Showa no Machi: A Time Capsule of 1950s Japan Hidden in Rural Oita”>Showa no Machi: A Time Capsule of 1950s Japan Hidden in Rural Oita

Drive about an hour from Oita Airport, passing through rice paddies and small villages, and eventually a shopping street appears. Faded signboards, wooden-framed glass windows, enamel advertising plates hanging from the eaves. This is “Showa no Machi” in Bungotakada City—a place that feels like a miracle, where 1950s Japan still breathes.

Most international visitors traveling through modern Japan follow the well-worn path: Tokyo’s neon streets, Kyoto’s Kinkaku-ji, Osaka’s Dotonbori. These are undeniably Japan. But they represent either today’s Japan or Japan from centuries past. What about the Japan in between—the postwar recovery era through the high economic growth period, when ordinary Japanese people lived ordinary lives? Where did that Japan go?

The answer lies here.

Showa no Machi is not a theme park. It’s not a space designed like Disneyland, nor is it a movie set. This is a real shopping street. During the 1950s and 60s, this road was the center of local life. People bought dinner ingredients at the butcher shop, picked up cold medicine at the pharmacy, and children clutched 10-yen coins while choosing candy at the dagashiya. Such everyday moments once existed here.

Then times changed. Large supermarkets appeared in the suburbs, and people started driving to shop. Young people left for the cities, and customers stopped coming to the shopping streets. Stores closed one by one, and the term “shutter street” spread throughout Japan. Showa no Machi was no exception.

But in 2001, this town chose to preserve its past rather than discard it. The remaining old buildings, faded signs, and wooden showcases worn by decades of use—these were reevaluated not as “embarrassing relics” but as “irreplaceable treasures.” Today, Showa no Machi has become a quiet pilgrimage site, drawing over 300,000 visitors annually.

Walking Through a Street Where Time Stands Still

If you visit Showa no Machi, first just walk. Simply walk.

The main street stretches about 550 meters. Compared to Tokyo’s Omotesando or Ginza, it’s an insignificant distance. But within these 550 meters, half a century of time is packed.

The first things you’ll notice are the signs. Hand-painted letters, distinctive fonts, rusted enamel plates. “Shiseido,” “Morinaga Milk Caramel,” “Oronamin C”—advertisements that once existed everywhere in Japan can be seen right before your eyes here.

As you walk further, you’ll see a butcher shop’s display case. Croquettes, minced meat cutlets, and ham cutlets lined up behind the glass. Place an order, and the owner will fry them on the spot. The smell of oil wafts through the street as you bite into a piping hot croquette while walking. This was Japan’s original “street food.” Not Instagram-worthy sweets created for tourists, but simple flavors that locals have been eating for decades.

Your feet stop in front of a dagashiya—a traditional penny candy store. Colorful candies in glass jars, small toys available from just 10 yen, lottery boxes. Japanese children once learned “how to spend money” at shops like these. Clutching a 100-yen coin, seriously deliberating what to buy, choosing, purchasing. These small economic activities sustained the ecosystem called the shopping street.

A barber shop’s rotating pole turns slowly. Peek inside to find leather chairs, large mirrors, and rows of hair tonic bottles. A nostalgic atmosphere different from modern beauty salons pervades the space. The owner is perhaps in his seventies. He has probably cut thousands of heads of hair in this chair. Each of those people had a life.

This is Showa no Machi. Not a place to “see” tourist attractions, but a place to “experience” the everyday life of Japan’s past. There are no flashy attractions here. No intentionally created Instagram-worthy photo spots. There is only the real scenery left behind by the flow of time.

Showa Roman Gura: 60,000 Pieces of Nostalgia

At the heart of the shopping street stands a particularly large building. Showa Roman Gura. Originally built in 1937 by the local wealthy Nomura zaibatsu as a rice storehouse, the former Takada Agricultural Warehouse has been renovated into this facility. The beautiful contrast of white walls and black wooden fencing creates a dignified structure. Step inside, and a Showa wonderland unfolds before you.

