Hanamaki City
Bordering Aomori Prefecture to the north is Iwate Prefecture, said to be the last untouched frontier of Japan by the locals, with 5% of it’s total land area designated as national parks. The journey via Shinkansen will take you a little over 2 hours from Tokyo (if you get the fastest one).
Iwate has four distinct areas , the urban capital of Morioka in the northwest, Miyako City with its picturesqe coastline in the northeast. Down south, the famed “City of Folklore” can be found in Tono whilst it’s west side Hanamaki, is famed for its many historical and cultural sites, a plethora of steaming onsen and various sake breweries.
During my time in Hanamaki, I was lucky enough to explore some lovely parts of the City, which for some require their own separate posts. Iwate is famed for its sake production, with many of their Toji (sake masters) travelling around Japan to teach other breweries, all of which I will share in a later post as there’s so much rich history and knowledge there, it deserves its own post.
Hanamaki is also renowned for the Hanamaki Onsenkyo village, where along the edge of the Ou Mountains is a chain of 12 hot springs. Whilst I was there, I stayed in two fabulous onsen ryokans, Yuukaen & Kashoen.
The town is also the birthplace of one of Japan’s most popular novelist and poet of children’s literature, Kenji Miyazawa. A giant billboard depicting illustrations of his most famous work “ Night on the Galactic Road” can be found by a road in Hanamaki and is absolutely stunning at night as it glows in the dark.
The area also has a climate suitable to growing and harvesting various grapes, so wine production is slowly becoming popular in certain areas. I spent a delightful day tasting Edel Wein’s produce; who’s owner Masahiro Fujitate is an absolute delight. A cheery individual, I couldn’t suppress a chuckle when giving a tour of his winery production area, he asked our host, “does he really have to talk and talk about production, can’t we just go drink and taste the wine together?” hahahaha! Fujitate-san derived the namesake of his wine from his love of the flower Edel Weiss, and you can see the influences of his love of the region not only in the grapes used, Merlot, Zweigeltrebe, Muller-Thurugau but the accompanying chateau-style restaurant.
Iwate has the lowest population of any prefecture outside of Hokkaido, as a result there’s some amazing nature to be explored and enjoyed. From outdoor sports, to exploring the river and water ways and enjoying fishing and camping.
PS. Just like any area in Japan, the Iwate area lays claim to a few particular types of food which you can only find in their region. I will be sharing with you later, my fun experience of trying Wanko Soba.
