Tanushimaru grape farmers trying to adapt themselves to new consumer tastes

Sept. 28, 2014

Tanushimaru grape farmers trying to adapt themselves to new consumer tastes

Grape production is a time- and energy-consuming job. About 150 grape farmers in Tanushimaru, southwestern Japan, are busy growing the very juicy, big grain Kyoho grape from early spring to around August, not just fertilizing grape trees but also bending their branches in the favorable direction, thinning out young fruits and covering bunches of grapes with white bags to protect them from rainfalls and bugs.

Tanushimaru Town, which became part of Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, in 2005, is the birthplace of Kyoho grape production, which was realized after years of hard work by a group of young farmers in the town from the 1950s to the 60s.

Japan’s grape production amounts to about 185,000 tons a year. The Kyoho is currently the most popular grape species in Japan in terms of acreage. Grape farmers are trying to be more aware of changes in consumers’ tastes, further refining their growing techniques. Particularly, reflecting consumers’ preference to easy-to-eat, seedless products, they have come to use various agents and hormone drugs. This has made some grape growers rather concerned about their future business.

The Kyoho grape is an indigenous species developed by a Japanese cultural scientist in the 1930s. The Kyoho species, so named by the developer, had not been commercially produced until Tanushimaru farmers succeeded in growing the grape with big fruits in 1960.
The success came only after three years of studies by the group, who had launched an unprecedented farmers’ research laboratory for farmers, with the support of Michishige Ochi, an agronomist who inherited the work of the Japanese developer.

The Kyoho grape boasts of its big grain size. So, Kyoho farmers have been less enthusiastic about turning out seedless products. Seedless Kyoho products are available now.
Such grapes are produced by soaking young bunches of grapes into a cup containing a vegetable hormone which halts the growth of seeds. Then, a different growth hormone has to be used to enable them to have big grains without seeds. Sometimes, a coloring agent is also used. "People say they (the agents and others) are harmless, but their continuous use is unfavorable to grapes," said a vineyard owner, whose father was one of the young grape farmers who joined the inauguration of the research group. His vineyard uses no chemicals, growing grapes as naturally as possible, he said. 

Tanushimaru attracts tens of thousands of grape lovers every summer. About 60 vineyards in the town are open to tourists from July to September to let them enjoy grape gathering under the trellises. Kyoho grapes usually have a dark purple color, but light green and pink ones are also available.

People can pick up as many grapes as they want at these vineyards. No admission fees are required, and they can buy their catches for 1,000 yen to 1,300 yen per kilogram. As grape production is coming to an end this year, grape farmers in Tanushimaru are already thinking about what kind of products should be satisfactory to consumers in the coming year.

Minamioguni, southwestern Japan, boasts of harmonious coexistence of people and nature

Aug. 30, 2014

Minamioguni, southwestern Japan, boasts of harmonious coexistence of people and nature

Minamioguni Town, a mountainous region in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Kumamoto, is proud of being an original member of the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan union, a nonprofit organization launched in 2005.

The union is modeled after a similar grouping inaugurated in France in the 1980s. The movement then spread to other European countries. In Japan, seven towns and villages which have a population of 10,000 or less, including Minamioguni, got together to demonstrate themselves as communities who are out to preserve scenic landscapes and rich natural resources with the backing of environment-conscious local people.
The union accepted other eligible communities across Japan in later years. The number of member towns and villages increased to 54 in 2013.

Minamioguni, with a population of about 4,400 and an area of 11,000 hectares, has a lot of widely known tourist spots, notably the Kurokawa hot spa retreat and the Senomoto Heights which commands a good view of the active Aso volcanic mountains. But it also boasts of more casual spots which are attractive to nature-loving tourists.

