Fantastic Okinawa

Ajisai 2015

Yaese Town combines nature and urban environment

By Jun Ikemura

Yaese is a new town created by the merger ofKochinda Town and Gushikami Village in 2006,the name originating from the Yaese hills withinthe town limits.

Yaese town is located south of Tomigusuku City andalso Haebaru Town, east of Itoman City and west of NanjoCity. South of Yaese is the Pacific Ocean. The landscapeof Yaese is undulating and makes for a superb view, espe-cially its ocean coasts that feature high cliffs, which offer a

panorama ocean views. The area’s quite well knownbecause of a super high cliff where many people jumped totheir deaths to escape the U.S. Military during the Battle ofOkinawa in 1945. It is a sad place also, but the town peo-ple are very friendly and peaceful, and the urban side ofthe town is developing rapidly.

On the other hand, most of the town is still countryand a very, very relaxing. Huge sugarcane fields, greenhills around, a small fishing port and a lot of historicalassets are there.

Townspeople promote their agricultural products, and

“Karabezi” is their original farm brand derived fromJapanese pronunciation of "colorful vegetables.”Okinawan farm products are specialties that differ fromother prefectures, and colorful is one of the key descrip-tions; pink mango or guava, red dragon fruit, green okra,green pepper or leafy vegetables, purple sweet potato,orange pumpkin, and yellow banana. Nearly every growercreates original sweets or fresh dishes made by their origi-nal farm products.

It’s a small town, and because of that, the residentsContinues on page 2

There are more than 9,000hydrangea blooming at Ajisai-en,and most are the handiwork of anelderly Okinawan woman who’s

been tending the gardens for nearly fourdecades.

Motobu has many gardens, but none ismore beautiful than Ajisai-en, when itsthousands of hydrangea are in full bloom.

Ajisai-en is a spacious garden set onland that was once a tangerine farm. It’s allhandiwork of 97-year-old Uto Yohenawho’s been raising the purple flowers formore than 30 years. “My garden was actu-ally a tangerine field until 35 years ago,”she says, “but I love flowers so I plantedthe hydrangea flower garden along thepaths between the tangerine trees.”

The garden in Izumi, Motobu Townnow boasts more than 9,000 of the colorfulpurple flowers, with three dozen species orvarieties of hydrangea in the Ajisai-en.Many are little more than three-meters-high. Ajisai-en is a member of the nation-wide Hydrangea Flower Association, andhas won the sixth best award from theWest District Japan Hydrangea GardenContest a few years ago.

The garden is open most days, withthe entrance fee ¥300 for adults and ¥100for kids 6~18. “I had to begin asking visi-tors to pay an entrance fee for the past nineyears,” Yohena explains, “because operat-ing the garden requires a lot of upkeep andmaintenance, and that means expenses.”

Parking is available by the gate. To

get to Ajisai-en drive north past centralNago on Highway 58, then turn lefttowards Motobu and Ocean Expo Parkonto Route 84. Continue until you see aJomo gasoline stand on the right and apolice box on the left. Turn immediatelyleft and Ajisai-en is about 200 metersaway.

Hydrangea beauty charms at Motobu at Ajisai-en

Some 9,000 hydrangea are in bloom inAjisai-en, a private garden park in Motobuthat is the handiwork of now 97-year-oldUto Yohena.

The Tomori stone shisa has kept watch and protected the Tomori Village from fires since 1689. Still standing proud itbears many bullet holes from the battle of Okinawa during Wold Ward II.

Yaese is an important farming area and proud of thefresh vegetables and fruit it produces.

A naturally formed limestone bridge was an importantpart of a major road during the Ryukyu Kingdom era.

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Yumekoubou cakes are based on very special miso

Yaese symbolic flower is partof Kamiya Shuzo Awamori

Youko Henna learned her craftfrom her mother, and that the bestway to have happy customers inher shop is to serve delicious and

healthy products made with local ingredi-ents.

That’s her goal now as owner ofYumekoubou in Yaese Town. She creates

a new recipe every day to keep customersclamoring for more. Originally, theYumekoubou was serving handmade miso,and since Youko took over, she’s servingnot only the miso but many good smellingsweets. If you visit buy miso, you will per-haps be confused because the establish-ment looks more like a sweets shop, but ofcourse Yumekoubou is still selling specialmiso too.

Youko is selling sweets like tube cakethat are made using miso as an ingredient,Roll cakes containing okra, donuts madewith island banana and others with localfarm ingredients. Why did she start thisbusiness? Simply because the Chamber ofCommerce and Industry of Yaese Townasked her to make some new productsusing okra grown in the town. Then finallyshe created the okra tube cake, and gaineda great reputation among her customers andneighbors.

Before even getting the new product tothe market, people from far away have visit-ed her to get her okra tube cake. She addednew ingredients like miso, pumpkin, banana

and strawberry. All cakes are very colorfultaste great thanks to fresh ingredients. Now,customers have a choice of tube cake, cook-ies, donuts, roll cakes, decoration cakes andmore! There are so many to choose from,and of course all items are made using localingredients and are healthy.

Youko learned how to make naturalhandmade food items from her mother, andserves fresh products that have no addi-tives. She can make cakes without egg ormilk products for allergic people, and evenforeign customers sometime pop in theshop to get cakes.

Youko says her goal is to make moreand more items to make people smile.Yumekoubou is a part of the Karabezi proj-ect creating rolls and other cakes with col-orful vegetables inside and crusts with okraor green tea flavor. They’re very vivid andlook great. The “Karabezi” roll is availablefrom June to December.

