Mino (Gifu) Morning View | Beautiful Edo-period Japanese Shopping Street

good morning everybody and welcome to mino in gifu prefecture we're going to be taking a walk before 7 a.m or i think it's 7 a.m right now and show you this ancient village small town that has survived some pretty tough times including right now how you doing everybody this is a fantastic little town that is on a lot of people's uh itinerary they put it here because they've seen the pictures of it they've heard stories about it uh it's something that a lot of people will compare to mistakenly to kyoto in a way this isn't gifu so it's not that far away actually we're kind of in the center uh just on the other side of lake biwa i guess you would say close to mino is seki city which is very famous for swords and knives as well as inuyama which is in the aichi prefecture side not too far away from nagoya so the probably the biggest city closest to here is nagoya this area is picturesque to say the least and and there's almost nobody awake including myself i just got up i have about 30 minutes to take you around and show you this amazing village and if you have any questions definitely ask away and if we can get if we can get to 700 likes i'll take you into the hotel room where we're staying now mino is very famous for its washi paper if you're looking for that you could go down to kochi that's where my my friend rajeer has a paper factory and he makes paper for ken gokuma and a lot of his creations whenever he needs washi paper he'll go to razier's place but mino's paper is also very well renowned and it's that artistic spirit that keeps this city alive which trade with amino paper and tourism but this looks like a storehouse it looks very thick you can tell from these doors here whenever they had goods that had value they would put it in these kinds of storehouses so if there were a fire it would be protected it is also famous for some stylish coffee shops which probably aren't open and some ryokan one of which we're staying in that goes back to the edo period all the doors are shuttered there really aren't a lot of tourists here we're the only two people in our hotel and uh we got an upgrade so i i'll have to come back here and stay uh properly beautiful walk beautiful morning lisa oh such a beautiful such beautiful buildings george lopez myones fund might be hard to find at this time of morning but we're on the lookout panagiotis s welcome to the travelers it's awesome eugene holbrook's here pearman explodes i like it kojikaze welcome irvin welcome and archon 89 we definitely need some coffee look at the way that they've done the vending machines you see this the one thing that i love about these um historical towns is they they understand the importance of not sticking out too much so they've turned the color of this vending machine brown which blends in with the wooden buildings a lot of these buildings go back to the edo period and you can see how big that they are these are uh jitaku or people's homes but instead of in tokyo today they've cut the plots that people would live on into half and then into thirds so in tokyo you have very narrow plots of land and they build it higher here they have more wider plots of land and they build it just two stories and an entire household probably more than one families within that family are are in there the brothers family the grandfather's family my family the one thing that makes the city a little bit tough is the mix of tourism and everyday life of the people who live here it kind of does mix together it's tough because these these that road that i'm going to be taking you back in about five minutes cars travel along it and it's just it doesn't look so good to have these cars on it but it really can't be helped so when you're walking around you want the whole street to yourself especially when there are a lot of tourists here but the cars will come by and it's slightly irritating i can't be helped you just have to remember that these are still these are streets that are just used um as well by locals to do do stuff drive driving around and people driving through i don't see any stray cats or pigeons for that matter very peaceful it's an announcement going on yes oh there's a sake brewery i can't even understand the message it's so echoed out look at that unique building this sake brewery and you can tell from that uh dried ball there look at that building that is so unique the roof on the left and the right of it sticking up like this i guess to separate it keep the ninjas from roof walking that's not gonna stop the ninja if they want sake they're gonna get that sake i guess we could take a quick look seeing inside this looks like it's somebody's family residence the kosaka family residence here architectural feature of this building national important cultural property this house was built by the kosaka family wealth and wealthy merchants who have been making sake for generations this building has a unique arc shaped roof this and the fact that the edo period architectural style is retained throughout the house's construction from the front building to the sake cellar at the back makes this house invaluable while some interior parts were