A village high in the mountains of Misakubo, in Hamamatsu's Tenryu Ward. The Misakubo tourist association describes it as the village in the sky, said to be Japan's Machu Picchu; signs in the village give its elevation as 736 meters and call it the Machu Picchu of Enshu. Misakubo lies at the northern tip of Hamamatsu on the border with Nagano, a valley town hemmed in by mountains on three sides. Forest covers 96 percent of the town, and even the center along the Misakubo River sits at 250 meters.
Sources: misakubo.net misakubo.net
This moment in the journey
A picnic in the village in the sky
Wishing Bell in the Sky, 300 m. A wooden sign beside the house pointed up the hill. Tin-roofed houses stacked up the slope, and beyond them the mountains went on in fold after fold. This is Osawa, 736 meters up, known as the village in the sky.
With stone walls built into the steep slope and small fields and houses clinging to them, the village is also called the Machu Picchu of Enshu. I climbed the stone-walled path and sat down on a bench with a view, ginkgo leaves scattered at my feet.
I opened the lunch box on my lap. Rice cooked over a kamado is fluffy and delicious. Lunch, looking down over the village roofs and the mountains across the valley.
Watch this scene on YouTube2:59
More notes from this journey
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Rice cooked over a kamado
In this house the tiled kamado is still in daily use.
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Satsuki's lunch box
A recreation of the lunch Satsuki gets up early to make in My Neighbor Totoro: rice cooked over a kamado, grilled dried sardines, green peas, pink sakura denbu…
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Wild boar hot pot over the hearth
Most of Hamamatsu's Tenryu Ward is forest, and the Tenryu Gibier Fes, a festival of wild game, is held in Futamata (its fifth edition was in May 2025).
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Skewered yamame trout
Every summer a yamame-catching festival is held on the Misakubo River (the 28th was in July 2025).
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
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Shohachiman Shrine and the Wishing Bell in the Sky
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From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Shizuoka green tea
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Numazu, Shizuoka
Numazu bowl (Numazu-don)
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From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
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Sakura shrimp kakiage
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From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Horse mackerel chazuke
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Rice-ball bento in bamboo sheath
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The Numazu special: nigiri and gunkan sushi
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Asa-Ichi, the morning market in the Arcade Meitengai
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From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji