【Iwate Prefecture】Japan Shopping Festival in Tohoku

Iwate Prefecture is home to Morioka City, which was selected as the second best place to visit in the New York Times' 「52 Places to Go in 2023」. The coastal area has a thriving fishing industry, making fresh seafood readily available, and the intricate rias coastline offers beautiful scenery.

■Activities that can only be done here

Let's go through the 「Ice Cave」 that appears only in winter!

From the end of January to the end of February every year, an exhibition event of objects made from ice will be held at 「Mahora Iwate」 located in the Yabukawa district of Morioka City, which is said to be 「the coldest place in Honshu」. The 「Ice Cave,」 10 meters long and 5 meters high, will be fantastically illuminated, and the 「Ice Wall」, 「Ice House」, and 「Ice Forest」 will also be on display. The highlight of the event is also one of the largest illuminations in Iwate Prefecture, with 600,000 LED bulbs lighting up the entire venue in vivid colors, making you forget how cold it is.

Aguri Mahora Iwate

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■Gourmet food only available here

Wanko Soba -- Let's try to see how many bowls you can eat!

"Wanko Soba" is a unique way of eating soba noodles that originated in Hanamaki City and Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture.As soon as you finish eating a bite-size of soba and make your bowl empty, the nearest server puts "next bite-size" quickly in your bowl. When the stomach is full, you close the bowl with a cover to make a sign of "I’m done".

This style of soba, which is not seen anywhere else, is said to have originated when soba was divided into small portions to prevent it from getting soggy when served to large numbers of guests at festivals.

Soba restaurant Azumaya (Morioka City)

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Morioka Jajamen -- 「Flavor of meat paste」 shows the individuality of each store

「Jajamen」 is flat noodles similar to udon topped with meat paste, shredded cucumber and green onion. The basic style is to add chili oil, vinegar, grated ginger and garlic to taste, and mix well. After eating the noodles, you drop a raw egg in the rest of meat paste and add the boiled soup to make 「egg soup」 is the standard to finish off the meal. It is said that the first owner of 「Pairon Main Store」 made an arrangement with the former Manchurian local food 「Jajamen」.

Original Morioka Jajamen Pairon Fesan Store

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Morioka reimen -- an outstanding combination of tasteful soup and elastic noodles

Morioka reimen is a special gourmet of Morioka City in Iwate Prefecture. It is said that its origin is from an arranged menu based on 「Pyongyang reimen」, traditional food of North Korean Peninsula, and the big difference from North Korean reimen is in the base of noodle that was made of flour and starch instead of soba powder. The soup is made from beef bones, 「kimchi for reimen」 made from pickled radish and cabbage is used to adjust the spiciness of the noodle, and fruits of season like pear or watermelon as garnish are added in general.

Pyon Pyon Sha

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