How pure is the ancient flavor of Naraijuku? Smoothly travel back to the Edo period!

Naraijuku in the valley is very quiet before noon. Narai is a place name located in the mountainous area in central Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Because a thousand-year-old road (Nakasendo) from Edo to Kyoto happens to pass through Narai, the ancient people built many homestays on both sides of a slightly flat valley in the col. At that time, they were called post stations, which were called "Naraijuku". Naraijuku is located in a remote area, but transportation is now very convenient. There are trains arriving from Shinjuku, Tokyo, Nagano, or Matsumoto. From that small fourth-class station, you only need to walk less than 200 meters to enter this quaint old street, which is less than 1,000 meters long. The old street is usually made up of stone roads and low wooden houses. The reddish-brown wood has turned black due to its age, reminiscent of the scenes in Akira Kurosawa's old movies. The old house in Narai is not at all dilapidated. Although it is old, it is meticulously maintained, just like the silver-haired old people commonly seen in Japan, with wrinkles all over their faces but their whole body is neatly dressed. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder, how come they maintain the same hundreds of years old wooden houses so well? This question was soon answered - there was a nameplate with the owner's surname hanging on the door of almost every wooden house. In other words, these houses have had clear ownership and have been inhabited since ancient times, so they are naturally maintained regularly. As it approached noon, more and more tourists began to arrive in Naraijuku. The so-called "many" means that you can see a few pedestrians on the road. Some shops opened their doors and began business, but at least half of them remained closed. Visitors who like quietness are suitable to come here. There are three main types of shops on the old street: It is a simple snack shop that serves drinks, fried chicken, omelette rice and the like. The shop also sells old items such as pottery, sculptures and wine utensils. Several people in the family are busy running the shop. A local specialty store that mainly sells local goods such as lacquerware, wooden chopsticks, and paper fans. The price is more than half cheaper than similar products in the city. Although I didn’t go into the ancient Japanese inn, I can imagine that the layout inside would not be much different from hundreds of years ago. If you want to experience the most authentic Japanese B&B, you can stay here for a night. To what extent is the ancient flavor of Naraijuku pure? At a glance, you can't find any traces of modern civilization. You can't see any electric wires hanging from the beams, no integrated boxes of circuit networks on the walls, and no various water, electricity, and gas pipelines. There are only water outlets in old wells at regular intervals, which have been trickling for hundreds of years. If there were some horses carrying wooden boxes, sullen-faced samurai, and obedient women in kimonos on the cobblestone road, you could easily travel back to the Edo period. It took less than two hours to reach the end of Narai. A small shrine was located at the end. As usual, there were several towering trees protecting the shrine. Going further uphill, you would enter the winding Nakayama Kodo. Theoretically, you could walk all the way to Tokyo (Edo), but I decided not to walk this time. It would be faster to take the train back. Naraijuku