Explore the Castle Town of Inuyama, Inuyama, Japan

My plan was to spend two days in Inuyama City, but because the typhoon left me with no choice but to shorten my stay, I spent the one day I had exploring the city's castle town.

Just a 7-minute walk from where I was staying was Honmachi-dori, the street which leads to Inuyama Castle. But Honmachi-dori is not just any ordinary street, it is a street flanked with many old, interesting buildings—a street with an old-timey feel.

One of the old buildings along Honmachi-dori is the Old Isobe House 旧磯部家住宅, a restored merchant house, which is open to the public from 9AM to 5PM daily for free. This house was owned by a family who ran a kimono shop. Looking at it from the front, it looks small. But don't let that fool you. Let it fool the tax man: the narrower the front, the lesser the tax, because taxes in the Edo Period depended on just the frontage width. The Old Isobe House is narrow, but long—typical of machiya townhouses (shop and residence in one). 

The property consists of the main house, a back parlor, and storehouses. The main house is what we can see from the street. This was built sometime between 1865 to 1868. The back parlor was built in 1870, and the storehouses, which are situated at the far end of the property, was built in 1875. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).