Course Summary
Explore the Yachiho plain, surrounded by the Yatsugatake peaks! This course lets you discover the area’s water sources as you visit sake breweries and rice fields located along the banks of the Chikuma River. The 30 km (18.6 mile) route starts off on a shopping street unchanged since the Showa Era, before moving on to the panorama of rice fields extending below Mt Asama. Here is where you’ll find Kamenoumi Tsuchiya Brewing’s organic rice field, Kurosawa Sake Brewery’s rice field and Sakunohana Sake Brewery’s rice fields, with all three breweries growing Sankei Nishiki rice and fed by the same water they use to make sake. After returning to KURABITO STAY, you’ll taste the sake made by the three breweries with Sankei Nishiki, and recall the scenes you saw from your ebike.
Course Map
Course Details
After leaving KURABITO STAY, make your way slowly along Usuda’s shopping street with its KURABITO FRIENDLY stores. The first stopping point is the rice fields where organic farmer Katsuji Tajima grows Sankei Nishiki sake rice, which is then used by Kamenoumi Tsuchiya Shuzo to make their Akanesasu BIO sake.
The ebike assist whisks you up the mountain roads to the plateau, where the pigs raised for Kitayatsu Ham are kept. You can buy ham, sausages and other products at their store before moving on to the Yachiho round water diverter at Usonokuchi, which splits incoming water so that it runs throughout the area. The water vital to rice fields, farming, and daily life runs off from this circle to cascade throughout the hills and valleys, forming the soundtrack to its peaceful atmosphere.
Follow the water back toward the Chikuma River, where you enjoy a meal at popular local restaurant Harmonize. The next stop is Kurosawa Sake Brewery, which is deeply entwined with the local farming community through both sake brewing and food production. You’ll be taken inside the brewery, and also to their own rice fields beside the JR Koumi Line. This is where the brewery workers grow Sankei Nishiki sake rice, and it’s also home to fireflies and giant dragonflies, which only live by sources of crystal clear, clean water. If the timing is right, you can go straight from the rice fields to the station and return on a JR Koumi Line train.
Cross the tracks and go up the hill to reach Kurosawa Sake Brewery’s water source in the small settlement of Sakida, a slightly elevated area with views of Mt Asama where Hitogokochi is grown. Carry on down the hill, accompanied by the sound of water running through irrigation canals alongside the road, to find the brewery-owned shop and cafe. Take a break and do some shopping, or enjoy ice cream made with sake lees or local fruit.
Leaving Kurosawa Sake Brewery, cycle along the bank of the Chikuma River and pass slowly through the Showa Era shopping streets of Higashi-machi. If you visit in the summer you can also go blueberry picking. Keep going through the fields of the Aonuma area, along a flat straight route that lets you feel the breeze as you admire the view of Mt Asama, until you reach Sakunohana Sake Brewery’s rice fields where they grow Sankei Nishiki. Take some of their brewing water to slake your thirst, then enjoy some more views of the Chikuma River and Mt Asama as you return through Usuda to KURABITO STAY.
