- A travel guide for visiting the Japanese mountain town
of Ouchi-juku in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
This video, it's part of our series on Fukushima.
If you wanna see more videos on Fukushima,
you'll find links in the description below
but in this video,
I'm gonna tell you everything you need to know
to visit Ouchi-juku, including how to get here,
what to do when you're here,
and of course what to eat.
But first let's start with a little historical background.
So the history of this town,
why is it here,
Ouchi-juku in the Edo Period,
served as a post town on the road
between Nikko and the Aizu region,
this mountain region of Fukushima.
The feudal lords in the Edo Period,
which was like the 1600s to the 1800s,
they were required to spend every other year in Edo,
the former name of Tokyo.
And that's a long journey.
And they would have to stop
and they would have to rest.
And so, actually this town
is where the feudal lord would rest.
And by the way,
all of the houses are about the same size
except for this one.
This house is bigger than all of the other houses
because this is the house
that the feudal lord would stay in.
The other thing you'll wanna know about this house,
if you're coming here,
is that's where the public bathrooms are in Ouchi-juku,
behind the back.
So the roofs of all these houses are pretty unique in Japan.
They used to build houses more like this,
but not today.
These houses are built of a local Japanese grass,
in a thatched style.
They're really good for keeping the snow off.
The snow actually doesn't leak through,
but they have a strict control
on smoking cigarettes in this town
because they don't want anything to catch on fire.
And the only time they allow fireworks
is during winter festival,
'cause when the houses are covered in snow,
then nothing can catch on fire.
But these roofs are amazingly thick,
it's almost like two feet thick of this grass.
I bet that takes a lot of work.
One of the first things you're gonna wanna do
when you get here
is check out the viewpoint
for some amazing views of this town.
To check out that viewpoint,
just head to the end of the road near the hill.
There's two ways up,
there's a staircase right here,
closed in the winter.
There's this other way up.
I will point out,
it can be quite slippery if you're here during snow time
so make sure to use the handrail
but it is worth it
because the views from up on that hill
are really breathtaking.
The 48 houses, they've been converted
into things for tourists,
souvenirs, cafes, bed and breakfast.
This one here, it's a really neat souvenir shop.
And they're not cheap and crappy souvenirs
you might get in Central Tokyo.
There are a lot of handmade things here.
Here, they have wooden crafts,
they have little cups.
These guys are really cute.
And also at this shop, on display,
she's got some pictures
of what the snow festival looks like in full swing,
where you can see these snow statues
that they built.
They can be pretty big.
But you know what,
seeing the actual thing
is so much better than just pictures.
Here's a Doraemon.
A little smaller than when they've had snowy years,
and here's little igloo,
bigger years when they have more snow,
I think they're bigger.
Do I fit?
Let's see.
Almost the perfect size.
Ooh, my head's cold.
One of the great things about exploring Ouchi-juku,
you can't get lost,
'cause all of the houses,
they're just on a central main street,
but a defining characteristic of this main street
is there's a stream that runs down the main street
and there are steps from each of the houses
underneath the snow.
I'm not gonna go down there.
But the steps are built here
so that the residents could wash things
like vegetables and things like that in the stream,
before they were running water in pipes.
Actually running water,
but before pipes.
And the residents today
still use the stream to wash things.
Here, you see a local resident washing some chestnuts.
In addition to washing,
they also use it to make things cold,
the water is quite cold.
This house has been converted into a restaurant
and they specialize in soba noodles.
Soba noodles, we'll find all throughout the town.
We're gonna have one of the famous noodles,
negi soba noodles, in a little bit.
But they've also got some seats in front
where you can sit out here and drink some hot tea
and they've got another cool character over here.
This is not just a Japanese character,
but they've got Olaf from "Frozen."
Speaking of soba,
there's one particular soba dish
that this town is famous for, negi soba.
Soba like this.
What's a negi?
I'm gonna tell you in a little bit
'cause we're gonna visit the shop
that originated this dish
and made it so famous in this town,
but you can find it in many of these guest houses.
Just look for a big sign with the negi soba.
So one of the coolest shops here is Kanoya,
and out here in the front of the shop,
they've got all of these different fabric art things.
They've got some peaches here,
a symbol of prosperity, I think.
