An old town where koi swim beside the street
Tsuwano is a small former castle town in a mountain valley of western Japan, where colorful koi, ornamental carp, swim in a stone channel running beside white-walled streets. Stroll with the fish, then step into a church with a tatami-mat floor and the old school where samurai children studied. It is about two hours from Hiroshima by shinkansen and limited express, so it suits a night's stay or a stop on a trip through western Japan.
A street of white plaster walls and old samurai houses, with hundreds of colorful koi swimming in the stone channel that runs alongside. In early summer, irises bloom along the water. It is about 10 minutes on foot from Tsuwano Station.
A small Catholic church from the early 1930s where the floor inside is covered with tatami mats instead of rows of pews, lit by colored light from the stained glass. As on any tatami floor, you take off your shoes at the entrance.
The school of the local samurai clan, opened in the Edo period, where the sons of samurai families studied. The hall where they trained with spears and swords still stands, along with a storehouse for the school's books.
A museum of Mitsumasa Anno, a picture-book artist who grew up in Tsuwano and is known around the world for his wordless picture books. Inside are his paintings, a recreated wooden schoolroom from his childhood and a small planetarium. It is right by Tsuwano Station.