Lake Towada is surrounded by exceptionally beautiful foliage in spring and autumn. To see this beautiful unspoiled scenery, take the Akita Nairiku Line through the mountains on a journey into the past.
Cooked rice from the fertile Odate Basin is pounded and formed into tubes. The tubes are placed on an Akita cedar skewer and cooked next to a charcoal fire. One traditional way to eat kiritampo is to brush it with a miso paste made with soybeans and rice. Hotpot made with kiritampo is also very popular. The meat of high-quality Hinai Jidori chickens and locally grown vegetables are added to a broth made with Hinai Jidori chicken bones for a hot, hearty meal.
The Hinai Jidori chicken is a crossbreed between the Hinai chicken and the Rhode Island Red and is designated as a natural monument. Hinai Jidori chickens are raised for more than three times longer than ordinary broilers and are one of the three most important chickens in Japan. This Oyako-don(Chicken and Egg over rice) is made using this Hinai Jidori.
For visitors who want to spend time with the locals, the method for making kiritampo is best learned from the wives of Odate’s farmers. You can also join the people of Odate in harvesting rice and other produce. Those who are charmed by the rustic community can stay at a farmhouse to learn about local foods firsthand from the family and see what rural life is really like.
The edamame of Odate is known for its high nutritional value, which comes from the manure of the Hinan Jidori that is used for fertilizer. Another local delicacy of Odate is tonburi, the dried seed of the summer cypress, which is also sometimes called “field caviar” because of its texture.
Mount Moriyoshi is known as one of the hundred most beautiful flower mountains of Japan and is famous for its “snowmonsters”—the towering, icy figures of trees which have become covered in rime. The scenery of Lake Towada is also worth seeing. A caldera lake formed over multiple volcanic eruptions in the past, Lake Towada is surrounded by exceptionally beautiful foliage in spring and autumn. To see this beautiful unspoiled scenery, take the Akita Nairiku Line through the mountains on a journey into the past.
