There is a cool little town about an hour train ride from Tokyo in the style of 'edo' period Japan and they have lots of traditonal things there. The main specialty of the area is "satsumaimo" or sweet potatoes. They have sweet potato noodles, sweet potato soft ice cream, sweet potato cakes, you name it. I liked just the baked slices of sweet potato (kind of like huge french fries). Also eel is a specialty as well as many dagashi stores. A dagashiya is like our nickel candy store that some older folks might remember. Most adults here remember them and go there to eat their favorite childhood candy or introduce their kids to them. There are not many of these stores left so its kind of an attraction.
The town is very pedestrian friendly and is nice for just strolling around and eating while sightseeing. Since there are a lot of traditonal buildings, i took a peek inside an edo-style home of a samurai of that time. Nice garden and also even had some figures showing how they must have sat around and planned attacks and stuff. Pretty cool. With the one hour and back train ride, you can do the check out the whole place in the better part of a day. I think kids really like it there. It's really a food-centered spot, so i liked it too, of course.
