Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture, it has quite a rich history and a few old buildings still remain. It is at the confluence of 3 rivers, Kitakami, Shizukiishi and Nakatsu rivers, a strategic location in old times. It is also located just a few kilometers away from Mt. Iwate, the largest mountain in the prefecture, a volcano. If you go to the top you can see the crater, which had some activity in the mid 1990's. In the Edo period Iwate was part Nambu region or clan, it included Iwate, Akita and Aomori, it was called the Southern capital, the center of power was in Mutsu in Aomori Prefecture. The next clan was centered in Sendai and was called the Date clan. Today, Morioka is a sister city to Victoria in British Columbia. Iwate is renowned for its cast iron products, kettles, bells and all sorts of figurines, it's a good place to buy them at a good price. As for food, it is known for wanko soba, a mouth full of buckwheat noodles in a bowl that people take pride in eating as many as possible, as well as reimen noodles, a potato noodle inspired from Korean noodles, and Nambu senbei. Nambu senbei are actually made of wheat flour and are sweet unlike rice senbei. Enjoy your stay here!
Malcome Larcens @malcome.larcens
I grew up in Quebec, Canada and studied electronics in college, never worked in that field. Moved to Vancouver in the early 80's where I found my real passion, cooking. I ran my own restaurant for 14 years after that worked as a financial advisor for 4 years, I really enjoyed that too but we had ...
