Honshu's ancient preserves

It looks like a set from a vintage Kurosawa movie and has been designated a heritage area of national importance.

The cementing of Japan continues apace and those woodblock print landscapes of our imaginations are fast disappearing. As Japan hand Alex Kerr, author of Lost Japan (Lonely Planet), writes "When my friends ask me, 'Where can you go to escape the billboards, electric wires and concrete?' I am at a loss to answer.''

Umeda Sky Building, Osaka

Some of this modernisation is very stylish, particularly in Osaka and Tokyo, where architectural pizazz, such as the capital's Mori Tower (offering a grandstand view of the city) and Osaka's Umeda Sky Building (a gleaming upside-down "U" with heart-stopping glass-walled escalators up top suspended over empty space) is breathtaking. But visitors who seek the old Japan can still find it if they know where to look. Here are two places to put onto your itinerary, not far from the razzle-dazzle of contemporary urban Japan.

In Takayama: bridge blossoms; shopping street; spring festival

In Central Honshu, you'll find the perfectly preserved town is Takayama, in Gifu Prefecture. Cradled by mountains, its history has been shaped by isolation. Skilled takumi (carpenters) gave Takayama its handsome Edo-period merchant residences in the Sanmachi area, a short stroll from the station. Takayama is a living and working neighbourhood, where life continues as it did centuries ago. During spring (April 14-15) and autumn (October 9-10) festivals, hundreds of brightly coloured floats wind through town, many featuring non-stop puppet performances.

The ancient village of Ouchi-Juku, in spring and snow-covered in midwinter

Further north, on Honshu's east coast, Ouchi-Juku is another village of thatched Edo houses, surrounded by deciduous woods, set on an ancient roadway once travelled by samurai warriors. It looks like a set from a vintage Kurosawa movie and has been designated a heritage area of national importance. There's a Midsummer Festival here, each July 2nd, at the local shrine. Cooling streams of spring-fed water flow on either side of the main street, and most houses have been converted to shops and restaurants. If staying overnight, the 300-year-old Yamagata-ya inn is a welcome retreat. After dinner, you'll probably hear local children striking wooden clappers and calling "Hino yo-jin!" (be careful not to start a fire!). This is a nightly tradition here in Ouchi-Juku and in other highly-flammable thatched villages—and it pays off. There hasn't been a major fire in Ouchi-Juku since 1798!

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