Ōuchi-juku

About this place

Ōuchi-juku was a small post station of the Edo period on the Aizu Nishi Kaidō road and now lies in the town of Shimogō in Minamiaizu District, Fukushima Prefecture, about 19 km south of Aizu-Wakamatsu in a straight line. It is famous for its rows of traditional thatched buildings. Its buildings served as shops, inns and restaurants for travellers, and its people combined farming with serving the road. It lost its role as a post station when the railways arrived, but many of its houses were preserved as they were, and in 1981 it was designated a preservation district for traditional buildings; it is now one of Fukushima's best-known sights. The main street runs for about 450 metres, lined on both sides by houses with tall, thick thatched roofs facing the road, with small water channels in front. From a viewpoint at the end of the street, the long row of roofs appears among the mountains, covered in snow in winter. Visitors wander among the shops and soba restaurants; the town is known for soba eaten with a long green onion instead of chopsticks. They climb to the viewpoint to see the whole street.