Mysterious hill house opens doors to tourists

Two members of a citizens group that works to preserve traditional properties in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, prepare to greet visitors to this wooden home that it bought and restored. The two-story structure with its layered, elaborately decorated roofs was built in the 1930s. It is dubbed the Onomichi Gaudi House after the well-known Spanish architect. The house, which has been vacant since the owner's wife died in 1981, is one of about 100 unoccupied traditional homes that stand on a steep hill in Onomichi facing the Seto Inland Sea.(IHT/Asahi: April 15,2008)

Mysterious hill house opens doors to tourists(YOSHIHISA AOYAMA/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)