Located in front of the Torii Gate of the Ise-jingu Naiku (Inner Shrine), Okage Yokocho embodies a nostalgic town of the Edo and Meiji Period. This small shopping district offers visitors an opportunity to go back in the time to the 19th century. The district is packed with over 50 amazing shops and restaurants in an area of nine square kilometers. In addition to the food and shopping, visitors can also enjoy Japanese taiko drum performances and traditional paper play from time to time.
Okage Yokocho was built in 1993 by "Akafuku", the time-honored local sweet shop with 300 years of history. In order to revitalize the area and to thank Ise-jingu Shrine for its successful business, Arafuku invested 14 billion yen in this project which was equal to its annual sales. Some buildings have been relocated to reconstruct the streets of Ise-ji Route (the pilgrimage route to Ise-jingu) and it took seven years to complete the site. You will find the typical housing structures of the old Ise town everywhere on the streets.
