Kitakata Onsen Mushiyu

Kitakata Onsen Mushiyu is found near Kitakata City in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, a city celebrated throughout Japan for two distinctive claims to cultural fame: its extraordinary proliferation of traditional kura mud-plaster storehouses, with over 4,200 preserved examples creating a streetscape of remarkable architectural consistency that has earned Kitakata the title of Japan's kura city, and its ramen noodle style, one of Japan's three most famous regional ramen traditions, characterized by flat, curly noodles in a clear shoyu broth that is served even for breakfast by locals who consider early-morning ramen the ideal start to the Kitakata day. The combination of architectural heritage walks through kura-lined streets and steaming bowls of Kitakata ramen consumed in one of the hundreds of ramen shops that give this small city the highest ramen restaurant density per capita in Japan creates an irresistible cultural destination in the Aizu highlands. The thermal waters here complement this rich culinary and architectural heritage, warming visitors in a spa tradition as authentically Aizu as the lacquerware and sake that complete the region's distinctive cultural identity.