Michi-no-Eki Fujikawa-juku

Fujikawa was the 37th of the 53 post stations on the Tokaido, the Edo-period highway between Edo and Kyoto. The roadside station on today’s Route 1 borrows the look of the town’s old merchant houses. Inside are a farm market with local vegetables, fruit, meat and eggs, a light-meals restaurant and a tourist information counter for Okazaki.

The local specialty is murasaki-mugi, a barley whose stalks and ears turn purple. It was originally grown for viewing and dyeing rather than eating, and it turns up in old travel diaries and poems about Fujikawa. The restaurant, Yotte Mirin, works it into udon and curry, and the market sells purple barley products to take home.

Meitetsu Fujikawa Station is right next door, so you can come by train. The Fujikawa-juku Museum, on the site of the post town’s secondary inn, is about ten minutes on foot along the old road. It is free but closes on Mondays. The station’s Ministop and toilets stay open 24 hours; the shops do not.