Find your ikigai: how life works in the Japanese “hundred-year-old village.” Japanese village: history, traditional way of life, houses and description with photos Maintain friendly relations every day

I could sit in one place for the whole month in Japan and remain just as happy. But I decided: if I’m going to travel, I need to plan everything so that the trip is as varied as possible. That’s why Takayama ended up on my route: firstly, these are the mountains, and secondly, these are the houses of Gassno. There were a few other places to go from Takayama, such as the famous Shirakawago village and the world's largest cable car, but the bus routes were refreshingly expensive. Of course, I was aware of Japanese train prices, they are scary, but there are ways to save, but there are no ways to save on buses. A round-trip ticket for the route, which lasts only an hour, costs 5,000 yen. For the sake of the cable car, or rather for the view from it, I would have paid that much plus about that much for tickets to the road itself, but it was closed for an annual technical inspection for exactly the 5 days that I was in Takayama, literally day after day.

Therefore, we had to be content with walks around Takayama itself and the local village of Gassno, or rather a museum that was made based on it, collecting all the old houses in one area. The name "gassno" comes from the word meaning hands folded in prayer. Those. in Nepali you can say that this is the village of Namaste =) The reasons for choosing this form are not religious, it’s just that in this region of Japan there is a lot of snow in winter.

All of these houses were built during the Edo period, which means they could be between 400 and 150 years old. Wow! Something, of course, was dismantled, but it’s still hard to believe that a simple tree could stand for so long.

Spring, icicles on the roof.

Each house belonged to a family, and is called by name. You can wander around inside and visit different rooms.

It's mostly very dark, and I don't have a flash on my camera, so only one photo.

You can wander among the trees and feel like you are in ancient Japan. I also additionally catch flashbacks of Indonesia and Batak houses on Lake Toba. I traveled all these mountains around Southeast Asia and collected in my mind a collection of what I liked most about each country. And then I came to Japan and found all this here. Even the winter-improved ones are my favorite houses! And there is a lake here too, albeit a small one.

The honest truth about a lot of snow. It’s mid-April, and it’s still a while!

Thatched roofs.

And again there are icicles on the roofs.

How beautiful it is here!

The structure of the Japanese village is completely preserved. There is a temple at the very top, and old statues of Buddhas in aprons.

And other religious buildings.

There are vegetable gardens.

Woodshed.

Mill.

And a cast-iron teapot cooks on coals.

If it were not for the absence of people, museum exhibitions and signs on every corner, one could truly imagine that he was in the distant past.

You can take a photo in your clothes near the cart, and for free, but wandering around the village in a suit is probably no longer possible.

Puppet Museum. These dolls were placed at the entrance to houses where there were girl children, so that they would grow well and be healthy. There had to be not just one doll, but a whole set. The dolls for this museum were donated by local residents.

Sudden retro high-tech. Something souvenir for tourists.

Today I will completely overwhelm you with beauty, because... Immediately after the village I climbed to the top of the mountain. Along neat steps.

Okay, I won't exaggerate. I had to make my way along a road covered with snow, and along a forest path.

But in the most dangerous and difficult places there were still steps and railings. This is Japanese caring for one's neighbor and love for detail.

Beautiful. And there is a bench to admire this beauty.

Something like this.

Or without unnecessary objects in the frame.

It would have been possible to walk along various small tracks to get to a few more temples, but the snow piles on the road and the total emptiness aroused certain doubts in me. And my sneakers are already wet, despite all the Japanese care for one’s neighbor.

I wish I could come back here with good shoes, a bike and plenty of time to wander around and ride around. The mountains in Japan are no worse than the Himalayas.

The problem of the outflow of people from small villages to cities is relevant not only for Russia, but also for many other countries, including Japan. To solve this problem, local authorities sometimes introduce various subsidies for those who move to live in their settlement.

This is what they did in the Japanese village of Mishima, which is located on three islands in Kagoshima Prefecture in the southwest of the island of Kyushu. You can get here by ferry. At the moment, about four hundred people live in the village, and therefore extra hands will obviously not be superfluous here. In particular, workers are needed to help with agriculture.

First, you will be paid for your travel expenses, up to 100,000 yen. In addition, local authorities promise to pay 85,000 yen per month (43 thousand rubles) if the new resident is single, and if he is with his wife, the payment will be 100,000 yen (51 thousand rubles). If you have a child, then up to 10,000 yen per person is added, and if there are two children, then 20,000 yen. Financial support is also provided in case of childbirth and for the education of children.

In addition, the new family is given a cow. In principle, you can refuse the cow, taking instead a one-time payment of 500,000 yen (256,000 rubles).

