Mino Washi Paper Making Museum - Mino - TravBuddy

If you’re traveling around Japan and happen to be here the city of Nagoya I would consider heading 2 hours North to the town of Mino.

This was one of my favorite towns I went to on my adventures around Nagoya. This cute little town has a long history of washi paper production dating back to the Nara Period (710-794). First head to the Mino Washi Paper Museum and take a look at all the history and all the examples of things that can be made out of paper (under wear, a dress, etc.) and then head down to the bottom floor and pay a small fee (about 1000 Yen – About 10 USD) to have a hands on demonstration of how to make traditional Japanese paper, you even get to make your own and take it home. This was truly a memorable experience!!

The souvenir shop is extensive and they have some amazing things to buy, but the prices are a little high. You might consider waiting to buy your paper souvenirs in town rather than at the Museum.

In town there are two parallel streets of preserved Edo-style houses of former prosperous paper merchants complete with udatsu roofs. udatsu are ornately-tiled firewalls attached to both ends of a buildings roof to prevent the spread of fire from house to house. The trip is worth it just to see these buildings. Also in town are two museums which might be worth checking out.

Mino also hosts an Akari Art Exhibition in mid-October every year. Akari artwork (Japanese washi paper lanterns) presented by members of the public is lit up and exhibited along the historic streets. I visited Mino in June but the pictures of the festival look to be an amazing time.

And finally don’t miss heading down to the river that flows along the edge of town. Daily you can catch a glimpse of the family fishermen down there with their massive fishing poles (from the looks of it they are 20 feet long!) trying to catch a bag of fish.