◆Why do we feel it excessively beautiful ?◆

  The greatest joy of visiting Narai town is watching the historical landscape, in which we put ourselves.
  Why do we feel calm and healed when watching the street along which the Town-Houses stand side by side ?

  Though we cannot understand the reason clearly, it would comes from the historical memory or the traditional culture accumulated in our deep mantality.

▲A view of Kiso-no-Ohashi, i.e. Big Bridge of Kiso in Fureai Park

  All the material-timber of which the bridge is made are Hinoki. As well it was built by the traditional architecture and technique.
  Over the bridge lies the station of the roads which has no shops or facilities except a parking place connected with National Road No.19.
  We would take it for a entrance of the theme-park involving the town as a whole.

  The aged volunteer-gentlemen who guided us around the town said that about 20 percent of the people in this town make a living by the tourist business.
  About 80 percent of the people are engaged in other business, for example in corporations or councils, or go to school.
  However they cooperate to maintain the traditional landscapes of the town based on the unified concept. But for the cooperation of the ordinary habitants, the historical views would not be kept.

  Though they would feel it conmfortable and useful to live in the houses of modern architecture, they take a part in making effort to maintain the historical shape of the town. The smart spirit of the people in Narai town is wonderful.
  This maus be the smartness and the good taste.
  Such a spirit and taste is a common sense in the town, which forms the depth of the tradition.

▲A townscape in late autumn