What Parts Of Japan; Rustic/Historic

[arnadstephen]

_) Besides Kyoto what parts of Japan are
considered rustic and historic

_) Were they do "old" periods in films

[senseiman]

I live in Himeji, which is west of Kyoto, it is a very historic and somewhat rustic place. We have a very fine castle built during the period of Japan's civil wars. There are also a lot of ancient temples both in town and in the surrounding mountains, many of them more than 1 thousand years old. Himeji is also one of the few places outside of Nara to have Kofun, or burial mounds, that pre date Buddhism. They film a lot of period dramas here, and Tom Cruise was in town last year for 3 days to make his upcoming movie "The Last Samurai".

Heading west from Himeji, you'll pass through Okayama, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures, which are also very historical places.

[Mandylion]

There are lots of places with great amounts of history attached to them in Japan. It just depends on what you want to focus on. Even in the small town where I live they put out a big thick history book of about 700 pages.

Basically there is the front and back of Japan. The front is the industrialized, big city, bullet train line connected, Pacific Ocean side of the country. That is where everyone goes. The back side is poorer, underdeveloped and closer to what I think you mean by rustic. You can find old buildings and protected neighborhoods in many rural areas.

As for kufun, if you have one that old in Himeji, it is rare. But kufun as an element of funeral construction spanned a very long time. I know of several outside of Kansai and one near me has part of a cement plant built on it. Only the really old or rare kofun get protected it seems. Too bad.

Himeji is a great place to go to. Nara is nice, Kurashiki, Uchiko in Ehime, lots of places up north like Takayama. They just tend to be out of the way and take a lot of time to get to. So no one knows about them.

[senseiman]

Thats a good summation of things, Mandylion. There is that 1,000 kilometre industrial rustbelt stretching from Tokyo to Hiroshima that is about as ugly and crowded as it gets, but there is a parralel belt of rural Japan running just a few miles north of it that has a lot of nice things to see.

Its a real shame they built a cement plant on that Kofun, they really ought to protect these things more.

[arnadstephen]

WHAT SMALL TOWN DO YOU LIVE IN ?

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There are lots of places with great amounts of history attached to them in Japan. It just depends on what you want to focus on. Even in the small town where I live they put out a big thick history book of about 700 pages.

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[Hanada Tattsu]

Japan is technically divided into two sections, Modern Japan and Ancient Japan. The cities under Modern Japan are places like Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, Yokohama, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Fukouka, Kawasaki, and Nagano.

Places that fall under Ancient Japan are places like Nara.

Parts that fall in both are places like Kyoto, and places that don't fall in any category are places like Nagasaki, Naha, and some other small cities and towns.

If you want to visit rustic places, then you can go to all cities. Nagoya and Osaka, which used to have modern parts, but they were all destroyed in the air raids of World War II, still host Nagoya and Osaka Castle, which you can visit.

Kyoto and Nara are wonderful for ancient shrines and temples, go there.