You will have to pay for housing out of your own pocket, since it is inexpensive here - renting a three-room house will cost from 15,000 to 23,000 yen per month (7,700-11,700 rubles).

If you are single, local authorities will try to help you arrange your personal life. There is even a special project for this.

Now about the requirements for new settlers. Firstly, you must be no more than 55 years old. Secondly, parasites are not welcome here - you should plan to start a family (if you don’t already have one), and also get a job in agricultural or fishing work. In addition, self-employment is possible. In any case, the last word remains with the village chief; it is he who will decide whether to accept a new resident into the friendly Japanese community.

It is generally accepted that Japan is the richest country of victorious high-tech and the whole life of a Japanese person consists of cool gadgets, erotic comics and anime cartoons. I had the opportunity to spend a day in a traditional Japanese house in a remote (by local standards) village 50 km from the city of Osaka. Around are rice fields, wooded hills, peasant houses and an electric train that runs every 15 minutes. In such places, life seems to have stopped in the seventies: young people do not want to live in the countryside and move to the city, and old people are gradually dying. Agriculture has long become unprofitable against the backdrop of a rapidly developing knowledge-intensive industry; a couple of decades will pass and what I will talk about next will become history. So, listen and watch how ordinary Japanese live in an ordinary village -

The station is located about a kilometer from the house of our friends, where I am heading. As a child, when my grandfather had a garden near Sverdlovsk, I also, as a kid, stomped from the train to the house. Perhaps in the Soviet village they didn’t know what asphalt and sewerage were, but here everything is civilized -

For the most part, good-quality rural houses -

A small palm-sized poisonous monster called a phalanx has been spotted -

Pay attention to the fire hatch -

The house of our Japanese friends and an unexpected telescope at the entrance -

Do you know what those carp flags at the entrance mean? In Japan there is a holiday, Boys' Day, in honor of which flags are hung in every home where there are boys. The idea is that the carp is strong and knows how to swim against the current, achieving its goal at any cost -

There are traces of a recent earthquake on the wall -

At the entrance, the Japanese take off their shoes. I remember the stupid habit in Israel of entering a house from the street without taking off your shoes. And no one cares that there may be children in the house; they crawl on the floor and collect all the dirt and infections on themselves.

Kitchen, aka living room -

The unit above the tap is simply titanium, warming the water. Nearby, on the left, a rice cooker is a must-have gadget in any Japanese home, since rice is the main ingredient in any Japanese meal.

On the refrigerator there is a map of shelters where to go in case of earthquakes or floods -

A whole hell of a scheme on how to properly throw away garbage. For example, if you have a pet, some kind of cat, and it dies, you cannot go and bury it in the forest. You are required to call a sanitation service, which will take the lifeless body and dispose of it to avoid the spread of infections, and it will cost you 3,000 yen (about 30 dollars), the corresponding picture is in the lower right corner -

Schedule when and what kind of garbage to throw away. For example, you can’t just drag old furniture to the trash can; you must call the mayor’s office and they will come specially and pick up bulky garbage. Also, you can’t throw away glass containers every day, but only 1-2 days a week. Break the rules - you will be fined, and your neighbors will certainly report you, saying that this gaijin (foreigner) threw glass containers into the paper bin on the wrong day.

Do you know what this ancient gadget is below?

Living room, here they sit on the floor, as you understand -

The whole house is one common space with sliding doors. If you push everything as far as possible, you find yourself in one large room. But in the evening the house returns to its original three-room state. Pay attention to the children's railway -

In winter, the Japanese keep warm using a kerosene(!) heater. Temperatures in these places drop to zero degrees and you can’t live without heating, and there is no centralized heat supply -

The attic where the rabbits live -

By the way, rabbits are not for food at all, they are family favorites here -

Do you know what this sign on the wall is? Who can guess?

Traditional bathroom and sad traces of a recent earthquake -

Well, accordingly, the restroom -

Pantry where washing machines and dryers are located -

Also, there is again a kerosene water heater for showers on the street, and the fuel tank is a little to the right below -

Small garden in the backyard -

A train passes right next to the house, literally five meters away. But you know what? There is noise, but minimal, in Japan they are strict with these things. However, in the morning, through my sleep, I heard a train rushing by. The locals have long been accustomed to it and don’t worry about it -

An hour later I board one of these trains and leave for Kansai Airport in Osaka, Taiwan awaits me -

Well, lunch for the road and on the road -

This is what the average Japanese village looks like. Somewhere people live a little richer, somewhere a little poorer, this is a kind of average level. You probably imagined Japanese life a little differently, but remember the saying “don’t confuse tourism with emigration.” Let's say there are a lot of empty houses in villages, whose owners have died and they have no heirs. They remain abandoned for years and decades; no one needs real estate in such places. Here is a neighboring house, whose owners have long been dead -