remodeled in the meiji area the beautiful edo appearance of the house has been well preserved and exemplified in the shop counter and fixtures it's a shame that's closed but if you do come here at regular hours it won't be you can actually i think buy some sake inside there we were in it what's called the go-to travel campaign and i was talking with the hotel owner and he was telling me that um despite the travel campaign there's really not too too many people coming a lot of the people that were coming to meno were foreign tourists so the domestic tourism is not it's not quite this quite there yet but they are getting people coming to stay and that's a good thing they all kind of have very unique roofs do you see this all right let's go down the street here we're gonna make a right and then uh i love these old like showa era old businesses you know that there's some uh oji chan like grandfather in there kind of working selling stuff that probably has been on the shelves since the 1980s okay let's walk around this way hey raymond centeno's here something for you and ken died to contribute to the local economy you got it we're gonna we're gonna go uh buy some uh sake and some washi paper i think look at this beautiful house we'll definitely i get some coffee as well in the morning and jennifer french is here how you doing good morning that's a beautiful house take a look a little bit interesting what is that guitar repair shop really the population of this town i believe is something like eight eight thousand eight thousand something like that or is it no sorry twenty thousand and there's eight thousand residences so that means there's a lot of abandoned houses i think so if you're looking for an akia this might be a really a good place to live i asked kanai if she wanted to live here in mino or the seki area and she said nah she kind of likes the sea of japan side so i like this area it's got this rustic feel to it and very well preserved then this this is what makes um this is what makes me know a tourist attraction these old buildings and strolling through the streets you don't have to wake up as early as me right now but it does make a it does make a really pleasant experience and they're very well preserved the emperor the former emperor came here with uh his wife to to travel around mino in the past and he's been to a lot of the the tourists uh the important cultural places in japan and it was nice to see his picture in the restaurant stopping for lunch i don't know if he stopped at that place but he'd walk past the restaurant and they still have the photo from the 1970s or 80s i believe there's a meaning behind all of these architectural things but i'm not qualified to tell you like why the wood is made in this construction and why the white on the top here probably using local ingredients or local cement but if you look up you can see it really does try to when they restored these old houses they really tried hard to maintain that level of uh authenticity not trying to do it cheaply but do it right and i like that all right here's the main street where you probably get a more yeah i'm back in the edo period feeling still not used to calling irvan irvin it's just a weird feeling now our worlds were rocked when urban's name was exposed as irving and not irvan like i've been saying for over a year i'm still not quite used to it part of me wants to say irvin urban hey benji p hi john i'm sorry that i haven't been around much due to the time zones and other circumstances completely understandable and thanks so much for the support on patreon we're doing we're getting close to having a thousand members in the community there look at this beautiful picture look at that if we look even just a little bit closer into it it's like all these different textures in their leaves patterns i love this there's the fish scale pattern that you can see with the waves that would be the river going through here and then there's some i guess it's alsagi now maybe these birds really nice and this is the the style for japanese clouds you see them and they're all attached like this it's pretty like a dream whoa spider okay here comes some kids walking on the street there sticking to the left side right side so this is uh so speaking of going to school i got to go to work so we're still short of the 700 likes required to show you our hotel room good morning irvin says call me as you wish it's too late irvin it is not a lot of information in english but it looks like sugihara-san [Music] son made this as a memorial every to remember and part of the building right next to the bank uh i guess that's a 16 bank and look at the way the bank put the sign to really fit in with the style this looks like a um museum for washi paper again washi is what makes mino really famous the wealth of the town came from from that trade um and it's fair pretty well but the way that they preserve these buildings and maintain that artistic spirit is uh part of its success and why it's still so beautiful and so well maintained the neighbors are really friendly and they're used to tourists but over the last uh over the last six months or more everybody knows the pandemic has kind of wiped out the tourist