Living in Wanouchi Town

A village in western Gifu Prefecture with no railway, where a car or bus is essential. Being low-lying, it has a unique structure in which the whole village is surrounded by a ring embankment.

A village in western Gifu Prefecture with no railway, where a car or bus is essential. It is low-lying land that flooded 25 times in 265 years during the Edo period, so the whole village is surrounded by a wajuu (ring embankment), and mizuya buildings, built on raised foundations to prepare for flooding, still remain. It is in the Nagoya commuter zone, but with no station you take a bus about 30 minutes to Ogaki Station and then change to a train again, so the commuting burden is large. It suits households who want to live mainly by car in a quiet farming village where the history of floods and the culture of flood control are alive.