Old letters in the mailbox -

Beer bottles overgrown with moss -

There are a lot of problems here, which the Japanese simply do not like to take outside their society, unlike you and me, who are sick of the whole world with complaints about our hard life.

p.s. Do you know who brought me to Korea and Japan? But thanks these guys.

p.s. 2 Since not all readers have a Livejournal account, I duplicate all my articles about life and travel on social networks, so join:
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Japan is an amazing country, visiting which a tourist will certainly receive a lot of unforgettable impressions. Here you can admire picturesque rivers, bamboo forests, rock gardens, unusual temples, etc. Of course, many large modern cities have been built in Japan. But part of the population of this country, like probably any other, lives in villages. Japanese country settlements in many cases have retained their unique national flavor and style to this day.

A little history

The Japanese islands began to be populated by people back in the Paleolithic era. Initially, the inhabitants here were engaged in hunting and gathering and led the first settlements in Japan arose in the Jomon era - around the 12th millennium BC. At that time, the climate on the islands began to change due to the formation of the Tsushima warm current. The inhabitants of Japan switched to a sedentary lifestyle. In addition to hunting and gathering, the population also began to engage in fishing and animal husbandry.

Today, Japanese villages are often home to many people. But it was not always so. Initially the number of inhabitants on the islands was very small. However, in the 13th millennium BC. e. People from the Korean Peninsula began to actively migrate here. It was they who brought the technologies of rice cultivation and silk weaving to Ancient Japan, which are still actively used today. The population of the islands increased by 3-4 times in those days. And of course, many new settlements arose in ancient Japan. At the same time, the villages of migrants were much larger than those of local residents - up to 1.5 thousand people. The main type of housing in Japanese settlements in those days were ordinary dugouts.

From the 4th century The process of establishing statehood began in Japan. During this period, the culture of the islands was greatly influenced by Korea. In the country then called Nihon, the first capital of Nara was founded. Of course, Korean villages were also actively built in those days. They were located mainly around the capital, as well as in the valley of the Asuka River. Dugouts in settlements at that time began to gradually be replaced by ordinary houses.

Wars

Later, by the 8th century, Korea's influence gradually began to fade away and the Japanese rulers turned their attention to China. At this time, a new capital was built on the islands, in which up to 200 thousand people lived. By this time, the formation of the Japanese nation itself had been completed. In the 8th century, the emperors of the country began to gradually conquer the forested territories of the aborigines, some of whom still led an almost primitive way of life. In order to strengthen their positions in these regions, the rulers forcibly resettled residents of the central part of the country here. And of course, new settlements began to emerge in these places - villages and fortresses.

Ancient way of life

The type of activity of the Japanese has always directly depended on their place of residence. Thus, residents of coastal villages were engaged in fishing, evaporating salt, and collecting shellfish. During the conflicts with the aborigines, the population of forested areas was subject to military service. Residents of villages located in the mountains were often engaged in breeding silkworms, making fabrics, and in some cases, producing gunpowder. On the plains, settlers most often grew rice. Blacksmithing and pottery were also practiced in Japanese villages. Between settlements of different “specializations” at the intersection of trade routes, among other things, market squares were formed.

The rhythm of life in Japanese villages was almost always calm and measured. The villagers coexisted in complete harmony with nature. Initially, the Japanese lived in communities in fairly large settlements. Later, of course, detached estates of the nobility began to appear in the country, surrounded by a fence.

Modern village

Outside the city, of course, some Japanese still live today. There are also many villages in this country nowadays. The rhythm of life in modern suburban settlements in Japan today is mostly calm and measured. Many residents of such settlements, as in ancient times, grow rice and engage in fishing. Silk is still made in mountain villages today. Quite often, the Japanese in small suburban settlements even today live in communities.

Is it worth a visit

Residents of the villages of the Land of the Rising Sun, judging by the reviews of tourists, are very friendly. They also treat well foreigners who come to visit them. Of course, tourists don’t visit remote Japanese villages too often. But some settlements that have existed since ancient times still attract the interest of foreigners. In such Japanese villages, among other things, the tourism business is well developed.

Judging by the reviews of travelers, modern country settlements in the Land of the Rising Sun look very beautiful and cozy. In Japanese villages, flower beds bloom everywhere, spectacular shrubs grow, and rock gardens are laid out.

