Inuyama is a small castle town on the Kiso River in Aichi Prefecture, sometimes called the "Japanese Rhine" for the wooded gorge the river cuts through upstream. The town's centrepiece is Inuyama Castle, one of only twelve original castles remaining in Japan and a national treasure — the oldest surviving wooden castle keep in the country, built in 1537, perched on a bluff with a panoramic view across the river.
Below the castle, the Uraku-en garden contains the Jo-an teahouse, a national treasure built in 1618 by Oda Uraku (younger brother of the warlord Oda Nobunaga) and one of the finest surviving examples of tea-ceremony architecture. The Honmachi street running up to the castle gate preserves a handsome stretch of old townscape: sake breweries, traditional shops, and a small shrine. In summer (June through October), traditional ukai cormorant fishing takes place on the river after dark — fishermen work by torchlight from wooden boats with Inuyama Castle silhouetted on the hill behind them, an experience that has been running for 1,300 years.
A few kilometres to the east, Museum Meiji-mura preserves 67 Meiji-era buildings in an open-air setting including Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel lobby. Little World Museum of Man, another open-air museum nearby, features full-scale reconstructed dwellings from 20 countries. Inuyama is an easy day trip from Nagoya, about 30 minutes by train on the Meitetsu line.