Visiting Tsumago, an age-old town in Japan.

 Before the winter comes, I visited Tsumago, a town located in the Chubu region in Japan. Since it's on a mountain and hard to get in while snow covers there, I decided to head to see it :)

 Prior to embarking on a trip there, I ate this :) What do you think it is?! Actually this brownish thing is kind of sticky rice with a sauce based on soy and sugar, which means it's not sweets like cakes yet sweety. Many Japanese foods are cooked with sugar and I like it a lot ;) Oh, the name of this food is "gohei-mochi". You can't find it in Tokyo or other regions but there, it's a local food :D

 Okay, we're here :)

 Unlike last time I was there (I think it was 2009 or so), I found many tourists including people from other countries. Plus, I saw  a  group of coverage for TV, they seem from Europe. It stunned to me such a rural town is now featured.

 Beauty was everywhere, indeed. It's not as-is, they keep maintaining houses and stuff. Most Japanese architectures are made of woods so we can't keep it like forever. That's why we repair it every now and then. Personally, I think it's a good way to do it, elders give their skills to the children like taking over.

 The weather was good enough, but a bit cold due to its high elevation. I regretted coming here with T-shirt like everyday, haha.

 Woods. There is a whole bunch of woods surround the town. So naturally, they make many kinds of things, from box to paper by wood ;)

 What's that?! It was hung up under an eave of a house. Let's look what it's like...

 You can see them along the eave. I hit one of these when I tried to enter the shop, haha.

Sweet chestnut is widely gathered and eaten there. I bought a pack of them of course :D

 They have a place to eat it with green tea though, I didn't eat there since it was getting dark and colder than arrived at Tsumago.

 The sunset, I enjoyed mountains changing their color from green to bright orange.

 By the time I finished seeing, the sun had already gone and became dark. "Next time," I said to myself, "I would like to visit warm and calm season". I drove back to my home by using google maps app :)