Former villa of the British Embassy which was used as a summer residence until 2008. It was donated to Tochigi Prefecture in 2010 before opening to the general public as the “British Embassy Villa Memorial Park” in July 2016. The villa was designed by British diplomat and Japanologist Ernest Satow and construction finished in 1896. Satow was known for his love of Okunikko and he even wrote the first English-language guidebook to the area, “A Guide Book to Nikko”, which was published in 1875.
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Nagamachi Samurai District
Former area of residence for the samurai of Kanazawa with narrow canals and stone paths. Some of the homes are open to the public. There is also a small museum showing how the merchant class used to live, complete with a reconstructed old style pharmacy, tea room, traditional garden, and displays of local handicrafts.
Kannonji Temple: Tsuji-Bei Wall
As you wander the streets of Yanesen, make a detour via this mud and tile wall. Built in the latter half of the Edo period, this 40m x 2m section has managed to survive the natural disasters and air raids, and today stands as a perfect representation of how the city would have been divided up in times gone by.