Dagashiya no Yume Museum (Penny Candy Dream Museum)

The Dagashiya no Yume Museum boasts one of Japan’s largest collections of Showa-era retro items. From curator Hiroyoshi Komiya’s collection of over 300,000 pieces, a carefully selected 60,000 items are on display.

Tin robots, celluloid dolls, Glico toy prizes, Kamen Rider cards. Items that make any Japanese person exclaim “natsukashii” (how nostalgic) appear one after another. For international travelers, these may not be “nostalgic” items. But you’ll still feel something. These were once children’s treasures. Clutched tightly in small hands, shown off to friends, sometimes lost and cried over—fragments of such memories.

The movie posters covering entire walls are also spectacular. Godzilla, Seven Samurai, Tokyo Story. All of these were actually used in local movie theaters. Not printed reproductions, but real posters hand-painted one by one by artists. Their vivid colors and bold compositions feel fresh even in today’s digital age.

Showa no Yumemachi Sanchome-kan (Showa Dream Town Hall)

The adjacent Showa no Yumemachi Sanchome-kan is an experiential facility recreating living spaces from the 1950s and 60s.

In the tatami-floored living room sits a chabudai low table and a cathode-ray tube black-and-white television. The kitchen has a kamado stove, water jar, and wooden cutting board. Wooden clogs line the dirt floor, and a small garden is visible from the veranda. This was an “ordinary home” in Japan before the high economic growth period.

An elementary school classroom has also been recreated. Wooden desks and chairs, a blackboard, a foot-pumped organ. The school lunch menu board shows “skim milk powder.” Postwar Japanese children were raised on skim milk powder sent from America. It apparently wasn’t particularly delicious, but it was a precious source of nutrition.

Looking at these exhibits, a strange sensation takes hold. Is this a “museum” or “someone’s home”? The boundary becomes ambiguous. Perhaps it’s because everything displayed here is “real.” Tools received from someone’s home, items that someone actually used. The memories of their owners are soaked into them.

teamLab Gallery Showa no Machi

Showa Roman Gura also offers modern experiences. The teamLab-produced “Drawing Kusachi Odori” is an interactive exhibit where characters drawn by children come to life on a large screen and begin dancing the “Kusachi Odori,” a folk performing art of Bungotakada City. A space where Showa and the present era mysteriously intersect.

Bonnet Bus: Riding Through the Showa Era

Mainly on weekends, a special vehicle runs through Showa no Machi. A bonnet bus manufactured in 1957.

A rounded front, cream and red two-tone colors, large headlights. These buses once ran throughout Japan—local route buses, tour buses, school buses. But they disappeared one after another in the wave of modernization, and hardly any remain today.

The bonnet bus of Showa no Machi was decommissioned in 1969 but was purchased and restored by the city. It takes about 15 minutes to tour the shopping street and along the Katsura River. Sit on the leather seats, feel the breeze through the windows, and watch the slowly passing scenery. The guide’s commentary is delivered in a live voice without a microphone. The engine’s vibration, the smell of exhaust, the sound of shifting gears. Everything is different from modern vehicles.

This is not merely a “vehicle.” It’s a time machine. For 15 minutes, passengers can travel through 1950s Japan.

Eating: Flavors of the Showa Era

If you visit Showa no Machi, be sure to experience the “flavors of Showa.”

The shopping street has restaurants serving Showa-era school lunch menus. Fried bread, soft noodles, bottled milk, fruit punch. These are what Japanese elementary school students used to eat every day. Fried bread is particularly popular—a simple but nostalgic taste of sugar-coated bread rolls deep-fried in oil. Modern Japanese children no longer eat this in school lunches. But here, you can experience that taste.

The restaurant “Shunsai Minamigura” inside Showa Roman Gura offers everything from authentic Japanese cuisine using ingredients from the Kunisaki Peninsula to nostalgic local dishes.

