Step out of yoinn — our one-group-a-day machiya in Gojo, Nara — and walk a few minutes. Somewhere along the way, the pace of time changes. That is Shinmachi-dori: a street about 900 metres long, designated a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings.
Four hundred years, side by side
Along its 900 metres stand buildings from the Edo, Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods, one beside the next. It is not a museum — people still live here, still keep shop. Of some 330 buildings, 164 are designated traditional structures; yet there are almost no signs, almost no guidance. Just old houses, standing quietly in a row. In 2010, the street was named an Important Preservation District.
Japan's oldest dated house
Partway down, one building stands out. The Kuriyama House, built in 1607. It is thought to be the oldest private house in Japan whose date of construction is known. It is still lived in, so the interior isn't open — but even from the street, its presence is enough to stop you.
At the end of the street, the Yoshino river
Walk Shinmachi-dori to its end and you come out onto the banks of the Yoshino river. From late March to early May, some 200 carp streamers swim above the water — a sight many people come especially to see.
The railway that never ran
Near the middle of the street, moss-covered arched piers still stand. This is the old Gojo–Shingu line: construction began in 1939 to link Gojo with Shingu, but the war intervened, and in the end no rails were ever laid — a phantom, unfinished line. Suzaku, the film by director Naomi Kawase built around this railway, won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
A 250-year-old townhouse, and a course meal
Gojo Genbei is a restaurant in a 250-year-old merchant house, used just as it stands. Course meals built around Gojo vegetables picked that morning, and Yamato beef, are served at both lunch and dinner. Reservations are preferred, so it's best to check before you go.
How to walk it
It's a street that asks for no plan. Pause before a building that catches your eye, rest a while by the river — that alone makes for good time. A few minutes from yoinn, it suits the morning of a check-out, or the evening before a check-in, equally well.
If you're exploring the wider area from here, the journal on The Other Nara covers the drive south through Koyasan and Asuka. The Asuka-Fujiwara World Heritage article is worth reading before visiting.