Tochigi

Tochigi is a river town on the Kanto plain north of Tokyo, the storehouse city that shipped goods to the shogun's capital by boat. Black-and-white kura warehouses still line the Uzuma River, and the merchant quarter's nickname, Little Edo, is earned rather than borrowed.

Pole boats drift the river past willow banks and storehouse walls, and museums and galleries now occupy several of the old kura. In spring more than a thousand carp streamers fly above the water, and ornate festival floats emerge from their storehouses for the town's autumn festival.

Tochigi makes a calm base between headline sights: trains put both Nikko's shrines and Ashikaga's wisteria within easy reach on the Tobu lines. Lunch on soba by the river, and give the storehouse museums a slow afternoon. Weekdays keep the boat rides nearly private.