Tamba-Sasayama

Tamba-Sasayama grew up around Sasayama Castle, built in 1609, and the old town still follows the castle's plan. The castle grounds keep their stone walls and moats and the Ōshoin, a large hall rebuilt in 2000. West of the castle, the Okachimachi samurai street has thatched houses behind earthen walls, one of them open as the Anma family museum. South of the castle, the Kawaramachi street is lined with merchant houses that face the road gable-end on. The four history facilities (the Ōshoin, the Anma house, Aoyama Rekishi-mura and the history museum in the old courthouse) are all within a 15-minute walk of each other, and one ticket for all four costs ¥1,000. The area is known for black soybeans: the green beans, kuro-edamame, are sold for about three weeks from early October, when the town is at its busiest. Chestnuts and matsutake are autumn crops too, and in winter restaurants serve botan-nabe, a wild boar hotpot cooked in miso. On autumn weekends and holidays the car parks near the castle fill up and the roads into town queue, so come by train or arrive early.