Esashi Town in Hiyama sub-prefectural area ! 1

by Chis.

We went down to the south and come across the Oshima Peninsula from the Pacific  to the Sea of Japan to reach Esashi Town through Assabu Town.
The Oshima Peninsula is very thin and it requires only 30 minute to cross over by car but the mountains wearing clouds on the narrow peninsula nurture so many brown bears with an abundant supply of food.

Based on the research conducted by the team of biologists in Hokkaido, those brown bears have the same mitochondria with the bears living in south east Asia.

To be surprised, two more kinds of brown bears are living in Hokkaido. One is from the northern Europe and Russia depending on the research about the mitochondria and they are living in the central part of Hokkaido. The other is from the far east of Russia and Alaska in the United States and they are mainly living in the eastern part of Hokkaido Island including Shiretoko Area listed as the World Heritage by UNESCO.

That means three kinds of brown bears in the world are living in the narrow island Hokkaido. Is that amazing ?

Besides, we reached Esashi Town in the afternoon and headed to the Japanese traditional sweets shop "Yamada-ya" established in Edo Era, approximately  400 years ago.  Unfortunately, what we wer eager to eat, the rice cake with strawberry and sweet red-beans paste inside, Ichigo Daifuku, and the rice cake with sweet red-beans paste inside and salty peas in the dough, Shiomame Daifuku were sold out.  

Eshashi Town was so flourished in Edo era that  it was said that "The flourish like Esashi Town in spring can not be seen even in Edo, the capital city of Japan in that era. Tons of herring swamped to the coast of Esashi Town and they were dried, processed and eaten and shipped as the precious natural fertilizer for the farms. The owner of the ships and the business men earned a hectic amount of money in these businesses based on the large catch of herring.

The old down town was refurbished and remodeled with a wide road for the bulk tour by buses. "Yamada-ya" opened its shop in Edo Era or later but in this remodeling, it changed the site to sell the high quality sweets to the citizens and the tourists. Even the citizens of the town have to hurry up to buy the quality sweets particularly "Ichigo Daifuku" on Saturday because all of the sweets are handmade, so the number of the products are limited.

This is Sakura mochi that should be eaten on the doll's festival called "Hina Matsuri" for girls. Sakura-mochi means cherry rice cake with sweet red-been paste inside.
The cover is real salted cheery leaf that can be eaten and creates miracle harmony with the sweetness of the read-bean paste.

The salty cherry leaf is very soft and the each grain of the dough is remained the shape. It is the situation called "hangoroshi" which means  "half-killed". The taste is guaranteed since its establishment.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

This is "Inaka-mochi" that includes sweet red-bean paste and has very thin cover of dough made of rice. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

After the long drive, the sweet brought me the  concentrations to keep drive safely. Please visit  Yamada-ya patisserie in Eshashi Town. and try the quality sweets derived from Kyoto, the ancient capital city of Japan.