The Hill of Oshitoishi, with mysterious rocks scattered around, is one of new handmade tourist spots in the town. The hill, at an elevation of 845 meters, had been little known to outside people until what appear to be petroglyphs, or rock engravings in the prehistorical age, were confirmed on some of the volcanic rocks in 1989 by local education board officials. Later, the petrolyphs were authorized by a UNESCO-affiliated rock art academy, and the site was found to be the remains with nine groups of artificially placed rocks. As an access road to the site was opened a few years ago, the hill has become famous as a “power-giving spot."

“If you are interested in our town as a Most Beautiful Village in Japan, I would say you should also visit the Hiranodai Heights,” a local tourist association official said. Hiranodai is located to the east of the Kurokawa hot spa valley. There are nature trails and a village of log houses in a quiet atmosphere on the foot of the heights. An observatory is high up to the heights.
Tourists may also be recommended to drop in at a farmers’ market with various vegetables fresh from the garden and dine at country-taste restaurants staffed with local people. Farmer-run inns are also available at some locations in the town.

The launch of the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan union came at a time when mergers of towns and villages were recommended across Japan from the 1990s under Japan’s local government realignment policy, which, critics say, made it difficult for small but nicely preserved communities to protect their natural landscape.

The Hill of Oshitoishi used to be a pasture co-owned by farmers to reap grass for cattle. Local people worshiped the rock garden as a sacred place for a god of water and held rites regularly on the top of the hill. They have inherited the site from generation to generation. Most people in the area still live on cattle growing. They have preserved the environment around the hill over years, burning off dead grass, improving paths and doing other jobs together.

The hill has no gates and fences. Handwritten guides, set up along the access road, read "Go forward carefully, please." or "Soft shoulders!." Tourists are asked to pay 200 yen as an “admission fee” at a reception house below the hill. Oshitoishi, the main rock so called, is marked with a sacred straw rope. The rock is 5.5 meters high and 15.3 meters around, and its vertex points to the North Star.

A rock on the western end of the hill, called Hasamiishi, has a slit through which the son can be seen setting on the winter solstice and from the other side, the sunrise can be seen on the summer solstice. A nearby rock, called Kagamiishi, has petroglyphs engraved on its face to the south. Because the main rock apparently has a magnetic force, compasses irregularly move, when placed near the rock. People had believed that it rains when the one climbs up the rock. “When I was a kid, we were always told by elders not to climb on the rock, particularly in the rice harvesting season,” said a farmer who mans the reception house.

Tourists can borrow small compasses at the reception house. While showing how to use the device, the reception house keeper, who is one of the 40 co-owner farmers, told visitors, “Please feel the force of Oshitoishi, and you will be empowered with its strength.”

It is uncertain if every visitor can feel the strength of the rock, but tourists should find themselves being refreshed while feeling smooth winds on the hill and thinking of the life of ancient people believed to have deified the rocks.

History-backed real power displayed in summer lantern festival by southwestern Japan town

Jujy 27, 2014

History-backed real power displayed in summer lantern festival by southwestern Japan town

Hita, a land-locked town in Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, southwestern Japan, sees its population continuously decline, as is the case with many other local cities in Japan, but its residents are proud that the region used to be a domain directly controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate government for over 200 years from the 17th century.

Hita's real tradition-based strength is displayed in a summer festival in which gorgeously decorated tall floats lit by many lanterns slowly progress on the city’s main streets.

The 300-year-old Hita Gion Festival is performed as an evil-dispelling rite dedicated to three shrines in the central part of the city for three days in late July. As dusk falls over the area, four “Yamahoko” floats, decorated with dolls of legendary figures, gathered at a square in the Mameda district and went in procession before thousands of spectators. As many floats left the Kuma-Taketa district for a tour on a different course.

The floats, 6 to 8 meters high and 3 to 5 tons in weight, were pushed by dozens of young men from behind with a few steersmen in front.

The performance by the teams from the Mameda district culminated when their Yamahoko floats ran up a slope toward a bridge at the end of Uwamachi Street one by one. Music played by their bands on board went into full swing.

