is a choice of places to visit.
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