Kyodo News Members of nonprofit organizations are making strenuous efforts to preserve traditional Japanese structures and townscapes and develop regional communities.

About 40 volunteers are working hard to retain the townscape of the city of Komoro in Nagano Prefecture, where wholesale stores and tradesmen's houses stood side by side along Honmachi street from the Edo Period prior to 1868 to the 1920s.

They organized the Komoro townscape study group in 1998, brought in a professor of architecture and students, and held a workshop to study traditional structures in the city. In 2001, they also opened Honmachi Machiya Hall to preserve an old miso factory.

NPO members in Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures have converted sake makers' earthen plastered warehouses into halls and art galleries used for cultural activities.

Five NPOs in Shizuoka Prefecture are focusing their operations on education, welfare and the promotion of regional areas. They include those who are using a vacant store on a shopping street to sell goods made by the physically disabled.

Some Wakayama Prefecture residents brief tourists on the history of an ancient road in the Kumano mountains that was once a path used by pilgrims visiting sacred sites.

NPO members in the city of Kochi converted a closed bathhouse into a concert hall that doubles as a "rakugo" (comic storytelling) theater.

Women on the island of Tanegashima, Kagoshima Prefecture, offer job and housing information to nonresident surfers, who in turn take part in volunteer work, including cleaning beaches.

The former miso manufacturing building where Honmachi Machiya Hall now stands was once in danger of being demolished to make way for a parking lot.

The municipality and a panel on the development of the Honmachi section of the city that included a member of the study group agreed to retain the old structure, which was refurbished by the city office and is managed by the panel.

Entering the main section of the two-story building, visitors find themselves in a room with a high ceiling and a large dirt floor. There is also a path for handcarts that used to connect the main structure to a miso preparation warehouse.

The main building has retained its magnificent architectural appearance and is used for exhibitions and musical performances. It is also one place travelers stop by in the course of their tour of the city.

One tourist wrote, "I am happy that I was able to get a glimpse of good-old Japan."

Toshio Kakegawa, 58, a director of the study group and chief of Honmachi Machiya-Kan, said, "I would like to make Honmachi a town that tourists would like to come back to for a second or third time."

A three-car train that weaves through the ravines deep in the mountains of Fukushima Prefecture carries not only passengers, but also bicycles.

The "Train and Bike" train is operated by Aizu Railway. When it stopped at Shimogo Station recently, it was carrying about 30 bicycles, including tandem bicycles and bikes for physically disabled people, some of whom pedal by hand.

Cyclists came in from the cities and took part in an outdoor education program organized by local residents to promote nature in the Minami Aizu area.

The event has been held once a month, except during winter, since 1996, when a local group formed the Minami Aizu green stock club. Its members ride bicycles to see sights, including Komado swamp, which is described as a second Oze, after the famous marshland in Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture.

The club has also held canoeing lessons and given lessons on the swamp. It is considering holding sessions on swamp conservation in cooperation with Tsukuba University.

About 150,000 people visit the marsh each year. The club's president, Yoshio Hoshi, 70, wants an organization set up to train tour guides versed in mountain plants and wild birds.

"If there are guide jobs with annual incomes of 3 million yen, young men can live here and we can stop them from leaving (the Minami Aizu region)," said Shin Haganuma, 45, the club's secretary general. "Without touching nature, we will surely be able to get some economic effect."