Yumekoubou is located at 254 Toume,Yaese Town. Hours and product informa-tion is available at (098) 998-0219. A mapis at https://goo.gl/maps/lCkle

Kamiya ShuzoAwamori distilleryis typical of YaeseTown’s industries,

blending traditional tastes andskills with old-style processeswhile using local ingredientsto create a unique, fresh tastein its Awamori products.

Kamiya Shuzo started itsbusiness in Kochinda, nowpart of Yaese Town in thesouthern part of the island, in1949. The founding family ofthe company makes awamoribearing the family name, withthe current factory leader,Masaki Kamiya, carrying ontradition in the third genera-tion. Only four members ofthe family create awamori inthe company, and all haveworked on preserving theoriginal taste while improvingthe quality. As a result oftheir efforts they have beenawarded a prize for the bestAwamori at local Awamoricompetition for six timessince 2003.

The company owner andfactory leader Masaki Kamiyasays “ I have been makingAwamori for 20 years now. Atfirst, I did not have any knowl-edge about Awamori, so I hadto learnm about what Awamoriis. Those hard times I had beenthrough helped me a lot formaking it, and I have reallyenjoyed making Awamori. Ourproducts are popular with localpeople, and it has a reputationof being easy to drink.”

The distillery is bestknown for its brand ‘Nanko’,and a limited brand ‘Kamiya’that is only sold on theInternet. The company is amember of Yaese Town’sKarabezi project that intro-

duces and promotes agricul-tural produce and goodiesfrom Yaese Town.

One of the projects theyhave engaged in has been tocreate new original productsfor the Karabezi project, forwhich they created an originalAwamori made using yeastmade from Yaese’s symbolflower marigold that proved tobe very hard and delicate toproduce. Marigold yeast wasso rare and dedicate, it wasvery hard to take from theflower because one could takecare of only one flower out oftens of thousands. They hadto pay extra attention to tem-perature to get black kouji-mold from marigold that isessential for Awamori mak-ing.

The result was a product,named ‘Hanahana’ that tastesrefreshing with gently flowerflavor and scent. Hanahana issold only on the company’sonline shop athttp://www.ukuimun.com/?pid=57668032 and at theKamiya Shuzo distillery at510-3, Aza Yonagusuku,Yaese Town, Their telephonenumber is (098) 998-2108.

Karabezi is the Japanese namefor colorful vegetables, andthe word is on the lips of vir-tually everyone in Yaese

Town, a producer of various kinds ofagricultural products like vegetables,flowers and fruits.

Yaese Town is a prefectural gov-ernment-certified major producer of bellpeppers. More than 60 % of the bellpeppers grown in Okinawa come fromYaese. Other than bell peppers, okra,lettuce, purple sweet potato (beni-imo)and mango have gotten high marks inproduction rankings on Okinawa.

There are varieties of colorful veg-etables in Yaese Town, and they are allnamed Yaese Town colorful vegeta-bles, in short, called ‘Karabezi’. TheKarabezi project was started in 2009 bypeople involved in commerce andindustry, farm folks and public employ-ees of the town in order to promote thetown through approaching local peoplefor utilizing their products. The landaround Asato, Nakaza and Yoza dis-tricts, which are located southwest ofthe town, is called ‘Shimajiri maaji’known as ideal soil for growing purple

sweet potato, and one of the major pro-ducing area of purple sweet potato inOkinawa.

Gushichan Productive Associationconsisting of about 40 farmers, is veryactive in promoting the purple sweetpotato, including a potato diggingexperience for local people and produc-ing a new menu. The association wasthe first to engage in development ofsweet potato shochu (distilled liquor)made from purple sweet potato inOkinawa in cooperation with popularAwamori maker Helios Distillery.

Local high school students ofNanbu Commercial High School havedeveloped unique noodles for Okinawasoba ‘Pi-men’ means piman (=bell pep-pers in Japanese) and men (=noodles).They have kneaded Yaese’s bell pep-pers characterized by sweet taste andrich and soft meat into Pi-men. Pi-menhas been used for school lunches intown and sold at festivals and events.

People can buy Karabeziprocessed foods like snacks of island’slocal vegetables, jams, base source ofkimchi and handmade soy bean paste‘miso’ on the Karabezi official site.

Karabezi is Yaese trademark

"Karabezi" roll is a seasonal specialty available from June to December.

Yaese TownContinued from page 1can support each other, creating good relations andnew projects as well. They hold morning bazaarsevery Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon on the YaeseTown Hall parking lot in Gushichan district, wherepeople can buy fresh Yaese vegetables.

Yaese is not only famous for its vegetables,but also for its historical significance. Of specialinterest is the Minatogawa fissure valley thatSeiho Oyama discovered in 1969 along with theremains of Minatogawa people who are believedto have lived in this area about 18,000 years ago.

There is also a natural bridge called

“Hananda”, an interesting spot in Yaese Town.Nature only created this bridge and it is very beau-tiful.

Minatogawa is also famous for its fishing dis-trict and is famous for its Haarii races. The fishingport holds a Haarii festival every year, and manypeople gather to see the races. The Shisa in theTomori district is also something visitors shouldsee. It’s the oldest and biggest Shisa on Okinawa,and it has many bullet holes from World War II.

Also, Noboru Jahana, a very famousOkinawan hero is from Kochinda district in YaeseTown. He was one of the first five people fromOkinawa to have the local government to fund hiseducation in Tokyo. More information on his lifeis at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahana_Noboru.

Yaese Town has made the "colorful" vegetables it grows a trademark.

Hanahana awamori is avail-able only through Kamiyawebsite or straight from thedistillery.

Kamiya Shuzo is a smallfamily-operated awamoridistillery.

Yaese coastline seen from Gushichan Castle Park.