They've got little things here for the Chinese zodiac.
If we come over this way,
you can get fruit, you can get persimmons,
you can get strawberries.
Actually, we picked up one of these
to bring back home to California.
And then if you prefer something cute
to bring back a souvenir with the name of the town on it,
over here they've got a whole bunch
of different original characters
and these original characters,
they have the name of the town on it, Ouchi-juku.
But of course, probably,
I think one of the most symbolic things
to bring back from any place in Japan
is an owl.
Hello, Mr. Owl.
So on the side of the shop,
they've got Japanese pickles
and they've got hot tea.
This is really
nice of her.
And delicious, on a hot day.
She's so nice.
She's offering one to the camera operator.
For OC girl.
So while we're drinking the hot tea,
we can admire these Japanese pickles
that are right here.
This shop sells Japanese pickles
and here you can sample all the Japanese pickles
and then you can buy them right here.
This is amazing and so welcoming.
Definitely stop in this shop
if you come to Ouchi-juku.
If you're looking for a tasty dessert here,
and maybe you're here in the summer season,
then check out the Persimmons Softo Cream.
Persimmons are local to the region
and are quite delicious here.
So to get to Ouchi-juku, you've got two options.
There's a bus that'll bring you here
from Yunokami Onsen Station
but it only runs,
kind of in the summertime or big touristy seasons.
Your other option is to take a car.
And actually, I recommend bringing a car.
This is a great region to have a car,
and this is the neat road up to Ouchi-juku.
And if you have a car, then you can also kinda stop
and admire the nature and the beautiful winter streams
here in the winter.
And I'm sure this stream
is just as pretty in the summertime too.
So speaking of the negi soba,
if you wanna try the restaurant that originated negi soba,
it is this one right here, Misawa Restaurant.
This is one of the buildings closest to the parking lot
or the bus stop.
Sliding door if you don't know how to get in,
just slide it and I'll see you inside.
So sitting down in a very nice table in this restaurant.
It's a really neat place,
coming in to one of these old houses.
But here's the menu
and something really interesting about the menu,
there's a few different types of soba.
What everybody comes here for is the negi soba,
and I'll talk about this more as we get it.
There's also some that don't have soup or sauce,
there's fish.
And something that I thought was really interesting,
is if you just wanna get a negi.
The negi, you can just buy that for 110 yen
or about one US dollar.
And another really neat thing
about dining here in the winter,
these tables have these blankets that go under them
and they're actually heated underneath,
and there's a little plug you can control the temperature.
My legs are nice and toasty.
No visit to Ouchi-juku would be complete
without the negi soba
and I told you, I would tell you what the negi soba is.
This is a negi, this is a leek.
This is a specially grown leek.
They grow them specially in this region,
in the curved shape,
to be used as a chopstick to eat buckwheat noodles.
These are served cold
and its got bonito flake, its got Daikon radish.
We can stir it up before we eat it
and I have no chopsticks on this table,
I just have this.
Mmm.
(slurping)
I've been practicing my slurping muscles here in Japan
because it's compliments to the chef to slurp the noodles.
The noodles have a very clean taste.
(crunching)
And you eat the negi as you eat the noodles,
which is really kinda spicy.
And as you eat the negi more,
the flavor changes the further you go up on it.
Now how do I know that?
'Cause I was here two days ago and had this as well.
It was that good.
We had to come back.
So when you come to Ouchi-juku,
make sure you get the dish the region is famous for,
the negi soba.
In addition to soba noodles,
this region also specializes in sake,
Japanese rice wine.
If you wanna try some at the shop,
they have a special brew that they make,
it's been aged under the snow for a hundred days,
800 yen for a pretty big cup inside the restaurant.
And if you just wanna try that sake
and you wanna bring back a whole bottle,
there's a shop right next to the negi soba shop
that sells the sake.
The one-year sake, 2,500 for the bottle.
The 10-year sake, 10,000 yen for the bottle.
So that one's about a hundred bucks.
I think I'll go for this one.
And the last thing to do
is watch more Yellow Productions videos.
I've got a whole bunch more videos on Fukushima,
including things to know and things to eat.
You can click either of these videos to watch them
or find links in the description below.
As usual, I won't say goodbye,
because I'll see you in the next video.