industry in so many places in japan no head [Music] kind of creepy where's her head she's got the rest of hers there mannequins are kind of creepy i'm sorry those that are into mannequins look at the little uh shrine on the top there interesting not sure why it's up there interesting the office building of matsuhisa esques japan japanese paper store architectural feature of this building four-sectioned decoration on the udatsu fire protection walls and roof so i knew if they're gonna be making paper they're gonna fire protect these buildings this building was originally a japanese style inn called etomiya at present the building is used as an office and a warehouse interesting uh there's a gargoyle really did anybody see the gargoyle is that it right there i don't see the gargoyle i'm looking up it could be in the back could be in the back i don't know so i think you have to walk really slow because you can see little things in these buildings that only if you walk slow enough and look up if you're looking down you won't you won't find it so there's a mother showing her kids off to school hey mike w you're great mike from l.a chipping in thanks mike can't wait to shoot in tokyo again i know you guys got to come back there's some high school kids on their way this way to school i do like this little park here um i'm gonna walk this way a little bit and if we can get to all right i'll be generous 500 likes come on we're gonna go take you into the hotel um this is where we started right here at this intersection so we're back at this park for anyone who's tuning in right now but i do like this little park and you can see here there are some there were some koi or carp in here and i think that the cage here is to keep the cats maybe or crows from eating them i don't know oh there's one right there there they are they're still kind of small living in the wild stream of the city say it like that because it's cooler so our hotel is down this street okay and if we can get to 600 likes i'll take you there but until then we're walking this way our breakfast is at 7 50. kanye's cleaning up the room in anticipation of your legs she lives for them just made that up really nice some of these buildings um used to be abandoned and they've turned them into cafes and uh i don't know how much coffee you guys can drink but it's a good way to support the local economy by drinking a lot of coffee here and other than shopping and walking and strolling there's some hiking in the area and there's also some really it's it's good if you do get a rent-a-car and then drive this way here comes a car it's really good if you rent a car and drive around the area because i think a car opens up this whole uh area a lot of people come by train and that's understandable for tourism but if you have a car you can really get around the town and see a lot more that way all right i love it when they have maps here so udatsu is the style of the building here and uh that's what that's what what we've been strolling uh past for the last 20 minutes the station is right there what is that umeyama station and then you can walk from there not mino station uh there's minoshi station i believe is up there so you can walk from either minoshi station or umeyama station and these streets that we basically we walked around already were right there we walked all the way this way and i'm going to take you to the end of the street so you can see this side and basically you this live stream will have given you a pretty good view a washi paper is really the main industry here and you can see the beautiful lights i think you can buy some lights there's a some light stores i remember walking by for your room or something like that and if they're open before we leave because i have i've come here to film some main channel episodes for the new channel oh waffle parfait me like what me sees 600 yen but still closed yum yum another cafe 10 a.m is to 5 p.m uh we'll be gone stephen cooper welcome to the travelers you've unlocked emoji of all kinds including the fireworks hanabi emoji for our fireworks festival coming up in five days crazy ah this is so picturesque i i like the streets lined with the udatsu buildings but i kind of just like this right here with the telephone lines and the old street just the way it is so narrow i'm gonna pan over here and you can see um what looks like a temple because you can tell from the bell on the top on the uh top left over here just gonna walk in a couple of steps because kenai's waiting for me back home at the room beautiful see the trees here all the little tension the details and maintaining it is quite expensive so i really do hope that uh if you do come to japan you might want to consider mino especially if you're in the nagoya area it's on the way to takayama by the way and i believe back in the edo period uh the takayama clan might have uh played a part in this city's success i think they tried to rebuild a castle which is now ruins on the higher ground here's a little kitty cat it's really pretty how you doing i'm a nickel so there you have it um that's pretty much mino city it's got a really cool vibe i love the shape of this uh chocolate drop hill in the distance there and there's