Misumi West Port

Misumi West Port was one of three ports the Meiji government built to modernise Japanese shipping, designed in 1887 by the Dutch engineer Anthonie Rouwenhorst Mulder and constructed by Japanese stonemasons using their own techniques. Seven hundred and fifty metres of dressed stone quay, stone drainage channels, and a street grid behind it — and unlike the other two, it was never redeveloped.

That is why it is on the UNESCO list of Meiji Industrial Revolution Sites: it is the only Meiji-era port in Japan surviving essentially complete. Trade moved to Misumi East Port and the town simply stopped. What remains is the quay, the canals and a handful of period buildings including the Ryujokan of 1918, which is now the interpretive centre. The port area is free; the Ryujokan charges ¥200.