Shizuoka travel and tours

Shizuoka boasts the highest tea production in Japan. It is said that tea production began in the suburbs of Shizuoka City in 1244 when Shoichi Kokushi brought back tea seeds from the continent. In the Meiji period, the Makinohara Plateau was cultivated by Tokugawa samurai and became a major tea producing area. Shizuoka has been a tea drinker for a long time, and there are many types of tea snacks. There are many famous sweets unique to Shizuoka, such as rice crackers made with sakura shrimp caught in Suruga Bay and daifuku made with Kawane tea. Among them, the one that is especially loved by Shizuoka residents is "Abekawa Mochi." It is a Japanese sweet made of freshly pounded rice cakes dusted with soybean flour and topped with white sugar. Abekawa Mochi began in the early Edo period. A man presented rice cakes dusted with soybean flour to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was inspecting the area around the Abe River. Ieyasu was surprised by how delicious it was. When asked how it was made, the man replied, "We scoop up the gold dust from the nearby gold mine and sprinkle it on the mochi, so it's called 'kinkomochi' (gold powder mochi)." Ieyasu praised the man's wit and named the mochi "Abekawamochi." After that, Abekawamochi became such a popular local product that it appeared in the humorous book "Tokaido Hizakurige" and travel writings. Please enjoy Abekawamochi, beloved by Ieyasu, with some delicious Shizuoka tea.

Fujieda City, located in central Shizuoka Prefecture, has a unique culture that is loved by its residents. It is "morning ramen," or "Fujieda morning ramen." As the name suggests, it is a culture of eating ramen in the morning. Some people may think that eating ramen in the morning is a bit heavy. In fact, the reason why the "morning ramen" culture took root in Fujieda is because the city is a tea producing area. Tea trading begins before dawn, around 3-4 am, and ends just after 6 am. The opening hours of ramen shops began to be earlier in line with this, which is said to be the origin of morning ramen. The mainstream morning ramen in Fujieda City is the "Shita ramen" genre. It is a ramen that you can eat in the morning in a light soy sauce soup with bonito stock, with less fat and char siu. And the biggest feature is that many customers order a set of two bowls, "hot" and "cold." It is not clear why people order two bowls in the morning, or why they order hot and cold ramen at the same time, but it is said that the ramen is so delicious that you can't stop eating. Please give this "morning ramen" that the locals love so much a try.