Japan Guide
Western Honshū
Tsuwano
In the prefecture of Shimane-ken is the old and picturesque castle town of TSUWANO. Nestling in the shadow of the 908-metre-high extinct volcano, Aono-yama, around which mists swirl moodily each autumn, this is yet another small town that touts itself as a "Little Kyoto", and for once there really is an air of courtly affluence along the tourist-jammed streets of Tonomachi, the well-preserved central area of samurai houses, with their distinctive cross-hatched black-and-white plaster walls.