【Okayama City: Hokkancho Shopping Street】Walking through an arcade shopping street with a nostalgic atmosphere at night

Hokkancho Shopping Street has roots in samurai starting businesses on the old Sanyo Road

Exiting the ticket gate at Okayama Station and going right takes you to the west exit.
The east exit has Okayama Castle, Korakuen, and the entertainment district, but the west exit has a highway bus terminal and airport limousine bus stops, so you might go there for those. Oh, and there are hotels, so you'd go there for those too.
Walking north on the west exit street from the station rotary, you'll see an arch (shopping street gate) with "Hokkancho Shopping Street" written on it on the left, which is the landmark.
When you visit shopping streets all over Japan, you'll notice many have aging arcades, but this one is quite nice.

Walking into the shopping street for a while, there's an information board introducing the roots of Hokkancho Shopping Street.
Reading this, it says the roots are that after the Meiji Restoration from the Taisei Hokan (return of political power) at the end of the Edo period, those who returned (hokan) the hereditary stipends (salaries) they received in the Edo period used the compensation money (hokankin) paid by the government to start businesses along the Sanyo Road.

Now, there's apparently only one shop that started business with hokankin. On the other hand, I'm amazed that it's been operating for 150 years.

It's a shopping street with a good atmosphere, so there are also new shops

The shopping street continues for about 1 kilometer. It extends almost straight west from the entrance. The old Sanyo Road is also called Saigoku Kaido, and in the era before railways, people walked this road. I think the road width is close to that of the old highway, but this width is reassuring.

Since I walked it at night, most shops have their shutters closed, but I got the impression that there are quite a few shops with an open atmosphere. Walking along, there are stylish shops scattered on both sides. Since it's a shopping street with a good atmosphere, new shops probably open here.

Video of walking from Okayama Station to Hokkancho Shopping Street

Shopping streets near stations are all becoming desolate, but I introduced this hoping that new shops will increase and more people will visit.

Okayama articles are viewed quite a bit, so I reintroduced this shopping street with a good atmosphere in Okayama.