Welcome to Ogaki city
Ogaki city, Japan
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Introduction
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About Ogaki city
Masu
In Ogaki city, there’s one thing which accounts for 80 percent of a whole sale in Ogaki, Japan. It is a Masu. Masu is a wooden sake cup made from a domestic Hinoki which is Japanese cypress and Ogaki is the largest producer of Masu. Masu is originally used as a measuring cup for ingredients such as rice, soy sauce, or oil. Nowadays, people have been using as sake vessel. Once you hold a Masu and smell it, you’ll feel relaxed because Hinoki wood has a refreshing and soothing smell. It is like, you are in the forest! It is very traditional way to drink sake with this cup. You might look like, you are such a Japanese person!
In Ogaki city, there’s a Masu corporation named Ohashi Ryoki(大橋量器) which has been the leading manufacturer of traditional hand-crafted Masu boxes in Ogaki, Japan. Masu of Ohashi Ryoki is made by craftsmen one by one neatly. There are many process to make Masu boxes by using traditional technique.
Masu has been considered as a bringer of good luck. The term “Masu” translates to “growth” in Japanese, and is thus an icon of prosperity and great happiness. Moreover, when you see Masu from above, you can find "人" or "入" at the corner.
When "人", which meaning is ‘people’ in Japanese, is facing above, this Masu is called "人枡(Hito Masu) ". It is believed that ‘Hito Masu’ brings many people to your place. This Masu is preferred to use when you establish a company or have a new house.
Also, when "入" is facing above, we call it "入枡(Iri Masu) ". ‘入’ means ‘getting in’. This suggests ‘getting something’ such as money and happiness. Ohashi Ryoki offers a workshop that you can make your own Masu box. You can wish your luck when you make your own Masu in Ohashi ryoki. Which one will you choose?
Details of a workshop
1: You can make your own masu box.
2: Reservation is necessary in advance at least 10 days before the reserved date.
3: Maximum 16 people
4: 800yen for each (including tax).
5: It takes 40 minutes-1 hour.
Sake
Have you ever tasted Japanese sake before? Japanese sake is an alcoholic fermented rice drink, comes in many styles and flavours for all occasions. It’s said that there are more than 1600 sake breweries in Japan. In Ogaki city, there are three sake breweries and we’d like to introduce all of them to you. As we asked the chief brewer in Watanabe brewery, she taught us Sake in Ogaki city is well made because there are plenty of pure groundwater. Therefore, it is historically known as the city of water. Brewers use water as much as they want and local rice so that Sake in Ogaki city is well known as a good one.
This is a Watanabe brewery which is located in the north from the station. (10 minutes walk) This brewery’s chief is a woman and it is not common in Japan. Why don’t you go and talk with her? She was so kind to talk with us when we visited her brewery. You can find her original sake in the shop and taste it if you’d love to.
This is a Takeuchi brewery. Once I stepped in the shop, I felt as if I traveled back into the past. The atmosphere in the shop is literally good and I though it is the same as it was long ago. If you want to, you can taste some kinds of sake made by a Takeuchi brewery. My favorite was Japanese sake named TAKE1. This is not dry enough so that I would recommend to people who are not good at drinking alcohol as well.
This is the last brewery we visited. It’s a Miwa brewery. This brewery is so close to the museum which is related to Matsuo Basho who was the most famous poet in Edo period. In this brewery, sales person highly recommended "Nigori sake" which is an unfiltered sake. It occupies 90% of sales out of all sake they produce.
We introduced three breweries to you, but we can’t decide which was the best for you because three of them have their own good points. However, we can say it is so worth coming and visiting to taste Japanese sake made with pure ground water.
Water
What is the most important thing in your life and in your body?
It’s water!! Recently I have heard that people cannot stop buying the bottle of water in a supermarket. It is ideal if we can get drinkable water from a river or a pond, but things are different. It’s is normally polluted so that we can hardly find drinkable water in this world except for buying in a shop. However, it is different in Ogaki city.
When I came here at first, I was so surprised by that there are a lot of places to get ground water for free in this city. It shows that the groundwater in Ogaki is very clear and people use it in their lives. In the past, people utilized river water for transportation. Ground water is five meters deep and temperature is 14°C. soft water. Degree of hardness is about 50.Ex) evian is 298.
We have to cherish the nature. In my opinion, we tend to treat that carelessly. That's why we learn a lot of things in Ogaki city. I admire Ogaki city, because they seem that people try to coexist the water in this city. (People use water from a well for their daily lives)
There's a specific season that you can see cherry trees on the boat in Ogaki. I had no chance of seeing a cherry blossom, because I visited in autumn. I regret that I can't see it. I’m so sure I’ll come back again someday in spring to see it!! If you get interested in this city, why don’t you visit and walk around the city?
Mizu manju
Do you know Manju?
Manju is one of Japanese sweets and steamed bun stuffed with red bean paste. It has been eaten in Japan for hundreds of years. Our grand grand parents might have eaten it as well ^^
In Ogaki city, there’s a famous sweets called Mizu manju. Mizu(water) manju is traditionally eaten in the summertime and contains a flavored bean filling. The skin of the Mizu manju is made with Kuzu starch, which gives the dough a translucent, jelly-like appearance. It is soft to eat and tastes good. Moreover, it’s not too sweet so good even for people who don’t like sweets. You can enjoy a different taste for each season and each event. Fx) You can eat a strawberry taste manju in May and a grape taste manju in August.)
When we visited the shop named Kinchoen(金蝶園), we found the eat-in space. It is possible to eat either inside or outside. It depends on your mood!! We heard from the seller that it is better to eat in the shop otherwise you have to be in a hurry to bring it back to your house. It cannot be preserved long.There are some shops selling Mizu manju on the street and their shops name sounds similar. Therefore, it will be difficult for you to find the one you’d like to visit. To make things easier, we chose the one near the station to introduce to you. It is a few minutes from the station and easy to find because there is normally a queue in front of the shop to buy a Mizu manju.
Why don’t you try to go and eat it!! I’m sure you’ll like it.
Wasabi
Do you know what Japanese people normally put with Sushi? You must have seen it if you ate Sushi before. It is "Wasabi" which looks green and tastes a bit spicy.( It has the hot flavor to stimulate the nose) Wasabi is a root-like stem and grows above ground. In Ogaki city, there's a wasabi farm in the north from the station and we visited there to know more about Ogaki city. It was our very first time to visit wasabi farm so everything fascinated us a lot.
As you see these pictures, it is what wasabi is and how wasabi grows up. Even for Japanese, we don’t have much chances to see a real wasabi. In this farm, it is possible for them to grow the wasabi called “Mazuma” which is the highest grade out of all wasabi. Farmers can earn twice as much profit as a normal one, if they sell Mazuma in a market. There are only a few places which can grow Mazuma in Japan.
Why is it possible to grow that difficult type of wasabi in Ogaki? It’s just because there is enough water resource in this city and the water temperature is 13℃ through the year. That’s why they can grow wasabi any time of the year.
It is normally banned for customers to enter the greenhouse, but we were lucky to be able to go inside of it to see how they grow wasabi up. The farmer doesn't use an agricultural chemical when he grows wasabi. Because of that, he has to protect wasabi from insects which can be attached to our body. That's why it is usually not possible for us to go inside of the greenhouse. We had a slight image of how to grow wasabi, but never seen it directly. Therefore, it was such a good experience for us. I’m not sure, but it’s worth asking the farmer if you can go inside and see it directly or not!!