Mameda Yasaka Shrine is located on a corner of the Mameda district, the most attractive tourist spot in Hita City, which has a population of about 70,000 at present. An old shrine keeper received worshipers while holding a time-honored lion mask said to be a shrine treasure. “Please come on and have your head bit with the lion’s mouth, and you will be protected from evil,” he said. “This mask has to bite the visitor’s head twice. When a thousand people come, I have to do it two thousand times. That’s a really tough job for an old guy like me,” he said happily.

A shop was set up in front of a different shrine at Nakajo within the Mameda district to sell miniature charms to spectators. “This charm can keep evil spirits away for you,” said a shopkeeper, who was in his 70s. A girl and a few women were seen buying four or five “paipai” charms of small paper flowers. “You can place them not just at the entrance of your house but also put them to your car or at your kitchen,” he said.

The festival was designated as a national folk cultural asset in 1996. Most Yamahoko decorations are newly built every year, but "Miokuri" embroidered drop curtains for some floats are more than 100 to 150 years old. The number of centuries-old cultural assets is expected to boost Hita people's spirits and enrich the town's atmosphere further.

Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, gives glimpses of diverse, aboriginal spots to visitors

June 29, 2014

Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, gives glimpses of diverse, aboriginal spots to visitors

About 80 pct of the names of towns and villages in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, are said to be traceable to the language spoken by Ainu, an aboriginal tribe. Sapporo, the name of the most populous city in Hokkaido, means a “dry, big river” in the Ainu. Tourists to Hokkaido, particularly the eastern part of the landmass, can have glimpses of not only many scenic natural spots but also sites linked to the Ainu tribe.

People in Ainu-related areas are even more enthusiastic than before to attract tourists as the “irankarapte” hospitality campaign was launched jointly by various local organizations, public and private, in 2013. Irankarapte represents “hello” in the Ainu, but it is a slightly formal word of greeting toward visitors from distant places.

The 71,100-hectare Shiretoko natural park lies in the northeastern tip of Hokkaido. Shiretoko, which means “a remotest land” in the Ainu, is actually a peninsula jetting into the Sea of Okhotsk. It is one of the four UNESCO-registered World Natural Heritages in Japan, but it is the sole asset which reminds visitors of the importance of diverse, aboriginal values in Japan, the largely unitary country. Hokkaido is also proud of classic Ainu dancing, which was registered as a UNESCO intangible cultural asset in 2009, four years after Shiretoko became the World Heritage.
Tourists can see a show of Ainu dancing, including the “horippa” circle dance, at a theater built in an Ainu community by Lake Akan. The show is performed by those who are clad in ethnic costumes with Ainu patterns. Items and animals that give blessings of the nature or cannot be lacked for life have been respected by Ainu people as gods, among them bears, owls, salmon and fire. They call their gods as “kamuy.”

The “Kamuy Wakka (god water) Falls" are one of the most attractive spots on a tourist cruise from Utoro Port along the northern coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula. The falls are located beneath a steep cliff and flow directly down into the sea.

The cruising ship service starts from a different port during the winter season because Utoro is then closed with thick ices flowing from the north. The 491-gross-ton Aurora II brings passengers to waters off Cape Shiretoko on the tip of the peninsula on a once-a-day 3-hour-and-45-minute cruising from Utoro. "Sometimes, we can have a distant view of the landscape around the tip into the other side of the peninsula, but the area is usually filled with fogs," a sailor said.
The scenic, wild environment of Shiretoko, coupled with the traditional Ainu dancing, is expected to give further chances for visitors to think about the importance of preserving the precious ecological system and diverse cultural assets for the future generation.

Flower gardens at Kyushu brewery entertain visitors every spring and autumn

May 28, 2014

Flower gardens at Kyushu brewery entaintain visitors every spring and autumn

A beer brewery in Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu, southwestern Japan, has a 70,000-square-meter farmland, which turns into flower gardens with quite different tastes every spring and autumn. The land, to be covered with 10 million red and pink poppies in May and white and light purple cosmos from October to November, attracts tens of thousands of people from neighboring regions every time.

