32. Narai

On the way back we stopped at the tiny town of Narai, which for some reason seems to be completely off the tourist radar screens. It's one of several towns in the picturesque Kisu River Valley. These towns used to be resting stops on the main road between Kyoto and Tokyo, so for centuries the nobles of Kyoto would make annual trips along the road to pay respects to the shogun based in Tokyo (I should point out now that Tokyo was actually called Edo for most of its history). So these towns thrived off of selling provisions and accomodation to the traveling nobles and their retinue. Once more direct routes were established, these towns sank into oblivion, and are now time capsules of old Japan. Apparently a couple of these towns have gone the tourism kitsch way of Kurashiki, but we only went to Narai and there was nary a tourist or souvenir stand in sight. In fact, I don't think we saw any people generally, unless we poked our heads into one of the buildings we were walking by, hoping it was a shop instead of someone's house. By the way, I'm in one of the photos above but my shirt blends perfectly with the surroundings, so my camoflauge getup may make me hard to spot.