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New Azumino Exploring Guide!

Presenting the New Azumino Exploring Guide! April 2010
This April marks the budding of cherry blossoms all over Nagano and the release of Azumino’s new tri-lingual cultural guide and access map. The printed map will be available at train stations and tourism offices throughout Nagano or is available as a printable pdf from the “Suggested Routes & Map” page.

New Approach to Guide Maps
Azumino’s new Exploring Guide is a new approach to Nagano maps. The guide delineates where to go to enjoy the food, culture, and outdoors of Azumino, as well as provides introductory explanations on different cultural aspects like soba noodles, sake, and oyaki. In addition to highlighting biking and walking trails, the map provides three views of the area making even the outer areas with hikes and trails easy to access by car.

Release Gathering May 31st, a multi-lingual exchange
To celebrate the release of Azumino’s new Exploring Guide, native speakers of each linguistic group represented on the map (Korean, Chinese, English, and Japanese) gathered to share food and conversation. We did a workshop learning and reviewing basic greetings in all four languages and discussed similarities and differences in cultural and linguistic quirks like the expression of surprise. Azumino’s new Exploring Guide is really a confluence of cultures and people, like the varied interests and arts of the Azumino valley.

The Wasabi Farm and the Seasons

The last time I visited the wasabi farm was in the lush glow of Nagano’s green summer. So I was slightly hesitant that the landscape would not be quite as enthralling, nor the wasabi ice cream quite as appealing, in the cooler transition into winter.
However, I was pleased to find the blues and greens of the wasabi farm as bright as ever. As far as the wasabi ice cream… who was I kidding…of course I was going to eat it. Though I don’t think it has the kick anticipated from the unique Wasabi flavor, Nagano soft serve is always delicious.

Azumino’s wasabi farm is best known for it size. But being in the four seasoned Nagano, I love the wasabi farm for its reflection of seasonal, changing landscape. The blue water and green wasabi plants are surrounded by redish yellow Japanese maple leaves in fall, spiny branches in winter, pink cherry blossoms in spring, and green everything in summer. On my trip, I was extremely happy to catch the tail end of fall.

Soba Making

I’ve been told that local soba (buckwheat noodles) and rice are the most delicious during fall in Nagano, just after harvest. Also after a year of touting soba as my favorite noodle, due to its delicious taste and buckwheat health benefits, I figured it was time to learn. So I grabbed a friend and headed to Hotaka’s soba house, KoneKone.

Restaurants and shops throughout Nagano often have viewing areas or offer soba making opportunities, but KoneKone is the only soba house I have found designed to be half restaurant and half instructional school open to the public.

During my Sunday morning visit, I was delighted to find families, couples, and children learning as well. Reservations are recommended, but it seemed as though many Japanese families put their name in as they came and were accommodated as instructors and/or tables opened up.
Though there was a wonderful local family feeling, each class is individual and you or your group receives private instruction. It is nice to speak some Japanese, but I found you don’t really need it. All of the instructors are extremely warm and will show you how to do every step as you go.

The best part…eating your soba after! Kone Kone will cook your soba for you and serve it with their dipping sauce, local pickles, and tea. You can of course order their delicious tempura or oyaki from their restaurant menu as well. Or if you are in a time crunch or can’t eat all of your soba, they will pack your noodles with ice for you to take home and stay fresh.

Welcome to the newly opened Azumino English Web site!

The Azumino area offers a wealth of opportunity for travelers and much of its charm lies in the museums, galleries, and cultural centers hidden throughout the valley. The new Azumino website is a great resource for English speaking travelers because we will be continually updating the website with better directions, tips, events, and access points for all that Azumino has to offer.

I am continually impressed by the uniqueness of the Azumino area which has been seemingly inaccessible to travelers until now. Cozy book shops, internationally significant art galleries, locally unique ecology, rare silk, renowned wasabi farm land, specialty glass work, soba making, and some of the best landscapes and outdoor activities in all of Nagano ken.

The website is still very new, so please feel free to post comments under this blog with any questions regarding travel in the Azumino area and I will do my best to answer them or forward them onto someone who can.

Sincerely,
Whitney Conti

(website photographer and volunteer living in the Azumino area)