Country – Inaka

For this blog post, I will write and share pictures of something that is very important to me, both in Japan and my home country of Australia.

And that is country towns!

Old houses, Mountains and Rice paddy fields, Its a country view

I think there will always be a slight stigma attached with country areas, that they are backward, slow, and less intelligent than their bigger city counter parts, but although life in the country side does tend to roll by a little more slowly, the truth is that country side area’s are often blessed with kind people, beautiful scenery and fresh air.

For Golden Week this past week, I was lucky enough to visit the small country prefecture of Fukui.

(Hence why this entry is a little late) so I will focus this topic on Fukui specifically.

In Japan, if known at all, Fukui is renowned for being one of the very must rural prefectures in Japan.

Most of the towns within this prefecture have a small population (for Japanese standards) and relies rather heavily on the farming industry, so in Fukui you will see many rice paddy fields.

Rice paddy

In some ways, Fukui is more what a lot of foreigners would expect to see when coming to Japan in the search of traditional Japan.

There are still many old building, most of which are well maintained and handing down along families for generations

A old traditional family household

Along with the old houses and buildings, Fukui maintains many small old temples and shrines, all of which are maintained beautifully and very well cared for.

Naturally its a popular place

An old tea ceremony house

Tradition

Also because Fukui is very heavily surrounded by mountains, it means that there are many many many tunnels that you must pass through if driving around the prefecture

One of the many tunnels in Fukui

But in conclusion I think that Fukui, being so very rural, is charming, if it wasn’t a rural prefecture it would not be as great as it is.

It is the fact that it is a country side prefecture that allows for a more relaxing life, which allows old buildings to be maintained instead of flashy new buildings, hat allows natural nature to exist instead of a sea of houses and developments.

My host mother, who is orginally from Fukui

My host family dog, who loves being in Fukui

But perhaps my thoughts are a little biased, because not only did I grow up in a small country town in Australia, but this is actually my second trip to Fukui, since four years ago I lived in Fukui briefly, in which time I quickly considered a town in Fukui to be my Japanese hometown.

My first time