The Kirin Brewery Co. plant was opened at the site formerly occupied by an airfield for the defunct Imperial Japanese Army before the last war, then said to be the largest one in Asia, in 1966. The plant was built there not just because vast land lots had been available but also because pure river and underground water can be obtained nearby.

The poppy and cosmos garden fairs, launched a few years after the opening of the brewery, were expanded year after year. The events have now become so famous that traffic jams usually occur on roads to the plant every weekend while they are under way. A free shuttle bus service is available to carry visitors from the nearest railway station to the brewery in about 10 minutes.

This year’s Poppy Festival started on May 10 for a three-week run. Visitors stroll in the poppy fields and enjoy shopping and eating with booths set up by local food and farm product vendors..

“They (the poppies) were in full bloom around the middle of this month, “ said a person at the information. “Some flowers then fell in rains, but they should be still attractive toward the month’s end　this year,” she said. Careful visitors may also find double-petaled poppies.

The flower gardens lie right in front of the main gate to the brewery compound. After enjoying the flowers, registered visitors can take part in guided tours of beer brewing lines at the plant and try various beer brands free of charge.

The flower garden events are part of Kirin’s value-sharing social activities as a corporate citizen. But they have also become a precious tourist asset for the agriculure-oriented local economy. The events are expected to be even more popular as Japan is becoming aware of the importance of environmentally friendly green tourism.

Mt. Yufu, a locally loved volcano, pleasing climbers, tourists from at home and abroad

April 28, 2014

Mt. Yufu, a locally loved volcano, pleasing climbers, tourists from at home and abroad

Mt. Fuji, the world famous volcano 3,776 meters high, is Japan’s symbol, but there are 100 or so “furusato (home town) Fuji mountains” long cherished by local people of each region across Japan. Mt. Yufu, located in the western part of Oita Prefecture, southwestern Japan, is one of these mountains.

Mt. Yufu is dubbed “Bungo Fuji.” Bungo is the old name of Oita. The beautifully shaped dead volcano is an isolated peak with its hems extended around. Mt. Yufu is “a nice mountain to climb and to view,“ a guidebook says.

On a journey with my newly married wife left at home. Over there is Mt. Yufu looking like a young girl’s plaited hair hanging about her shoulders.

Clouds! Please do not linger on around so I may have a distant view of our home.

(A personal translation)

This is a waka poem included in Japan’s oldest waka anthology Manyoshu, which was compiled in the eighth century. The poem, composed by an unknown author, plays on words. The name of Mt. Yufu, “Yufu-no-yama” or “Yuu-no-yama” in Japanese, resembles the word “Yuu” (to be pronounced “yuh-uh), the verb which can be used to mean, for example, tying one’s sash or dressing one’s hair. This makes the reader imagine a scene where the husband helps tie his wife’s sash or dress her hair.

Grassy land spreads around the foot of the mountain, but as the climber goes up toward the top, Mt. Yufu shows its hard landscape. The mountain has two peaks. The east peak is 1,580 meters and the west peak is 1,584 meters high. The east peak is easier to climb, but both peaks stand on ledges.

Beneath the two peaks is the Matae junction. Well experienced people climb up a rocky path with ropes hung in places toward the west peak, while other people try to reach the east peak.

Climbers have to go through hard paths from three different fronts, but they can have a relaxing look at small wild flowers here and there beside the trails.

There are few tall trees and deep woods on the way up the mountain. So, the mountain commands a good view of Yufuin, a popular hot spring resort. After climbing down the mountain, people can have a bath to get over their fatigue with daytime spa services available at hotels down there.

In recent years, Mt. Yufu attracts an increasingly number of foreigners, because Yufuin Spa is included in courses for tourists from other countries. The mountain is expected to be further loved by local people as their spiritual symbol, but its many faceted nature should become an attractive spot for foreigners, too.