BYAKU Narai
BYAKU Narai
An inn in Narai-juku, in Shiojiri, Nagano. Narai-juku sits exactly halfway along the 69 stations of the Nakasendo road and survives as the longest post town in Japan, its Edo-period streetscape intact. The inn occupies four historic buildings, each given back the trading name it carried from the Edo period. The main one, Toshiyoshi-ya, was the Suginomori sake brewery, founded in 1793; the others are Uehara-ya, Shimamo-ya and Kanekami-ya. There are 16 rooms, and because the existing structures were kept, no two have the same layout. The bathhouse, San-sen, draws spring water from the headwaters of the Shinano River — it is not a hot spring. The restaurant, Kura, occupies what was the brewery. Five minutes on foot from Narai Station on the JR Chuo Line.
