Reader's Column 
By Hannah Starr, Coordinator for International Relations, Hyogo Prefectural Govenment,
Summer 2009 update

As a part of the Hyogo Destination tourism campaign, several of my colleagues and I participated in a trial tour at the end of March. Our group went to Tatsuno City which is just slightly west of Himeji. I found our tour guide to be very knowledgeable and the town itself was quaint and refreshing. Since I enjoyed it so much, I'd like to share it with all of you.

I met the group outside of Minatogawa Shrine where we boarded a bus to Himeji to pick up the rest of the group. On the ride, everyone gave a brief self introduction and there were a lot of energetic, older participants. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the highway and what is normally an hour long ride turned into two hours. My co-workers and I entertained ourselves by sleeping since we needed to keep our strength up for the tour, which started at 8:30. Since older people always have more energy early in the morning, most of the other participants talked to each other. We got to Tatsuno at 11ish and started walking down the old shopping street towards the Tatsuno Usukuchi (light colored) Soy Sauce Museum.

One of the first things we saw en route was the Hassakiya manju shop. This is a traditional Japanese confectionary where they make shoyu manju (soy sauce flavored adzuki filled steamed bun) and youkan (soft adzuki –bean jelly), both of which were delicious.

After buying some sweets, we made our way down the Mame-no-komichi, and passed Nyoraiji Temple (established in 1533). We then arrived at the museum, which is housed in an old soy sauce factory and exhibits soy sauce making tools used during the Edo and Showa periods. In the middle of the complex, there is a very small court yard that contains a shrine (to help with making soy sauce). Our guide explained a lot of the tools and facilities to us and I was amazed at the size of some of the tools.

Soy sauce is made by fermenting soy beans, roasted grain, water, and salt. Traditionally, it was fermented in natural conditions, for example, large urns in the sun but now, most commercially produced soy sauce is fermented in machine-controlled environments.

Next, we walked to the area where Miki Rofu was born. The house he grew up in is near Tatsuno Castle. The castle was built in 1499 by Akamatsu Murahide on top of Mt. Keiro. His family ruled over Tatsuno for generations until they were forced to surrender to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1672, the castle was moved to the plains surrounding Tatsuno and the Wakizaka clan ruled the area until the Meiji era. The castle is still there today.
The Kajo Museum (Tatsuno's Literature Museum) is located near the original castle site. This museum displays literature and articles that belonged to four famous literati from Tatsuno: Miki Rofu, Utsumi Seicho, Yano Kanji, and Miki Kiyoshi. There were a lot of interesting pictures and even a love letter from Miki's wife before they were married. I never knew that Tatsuno was home to such famous literati.

The next thing we saw was Shuentei, a tea house that hangs over a small lake. The tea house is surrounded by a nice open field on top of a hill. Some of the trees had started flowering. Our guide explained that there were two types of cherry trees here and one of them had larger blossoms than the normal cherry tree.

The tea house itself was once praised by a government minister during the Edo period who called the house "Shuen-no-mon," or the gate with the fine view. Since then, people have called it Shuentei. From the garden, you can see Awaji Island and the Seto Inland Sea. It was given to a member of the Wakizaka clan by the Emperor in gratitude for his contribution to the reconstruction of the palace.

The tea house was the last big stop on our way to lunch. On the way, we passed several monuments to Miki Rofu and Akatonbo, a popular nursery rhyme by Miki. I had never heard the song Akatonbo before but everyone on the tour knew it because they learned it when they were children.

After the tour of the city, four kilometers in total, we made it to Sukune-jaya where we ate lunch. This restaurant has traditional rooms and tables as well as western ones. The menu was washoku and featured somen, very thin noodles. This type of noodle originated in the early 1800s and was meant to be an alternative to rice in the winter. Today people eat it warm in the winter and cold in the summer. I thought it was similar to ramen, but straight instead of crimped. It was very good.

Usually, washoku is not filling enough but this time there was enough food, all of which was delicious. Unfortunately, after all the hiking, I got hungry again on the bus ride home. Overall, I thought Tatsuno was a quaint little town and I may go back for a parade they have in April. I enjoyed the traditional atmosphere of the town combined with the rural scenery. I love living in Kobe, but every once in a while you need to get in touch with the countryside.