How houses were built in the old days

One of the peculiarities of Japan, unfortunately, is frequent earthquakes. Therefore, since ancient times, a special technology for building houses has been used in this country. In Japanese villages, only frame residential buildings have always been erected. The walls of such buildings did not bear any load. The strength of the house was given by a wooden frame, assembled without the use of nails - by fastening with ropes and rods.

The climate in Japan is quite mild. Therefore, the facades of houses in this country were not insulated in ancient times. Moreover, in such buildings there was always only one main wall. Between the sheathings it was stuffed with grass, sawdust, etc. All the other walls were just thin wooden sliding doors. They closed at night and in cold weather. On warm days, such doors were moved apart and the residents of the house were able to coexist in complete harmony with the surrounding nature.

In ancient times, floors in Japanese village houses were always raised high above ground level. The fact is that the Japanese traditionally sleep not on beds, but simply on special mattresses - futons. Spending the night in this way on a floor located near the ground would, of course, be cold and damp.

There are several styles of Japanese ancient buildings. However, all houses in this country share the following architectural features:

large cornices, the size of which can reach a meter;

sometimes curved corners of the slopes;

asceticism of the exterior.

The facades of Japanese houses were almost never decorated with anything. The roofs of such houses were covered with grass and straw.

Modern style

Today in Japanese villages (you can clearly see this in the photo) only frame houses are still built. After all, earthquakes happen quite often in this country even today. Sometimes in villages in Japan you can see frames built using Canadian technology, which has become widespread in the world. But most often houses here are built according to local methods that have been developed over centuries.

The walls of modern Japanese houses, of course, are lined with fairly strong and reliable materials. But at the same time, spacious, bright terraces are always built next to such buildings. The eaves of Japanese houses are still long.

Floors in residential buildings in villages are not raised too high these days. However, they are not being developed on the ground either. When pouring slab foundations, the Japanese provide, among other things, special ribs, the height of which can reach 50 cm. Indeed, even today, in village houses, many Japanese still sleep on mattresses.

Communications

More than 80% of Japan's territory is mountainous. And laying gas pipelines on islands is often simply impossible. Therefore, in most cases, houses in villages in Japan are not gasified. But of course, Japanese housewives in such settlements do not cook in ovens at all. Blue fuel in villages is obtained from cylinders.

Since the climate in Japan is not too cold, there is no central heating in houses here. During the cold season, residents of local villages heat their premises using oil or infrared heaters.

The most beautiful Japanese villages

In the Land of the Rising Sun, as already mentioned, several ancient villages have been preserved, worthy of the attention of tourists. For example, very often antiquity lovers visit Japanese villages called Shirakawa and Gokayama. These settlements have existed in Japan for several centuries. In winter, the roads leading to them are covered with snow, and they find themselves completely isolated from civilization.

Many residents of these villages are engaged in silk weaving and cultivation of rice and vegetables. But the Japanese living in these settlements receive the bulk of their income from the tourism business. There are cafes, souvenir shops, and shops of various specializations here. Some residents of these Japanese mountain villages also rent out rooms to tourists.

The settlements of Shirakawa and Gokayama are famous, among other things, for the fact that houses built in the gassho-zukuri style are still preserved here. The peculiarity of these frame buildings are low walls and a very high, usually gable roof, under which there are another one or two floors. The houses in these settlements are covered, as in ancient times, with grass and straw.

Japanese village of Mishima: how to move

Japan has one of the few settlements in the world where new settlers are invited to live in exchange for money. The village of Mishima is located on three islands southwest of Kyushu and is experiencing a labor shortage. Mostly pensioners live here. Young people prefer to move to cities.

To revive the local economy, the village community took an original decision to attract new young and hard-working residents. All Japanese citizens, as well as long-term residents of this country, are invited to move to Mishima for a fee. For several years, the settlers are promised to be given a large monthly allowance (about 40 thousand rubles translated into domestic currency) and to be provided with a free cow.

People from other countries, including Russia, can also move to the village. However, foreigners unfamiliar with Japanese culture can only be allowed into the village if the community elders deem it possible.

The Land of the Rising Sun is amazing; everyone will find a corner to their liking, be it modern Tokyo or traditional Kyoto. When all the main tourist routes have been completed, it’s time to head into the Japanese wilderness. In this post we will talk about the village of Ainokura, a fabulous valley of gingerbread houses.

2. High green hills reliably protected the picturesque villages of Shirakawago and Gokayama (the settlement of Ainokura belongs to it) from prying eyes for many centuries. Thanks to the development of road infrastructure and domestic tourism, historical villages hidden in the inaccessible mountainous areas of Gifu and Toyama prefectures (Honshu Island, Japan) have become known outside their native land. In 1995, the charming villages were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

3. About a three-hour drive from the popular tourist city of Takayama (Gifu Prefecture), a ten-minute walk up the hill, and you have a view of a small valley. It's so quiet here that you can hear the wind howling and the grass swaying. Tiny rice fields of rich green color, tall pine trees and a whitish haze covering the village in the late evening - in Ainokura the eyes rest, the mind clears, and the body is saturated with oxygen. The air here is so clean that it makes you feel dizzy out of habit.

