Carp in the canals, oranges over walls: two slow days, Tsuwano to Hagi

Tsuwano and Hagi sit at the western end of Honshu, an hour or more from any shinkansen stop. That distance is why their castle-town streets still feel lived in rather than staged. Two days and one bus across the hills are enough to see both.

Day one: Tsuwano along the water

The limited express from Shin-Yamaguchi follows a river valley for about an hour before the town appears as a band of red-brown roof tiles. On Tonomachi (殿町), the old samurai street, stone channels run beside white walls, and fat carp drift in them as if the gutters were garden ponds. The Catholic church nearby has tatami where the pews would be.

In the afternoon, climb the tunnel of vermilion torii to Taikodani Inari Shrine (太皷谷稲成神社) and look back across the valley. On the way down, buy genji-maki (源氏巻), a thin sponge rolled around red-bean paste, to eat the next morning.

Day two: Hagi behind earthen walls

The bus to Hagi takes a little under two hours and ends near the Sea of Japan. The town is flat, so rent a bicycle and ride into Horiuchi, the former samurai quarter, where natsumikan (夏みかん), a tart summer orange, hangs over the tops of the walls.

萩の夏みかんは、禄を失った武士の暮らしを支えるために植えられたと伝わる。

Hagi-yaki, the local pottery, has a soft glaze that crazes and darkens as tea seeps into it. Potters call this Hagi no nanabake (萩の七化け), the seven changes, and a cup bought here will look different in a few years.

Before you go

Tsuwano's shops close early, so plan dinner at your inn. From Hagi, a direct bus returns to Shin-Yamaguchi in about an hour, and you can pick up the shinkansen there.