"Unagai no nedoko." This what people in Kyoto call the long, narrow traditional wooden family homes that line the older streets of the city.

"Family house" is not quite right. More like, "city house", "machiya". When lined up, they are called "machinami" or "city rows".

Beginning in the Edo era (1603-1868) taxes were levied according to street frontage. So of course, everyone built their houses to be narrow at the front (often 8 metres) and long at the back (around 40 metres).

Fewer and fewer of these old structures still stand as modernization takes its toll on the old city.