The shopping street also has cafés renovated from buildings over 100 years old. Sturdy beams, antique furniture, slowly dripping siphon coffee. The menu features Showa-era café standards like Napolitan spaghetti, hayashi rice, and cream soda. The cream soda in particular—bright melon-green carbonated water with vanilla ice cream floating on top—is quintessentially “Showa” in both appearance and taste.

Croquettes from the butcher, agedashi tofu from the tofu shop, daifuku from the wagashi store. It’s enjoyable to eat your way through the shopping street, sampling a little from each place. Every shop continues to serve unchanging flavors using recipes unchanged for decades.

Why You Should Visit Showa no Machi

Most international visitors to Japan travel to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. That’s a valid choice. These cities have Japan’s most representative tourist attractions.

But if you’re searching for “the real Japan,” it may not be found in famous tourist destinations.

The real Japan exists in nameless rural towns that flash by in an instant from the Shinkansen window. In diners that only locals frequent. In small shops that have continued operating unchanged for decades.

Showa no Machi is a rare place that has consciously preserved such “real Japan” and opened it to visitors. There is no staged exoticism here. Only the ordinary scenery of Japan that once existed everywhere.

In 2017, Showa no Machi received the “Asia Townscape Award.” This is an international award recognizing outstanding townscapes in Asia. The judges praised Showa no Machi’s “authenticity”—a genuine success story of protecting and reviving regional history and culture rather than creating something for tourism.

Practical Information

Access

Showa no Machi is located in northeastern Oita Prefecture, at the base of the Kunisaki Peninsula.

By Air

• About 60 minutes by car from Oita Airport
• About 2 hours by car from Fukuoka Airport

By Train and Bus

• Take JR Nippo Main Line to Usa Station
• Board Oita Kotsu bus bound for Bungo-Takada (about 11 minutes)
• Get off at Bungo-Takada Bus Terminal, immediate walking distance

By Car

• From Usa-Beppu Road “Usa IC,” take National Routes 387 → 10 → 213, about 20 minutes
• Parking: Showa no Machi Parking (400 yen for regular cars, free within 40 minutes)

Hours and Admission

Shopping Street

• Varies by shop (most open around 9:00-17:00)
• Closing days vary by shop

Showa Roman Gura

• Hours: Weekdays 10:00-17:00 / Weekends and holidays 9:00-17:00
• Closed: December 30-31 (teamLab Gallery closed Thursdays)
• Admission:
  • 2-Museum Pass (Dagashiya no Yume Museum + Showa no Yumemachi Sanchome-kan): Adults ¥900, Students ¥630
  • 3-Museum Pass (above + teamLab Gallery Showa no Machi): Adults ¥1,200, Students ¥840

Bonnet Bus

• Operates mainly on weekends (irregular schedule)
• Fare: Free
• Duration: About 15 minutes
• Check Showa Roman Gura official website for latest schedule

Best Seasons

Enjoyable year-round, but the following periods are recommended:

• Spring (March-May): Mild climate ideal for walking
• Autumn (September-November): Comfortable weather with autumn foliage
• New Year: Showa-era New Year decorations may be displayed

Summers are hot and humid; winters are relatively mild but mornings and evenings can be cold.

Suggested Duration

• Shopping street only: 1-2 hours
• Including Showa Roman Gura: 2-3 hours
• Including surrounding attractions (Matamakaigan Beach, Kunisaki Peninsula temples, etc.): Full day

Nearby Attractions

Spots to combine with Showa no Machi:

• Matamakaigan Beach (about 15 minutes by car): Selected as one of “Japan’s 100 Best Sunsets.” Beautiful sunset reflections on the tidal flats.
• Fukiji Temple (about 20 minutes by car): Ancient temple with a National Treasure main hall built in the Heian period. The oldest wooden structure in Kyushu.
• Kumano Magaibutsu (about 25 minutes by car): Heian-period Buddhist images carved into massive rock walls. Legend says demons built them in a single night.

FAQ