Day trip in Tsuwano

 Tsuwano is a must-see on any vacation in the Iwami region in Japan. This 'little Kyoto' of Shimane is bursting with shrines, and temples, traditional houses, museums, art galleries, and plenty of nice cafes and inns.

“Chikufu-ken” is a Japanese-style confection store established in 1885 and located near Tsuwano station. It takes about 5 minutes from Tsuwano station to Chikufu-ken on foot. This shop allows you to make your own “Genji Maki” a type of Japanese sweet cake with anko (sweet red bean paste) inside.

On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from March to November, they open the Genji maki making experience in the corner next to the sweets shop. From 11:00 to 15:00 a reservation is not needed, you can experience it on a first-come-first-served basis!

We made Genji maki by ourselves and it was really FUN! We’re sure that you can have a great time at this shop.

Experience fee is 500 yen with a picture and a Genji maki!

INFORMATION

Address: 584 Takamine, Tsuwano-cho, Kanoashi-gun Shimane Prefecture

E-mail: tikufu@sx.miracle.ne.jp

Tel：0856-72-1858 (Japanese only)

Fax: 0856-72-0897

Web site: http://www.tikufu-ken.com/

(Written by Eri)

 Tsuwano is a must-see on any vacation in the Iwami region in Japan. This 'little Kyoto' of Shimane is bursting with shrines, and temples, traditional houses, museums, art galleries, and plenty of nice cafes and inns

“Nono” (能濃) is located about 2 minutes on foot from Tsuwano station. It is a restaurant, which is actually an old Japanese building. It serves good traditional food and sweets. This is the kind of food ordinary Japanese people eat so it’s a nice chance to try the kind of everyday place that local residents eat.

One of the traditional dishes in Tsuwano is uzume-meshi. ( Look for うずめ飯 on the menu or ask for it by name.) It is kind of ochazuke, a rice dish served with tea and a few simple toppings. But it differs from ochazuke in that uzume-meshi has many kinds of ingredients in the rice, for example, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, wasabi and so on. It was made for warriors a long time ago. You cannot eat it with a spoon. You can only use chopsticks. Nono serves uzume-meshi teishoku. (Look forうずめ飯定食 on the menu.) It is a combo, which consists of uzume-meshi, konyaku (a kind of vegetarian savoury jelly), a simmered veggie dish. and Japanese pickles. It is a bit big if you are a light eater. So it is good if you are really hungry, or greedy.

Uzume-meshi teishoku (うずめ飯定食) 1,000yen

I had teishoku (定食), a set-meal. You may be surprised at the size because the menu doesn’t tell you what is in it. Just wait till you see it! When I went to there, teishoku consisted of rice, Japanese soup, a simmered dish of eggplants, plus fried squid, and Japanese pickles.

Nono has many kinds of wheat noodles and rice bowl dishes. You can also have dessert and coffee after lunch. A lot of people like coffee zenzai.  (Look for コーヒーぜんざい on the menu. If you order it, remember to pronounce coffee as ‘kohi’.) It contains coffee instead of the more traditional anko, Japanese sweet bean paste. This recipe is special to Nono.

When you choose food, you can always choose from the fake plastic food in front of the restaurant. In that case, you can point and say ‘Kore o kudsai’ or ‘This please,’ and hope they don’t ask you any questions! The menu has Japanese words, no pictures, so it might be a bit tricky if you don’t read any Japanese.

teishoku (定食) 850yen

Nono (能濃)

TEL: 0856-72-0238 (Japanese only)

Address: 55-2 Usiroda-I Tsuwano, Kanoashi, Shimane

Breakfast 8:30~11:30

Parking: diagonally in front of the restaurant (space for three cars)

Average budget: LUNCH 800~1,000yen

(written by Hitomi)

Tsuwano is a must-see on any vacation in the Iwami region in Japan. This 'little Kyoto' of Shimane is bursting with shrines, and temples, traditional houses, museums, art galleries, and plenty of nice cafes and inns.

Outside Tsuwano, there is a beautiful old Japanese building and garden called Hori teien (堀庭園). This area is surrounded by the beautiful nature and called “Shunjyu-kyo, a home of the imperial fief.

This main building was burned down in a fire in 1788 and rebuilt, so all the buildings except  for the gate are about two hundred and thirty years old now. In the middle of this garden, there is a maple tree which is about 300 years old. In winter, the plum trees blossoms and in spring, the cherry trees are in flower. You can see so many colors of leaves in summer and autumn. The garden shows the beauty of nature and the earth in each season.

You can sometimes get green tea and traditional cakes here to eat on the verandah as you enjoy the view.

The interior of the building.

The building seen from the outside.

●Important information

Address: Muraki Tsuwano-cho Kanoashi-gun Shimane-ken 699-5622

Tel: (0856)72-0010 (in Japanese only)

Open: 9am to 4pm (Closed on Monday)

※The tickets are 500yen for an adult, 300 yen for junior and high school kids, and 200 yen for elementary school kids.

※If you take the train to Tsuwano station, you can take a bus from there and it takes about 30 minutes to “Horiteien mae (In front of the Horiteien”.

If you’re coming by car, the signposts are few and far between. Just follow the signs and don’t turn off the road! You could always stop and ask someone: just say ‘Sumimasen. Horiteien wa doko desu ka?’ (Excuse me, where is Hori Teien). It’s Shimane. Someone will point you in the right direction!

And here's a picture of the garden in  early Autumn. It's usually lit up some evenings when the leaves are at their peak.