Japanese traditional houses in Nara and a travel tip

In many of the traditional cities from Japan, the old merchant districts are amongst the most important tourist attractions. Unfortunately, that's not the case with the old merchant district of Nara, Naramachi ("Nara town"), an area not very popular with tourists, although it deserves better...

Truth is, the Naramachi district is not as spectacular as a traditional district from Kyoto, because it doesn't preserves streets made entirely of traditional houses - a lot of new, modern buildings are spoiling the traditional look and feel...
But here you can admire several very well preserved machiya, traditional residential buildings that once served both as stores and houses of the chōnin ("townspeople"), the local merchants and craftsmen. These houses, dating from the early 19th century, are made of wood on the ground floor with earth walls on the second floor and a distinctive style of windows. Called mushiko mado ("insect cage window"), these simple but aesthetic slot-shaped windows were designed to allow natural lighting inside while still providing fire protection...

Travel tip: This is one of the few places in Japan where you can actually visit an original machiya: the Koshi-no-ie Residence, a former merchant home, is opened for the public.