not really high mountains but we are in the mountains so uh it is cooler here than it is down in negoya for sure um i think it was like a little bit over 10 degrees certainly summer is gone but i'm so happy that they've done an amazing job preserving these buildings and i hope that it stays like this forever by the way those are cans of beer it or not those are cans of beer [Music] all right i'll take you back to the hotel let's see if we can get up to 700 likes by the time we get to the hotel uh just for a very quick view inside okay because uh can i and i are starving see how they've taken the little details they've hidden the air conditioners behind some gates there the little details they're trying to hide the modern modern things that keep us comfortable like this vending machine you can see the drinks but the box itself is camouflaged here's the terrorism office information center can't hide that eye but the rest is camouflaged hey john kimura welcome aboard thank you for the travel funds it has been allocated to sandwiches on the way back to tokyo we drove here it's a good uh four-hour drive back to tokyo manhole you can see the temple roof here the shape of the roof which are famous in the udatsu houses lovely simple we parked the car on the other side of the street it's not easy to find a parking spot but uh we did so the hotel that we're staying at the hotel that we're staying at it goes back to it says on the door 1872 which is the birth of japan rail i believe around this time but this is also uh still the edo period uh no no actually that's not true this is the meiji period but i believe that this this building goes all the way back this is where we're staying goes all the way back to the uh ada period this is a fantastic fantastic hotel uh or dyokon called baison b-a-i-s-o-n all right i'm gonna take you inside now all right i'm just going to take you in really quickly oh oh that's complicated okay so there's a gift shop and we might buy some stuff kind of likes the mugs i'm gonna take them up to the room okay is there's a really beautiful garden back here too and you see there's a white tape table and shares that you can sit at night and they illuminate each of the trees which is so beautiful and we're eating breakfast in there i believe so i only have about a minute to take you upstairs it's a really beautiful hotel and again i wanted to stay here because i know that um not a lot of people are staying in mino i could stay in at any a business hotel in seki or something but why would you do that when you could stay here beautiful house i guess i was editing a little bit last night because of the go-to travel campaign we got it was like 30 35 off the room price and he upgraded us because nobody was staying here i believe which is such a nice such a nice family-run business this is here there's a view looking down in the garden waking up to this i would have loved to have had morning coffee here and the washi paper of course it's coming from here in minor they put two futons one for me one for kanai and the the nicer the place the more comfortable it is i think it's like some sort of memory foam it was so nice we slept so well here and everything is quite modern uh but everything he said also goes back to the edo period he gave us a little tour of the room including these up here uh separating the rooms always look up at the at the roofs of the old buildings the old rooms and it tells a story it's so well preserved i guess they found a way to clean it up but i don't think these are new i think these are all the originals from the edo period just found a way to restore them so there you go that's our room right there that's a table where we we came in and worked a little bit but i actually didn't have that much time to do much of anything no smoking allowed absolutely not but really good room thanks so much for watching everybody um kanai's waiting for me downstairs for breakfast but i'm glad that i could share a little bit of minoshi uh mino city with you uh i think it's worthy if you're on the way to takayama or you know takayama is already really crowded with tourists this is a really nice place to stop and spend a night or two take a look at some of the the art artisanal works and get a different kind of a feel it's between nagoya and takayama in gifu prefecture i was last here when i did the seki hamono matsuri knife and sword festival and i'll probably come back to this area again too i'm filming something for a main channel episode that an idea that i had even look at the the old dresser that's in the room i love the little touches that they put into this so have a good day thanks for watching i'll try to live stream again before we get back to tokyo but kanai's got a uh something to attend today um at around 5 6 p.m and i got to drive back pretty quickly so have a good day i'll see you a little bit later bye from mino city you

Channel: ONLY in JAPAN * GO

Views: 28,079

Keywords: Only in Japan, Japan, John Daub, Japanese, Tokyo, Mino, Gifu, Washi, Japanese paper, Minoshi, 美濃市, Hotel, baison, Ryokan, Udatsu, View, Street view, street, Art

Id: EOIU-4XVfqw

Length: 37min 52sec (2272 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020