Sometimes you may wish to learn what a city was like several centuries ago, what the life of common people, workers, craftsmen and fishermen, but not the nobility from palaces and castles, was like.

Unfortunately, only some countries still have remaining working-class neighborhoods. The Japanese seashore of Ogi keeps a unique place – a shipbuilders' village. There you will find a whole old quarter of Syukunegi, where time seems to stop and intentionally leave that place of the past untouched.

In the 17th-20th centuries, maritime trade prospered in this region. Every day hundreds of freighters landed at a port with their goods or stopped there for a repair. Thus, in the past, the village of Syukunegi was one of the busiest places in the trade way. It was inhabited by blacksmiths, carpenters and coopers. For the first time, there were only several houses, but in 10 years the settlement was built up with craft workshops and residences for those who worked there.

Today, the shipbuilders' village of Syukunegi is inevitably nice narrow streets, wooden two-story houses with specific architecture constructed by professionals in shipbuilding.

Not only houses but also stone gates which served as the central entrance to the village are still preserved. There is a post office which, though was built in 1921, was still made of ship slates according to an old tradition. A temple and a house of the village main governor – all these small constructions show the conditions of common Japanese people several centuries ago.

Nowadays, there is a functioning open-air museum on the territory of this complex. People still live in some of these houses. If you have a chance to talk to them, then you may learn many interesting things. Some houses were turned into everyday life museums. You may come in to see what the layout of these unusual constructions was like, what tableware people used and what furniture they chose for their houses.

You can and even must take a map where the most beautiful and culturally and historically important places are marked, so you will not lose any significant place in Syukunegi village.