4. Farmhouses are built using the traditional gassho-zukuri technique for these areas. "Gassho" literally means "hands folded in prayer" - the two steep slopes of the thatched roof symbolize the palms of the monks.

5. Not a single nail was used in the construction of the houses. Wood and straw in the hands of the Japanese turned into reliable and durable materials: houses withstood the harsh climate and outlived the great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of their creators.

6. It’s humid here in summer, waist-deep snowdrifts in winter, and the huts last for 200 and 300 years.

8. In the village of Ainokura there are 23 houses made using the gassho-zukuri technique.

10. Locals lead subsistence farming and eat mainly what they grow.

11. The hostess complained to me that it was difficult to get carrots - they ordered from the city. But everything is fine with watermelons.

12. Eating vegetables from your own garden is simply wonderful, but you can’t earn money for your children’s education just from your garden. That is why enterprising farmers converted their houses into museums and cafes, and some even began renting out rooms to tourists.

13. In Ainokura there are 6 houses whose owners are ready to let a stranger spend the night. Rooms are in great demand - you have to book in advance, and sometimes much in advance (depending on the season).

14. A night in a house with a thatched roof will cost 8,000-10,000 yen (5,000-7,000 rubles per person) and will give you the opportunity to walk around the village when the last tourist bus leaves it. The fee includes not only a bed in a separate room, but also two meals a day (dinner and breakfast). The Goyomon house where I stayed is over three hundred years old, and the descendants of the original owner still live in it.

15. Inside each traditional hut there is a spacious hall with a square hole in the floor exactly in the middle. This room serves as a living and dining room - the household and their guests sit around the fireplace on thin pillows.

16. Residents of Ainokur every day make a fire at home, fry fish on coals and boil water in a cast-iron kettle suspended on a massive chain.

17. A typical dinner here consists of boiled vegetables, pickles, charcoal fish, tempura and river fish sashimi, which is always accompanied by a bowl of rice. All vegetables, with the exception of carrots, are grown here. Fish caught nearby.

18. A light breeze rushes in through the open window, and you sleep very sweetly, the way you once slept in your native Russian village, where you were also fed food from the garden and told old fairy tales at night (and completely free of charge).

19. Early in the morning, a dense fog spreads around the village, and only the yellowish tint of the grass hints that the sun has risen.

24. The kettle swings over the smoldering coals, and breakfast is waiting on a small table.

25. The morning menu includes a bowl of rice, an omelet, fresh and stewed vegetables, tofu cooked in broth and pickles.

26. After a hearty breakfast and saying goodbye to the hospitable hostess, your feet themselves carry you up the hill, from which you can see the valley.

27. The landscape is soothing; you don’t want to return to the metropolis at all. Like any other village, Ainokura is inevitably aging. Young people are drawn to big cities, but only pensioners remain in the “valley of gingerbread houses”.

28. Having boiled in the capital’s cauldron, the children of Ainokura will certainly return here. The purest mountain air, tasty and healthy food, your own home with a long history as a source of income is not life, but a dream. And I can only hope that the meeting with the fairy-tale village was not the last.

Ainokura Village (Japanese: 相倉, English: Ainokura)
How to get there (it's a long way):
It is advisable to combine a trip to Ainokura with a visit to Shirakawago (Japanese 白川郷, English Shirakawago), the largest historical village in the area
There is a local bus from Shirakawago (40 minutes, 1300 yen one way) to Ainokura (stop called 相倉口、Ainokuraguchi)
There are two typical routes to Shirakawago from Tokyo that are popular among tourists as they pass through picturesque cities full of attractions: Kanazawa and Takayama
1) Via Kanazawa (Kanazawa/金沢）
Bullet train from Tokyo to Kanazawa (about 14,000 yen one way, about 3 hours travel time), from there by Nohi Bus to Shirakawago (1850 yen one way, just over 2 hours travel time)
2) Through Takayama/高山）
Bus from Shinjuku to Takayama (6690 yen one way; 5.5 hours travel time) from Nohi Bus, from there by bus from the same company to Shirakawago (2470 yen one way; 2.5 hours travel time)
Going through Takayama is much cheaper, but almost twice as long.
There is another option to get through Nagoya, in terms of money and time it will be almost the same as through Takayama.