Shimotsukare is a traditional dish made with salmon heads used in a recipe for a new year’s dish, soybeans used for Setsubun and other leftovers, making it quite a sustainable dish. It used to be a ceremonial dish, however, since it’s highly nutritious, it is often cooked at home throughout the year.
Otawara city is the leading producer of red pepper in Japan. The red peppers they produce are certified as Tochigi Santaka Togarashi by the city. Many restaurants in the city serve fried chicken seasoned with certified red pepper, which is spicy and packed with umami, making them such a popular food among customers.
Otawara used to be called Odawara, big straw bags for rice. Sake making using rice as the main ingredient is what Otawara is famous for. At five distilleries in the city, they use subterranean water from the Nasu Mountain Range and Mount Yamizo as their shikomi mizu, the water for making Sake.
Kozuyu is a local dish of Aizu Wakamatsu, which used to be served as a dish for the head of the Aizu Wakamatsu clan. The soup is made from a dashi stock of dried scallops and other ingredients such as carrots, shiitake, kikurage, warabi and satoimo. They are simmered together with a little bit of soy sauce to taste. It is served in a red shallow Aizu-nuri dish called “teshio sara”, a lacquerware that originated in the region.
Aizu region is one of the leading areas for sake production. Aizu’s climate, and the fact that it was the castle town of the Aizu clan in the Edo period have contributed to the growth of Sake making in the area. Each distillery keep honing their skills and they have won the gold medal at the Annual Japan Sake Awards. There are a number of high-quality, award-winning distilleries and ther sake in Aizu.
Dengaku is a signature dish of Aizu Wakamatsu. Ingredients like konnyaku, fried tofu, mochi, satoimo are skewered, glazed with a sauce of akamiso, sugar and yakumi spices, then grilled over a charcoal fire.
Here at Wado Farm, you can enjoy picking various brands of strawberries like Amao and Kaorin. Using organic soil, their focus is their customers’ health and safety. Enjoy the literal fruits of labor by farming professionals who have been studying and researching organic soil for years. Also, they provide grape picking of Yama Ruby, which is Chichibu’s own brand of grapes. Please visit their website for more information.
Miyamotoke is a farmhouse of the Miyamoto family that’s been around since the Edo period. They renovated the house and turned it into a farmhouse-style hotel where you can have an immersive experience in farming. You can observe historic artifacts from the Sengoku and the Edo period in their gallery. Besides participating in an immersive farming experience, there is a Goemonburo, a traditional Japanese-style bath, so you can fully experience the lifestyle from the old days.
This is a magnificent winter natural object created by spring water frozen by the winter cold where appears near the headwaters of the river. Some viewpoints such as seen from suspension bridges, while it illuminated, it can be enjoyed by variety of perspectives. Please be careful when you moving by car while the road were freezing over.
NIPPONIA – a Japanese-style old house/storage house renovated and turned into a hotel. With no TV or clocks in the rooms, it’s reminiscent of the old days and you can take a break from busy city life. From beams, interior decoration to furniture, they’ve been kept intact for over 150 years and they have a remarkable old feel to them. The hotel has a café and a French restaurant that uses locally produced ingredients.
