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Food
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Starting with “houtou,” which goes back for many generations, Hokuto City offers
a broad variety of cuisine including excellent soba (buckwheat noodles) that
is the product of many improvements, and local cuisine that makes lavish use
of ingredients such as mushrooms and edible wild vegetables. Additionally, Hokuto
has well-known gourmet restaurants from around Japan, and restaurants known to
small numbers of discerning people. |
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The King of Local Cuisine, Houtou
Houtou, a representative local dish of Yamanashi Prefecture, is a kind of stew
in which thick and wide wheat noodles are cooked together with miso and locally
produced in-season vegetables (squash houtou is especially delicious). It has
long been a familiar everyday dish among the people of Yamanashi, which had few
rice fields due to its mountainous terrain. There are many theories of its origin,
including that it came from China. It is also said that warlord Takeda Shingen
considered it important as food for his troops. It is now possible to have it
at restaurants such as those specializing in local cuisine, or to purchase the
ingredients and enjoy it at home. A summer variant, called “ozara,” is prepared
by firming boiled noodles in cold water, then eating them after dipping in broth
in which carrots, deep-fried tofu, and other items have been cooked.
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Sake, Wine, and Whiskey
Hokuto City is among the places with “remarkable waters” that are made possible
by two of the 100 Famous Mountains of Japan, Mt. Yatsugatake and Mt. Kaikomagatake.
This water is sold throughout Japan as “Southern Alps and Mt. Yatsugatake Mineral
Water.”
Hakushu Town, which benefits from this copious flow of high-quality water, is
known as one of the “four major producers of Japanese whiskey” along with Yamazaki,
Yoichi, and Miyagikyo. Suntory brands including “Hokuto” and “Hakushu” are favored
by people throughout Japan. Hokuto has one of the highest production volumes
in the country, due in part to the large whiskey aging facility at the southern
foot of Mt. Yatsugatake. Hakushu has the Museum of Whiskey, said to be the first
full-blown museum of its kind in the world.
Japan’s premier grape producer, Yamanashi, is proud of shipping more grapes
than any other prefecture, and the Akeno Town area, which boasts the longest
hours of sunlight in Japan, has some of the finest vineyards for wine grapes
in Yamanashi. A winery from Katsunuma, the center of wine production in Yamanashi,
has established a presence in Akeno. It offers winery tours and wine tasting,
and also holds a harvest festival and other events that attract visitors from
Yamanashi and other prefectures, who are captivated by the exquisite flavors
made possible by nature.
The same goes for Japanese sake, as Hokuto is known as a representative Yamanashi
producer of ginjoshu, one kind of sake. Brewers founded in the Edo period (1600-1867)
compete with one another and have won the praise of sake aficionados in all parts
of Japan.
Links:Grace Wine
Akeno Farm |
Links:Suntory Hakushu Distillery |
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Links:Charmant Wine
Yamanashi Winery |
Links:Tanizakura Shuzo |
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| Links:Misawa Winery |
Links:Yamaki Shuzoten |
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Links:Yamanashi Meijo
Co., Ltd. |
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Soba
Soba (buckwheat noodles) has long been eaten in Hokuto because of the region’s
excellent water and mountainous terrain. You can find whatever kind of soba you
like in Hokuto City, from restaurants that are well-known in Yamanashi and other
prefectures, to little-known restaurants with a discerning clientele. Some city
facilities also offer soba, and at some of these facilities visitors can make
their own noodles with soba flour made from locally grown buckwheat. These and
other features make Hokuto a soba paradise that connoisseurs will find irresistible.
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Fresh Vegetables and Pick-Your-Own Fruit
Farmers in the Mt. Yatsugatake and Mt. Kayagatake region raise a variety of
vegetables and fruits which take full advantage of the highland climate. Because
of the high elevation in Takane Town, its cherries are in season later than those
of other regions, and in most years they are available until about July. Additionally,
the Akeno Pick-Your-Own Farm in Akeno Town allows visitors to personally harvest
very enticing produce from spring to autumn, such as that characteristic food
of spring amawarabi (a kind of braken) with only one-fifth the harshness of the
usual kind; those harbingers of early summer, cherries and blueberries; edamame,
which are the best snack with beer; as well as white potatoes and sweet potatoes.
The Asao district, which is known for its “Asao daikon,” holds a grand “Asao
Daikon Festival” every year where visitors can harvest their own daikon, get
free furofuki daikon (a kind of cooked and seasoned daikon), and in other ways
enjoy the giant radishes.
（Note: Countless stag beetles come to the blueberry fields during the picking
season, and insect screens turn black with them. Stag beetles are also on sale.）
Scarlet runner beans, a representative product of Sutama Town, are also highly
regarded for their large size and superior taste. |
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Soft
Serve
People have to put up with long lines for this treat.
When it comes to well-known sweet treats of the Mt. Yatsugatake highlands, there’s
nothing like soft serve. The sale of soft serve goes back to Seisenryo in Kiyosato
when in the immediate postwar period soft serve machines and the technique were
brought here directly from the US. In those days the father of dairy farming,
Dr. Paul Rusch, had begun creating a model farm for the development of dairy
farming throughout Japan, and there was especially great popularity for soft
serve made with the milk of Jersey cows, which has a high fat content. Visitors
who like this soft serve come from all around Japan during the summer tourist
season, and must wait in line at Seisenryo for 20 or 30 minutes. Soft serve tastes
especially good in the refreshing highland breeze. |
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