September itinerary in Japan Day 5 (Iwate Day 3 Meal edition)
(Thursday, September 30)
Table of contents
Milk and soft serve ice cream at Koiwai Farm
Breakfast
I ate “Morioka Jajamen”, which is a “Local dishes loved by the nation” in Iwate prefecture, selected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for breakfast. The restaurant I ate was “Pairon Main Store”. It is said to be the origin of “Morioka Jajamen”. The “Pairon Main Store” is open from 9:00 to 21:00, so it is ideal for breakfast while traveling. It is a very convenient place near Morioka Castle Ruins Park. This is my second visit to the store.
There are three sizes of “Jajamen” at “Pairon”: large (Yen 710), medium (Yen 610), and small (Yen 510). I asked for the middle size “medium”, but it’s a large size in a regular store. Please be careful.
Add chili oil and vinegar to mix “Jajamen” if you like. After eating the noodles (actually, leave a little noodles), add Yen50 to make an egg soup called “Chitantan”. The egg is in the bowl on the table, so please break it yourself and ask the waiter / waitress for the soup. You can enjoy both “Jajamen” and “egg soup”, which is a great deal. The taste is of course delicious. I was very satisfied from the morning.
https://www.maff.go.jp/j/nousin/kouryu/kyodo_ryouri/attach/pdf/190131-6.pdf
In addition, “Pairon” is also convenient because it is also located in the Morioka Station Building “Fesan”.
http://www.pairon.iwate.jp/jajamen.html
Lunch
I ate “Wanko soba”, a local dish of Iwate prefecture, at “Azumaya station square store”. “Wanko soba” is a soba noodle that a waiter / waitress throws a small amount of soba into a bowl containing noodle soup that the customer has and eats as much as the customer can eat. It’s a very event-oriented way of eating, so I think it’s perfect for tourists. About 15 bowls of “Wanko soba” will be enough for a regular soba.
https://www.maff.go.jp/j/nousin/kouryu/kyodo_ryouri/attach/pdf/190131-1.pdf
“Wanko soba” is one of the three major soba noodles in Japan. In addition to “Wanko soba”, there are “Togakushi soba” in Nagano prefecture and “Izumo soba” in Shimane prefecture. My personal preference is to eat “Togakushi soba” and “Izumo soba” rather than “Wanko soba”, which has a strong event color.
“Wanko soba” is a local dish of Iwate prefecture, but the price is high because there is a waiter / waitress. At the Azumaya Ekimae store, the charge for Wanko soba is Yen 3,150-3,700 per person. Therefore, it is unlikely that locals will eat “Wanko soba” on a daily basis.
https://wankosoba.jp/en/wankosoba/
Milk and soft serve ice cream at Koiwai Farm
After seeing dairy cows at Koiwai Farm, I drank freshly squeezed milk and ate soft serve ice cream. Both were very delicious. After all, the dairy products we have on the farm are great.
https://www.koiwai.co.jp/makiba/en/
Craft beer
After returning to Morioka Station from Koiwai Farm, I drank craft beer at “Beer Base Baeren Morioka Ekimae”, a directly managed store of “BAEREN” in front of Morioka Station. I was able to drink a delicious beer at a very reasonable price of 1,540 yen for an hour all-you-can-drink.
“BAEREN” is a craft beer company with its head office and factory in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture. The company name “BAEREN” means bear in German. “BAEREN” won the 1st Grand Prix of “Japanese Craft Beer : Want to Tell the World” sponsored by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in 2015 (BAIRD BEER in Shizuoka Prefecture ranked first as well). It is a craft beer that has been evaluated.
Dinner
When I asked the tourist information center of Morioka Station where I could eat the local cuisine “Hittsumi”, I was introduced to “Momodori Ekimae Shokudo”. I hadn’t eaten “Hittsumi” yet, so I was happy to head to “Momodori Ekimae Shokudo”. “Hittsumi” is a local dish of Iwate prefecture, but you need to be careful because there are few restaurants where you can eat it.
The grilled “Bird thigh” that is also in the store name is very delicious. There are many other dishes, and all the dishes were of a high standard and I was very satisfied. All the dishes such as homemade tofu, edible wild plants, and local dishes were delicious, and the service of the staff was good, so it was a cozy shop.
https://www.sawauchijinku.com/ekimae/
“Hittsumi” is a dish in which a lump of wheat flour that has been kneaded with water and spread thinly is torn by hand, and chicken, burdock, etc. are added and simmered. Mainly soy sauce-based seasoning. The Iwate Prefecture Tourism Portal Site says that the name comes from the dialect of “tear by hand” and was named “Hittsumi” because it is called “Hittsumi”. It had a gentle taste that made me feel nostalgic, and it was very delicious.
https://www.maff.go.jp/j/nousin/kouryu/kyodo_ryouri/attach/pdf/190131-1.pdf
Today, I was able to eat three kinds of Iwate prefecture dishes, “Wanko soba” and “Hittsumi”, which are local dishes, and “Morioka Jajamen”, which is a “Local dishes loved by the nation”, and it was a very satisfying day.
Note: The departure / arrival times, fees, admission fees, etc. of transportation listed in the text are as of the time of writing the BLOG. They may change in the future, so please check for yourself when you go on a trip.