Morioka Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Toshi

Title: What Is a Private Walking Tour of Morioka Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Morioka Castle Park, Nanbu Ironware, and a Sake Brewery

The guests were a group who were both very experienced travelers. In Morioka there is a morning market called Mikoda Asaichi, which is beloved as "Morioka's kitchen." Remarkably, it is open from around 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and operates more than 300 days a year, making it a rare morning market even by national standards. Before finalizing the itinerary I knew that the guests planned to visit this market, but it was the first time I had learned about it myself. The guests had also researched that a bus runs from JR Morioka Station. The only thing I could contribute was to recommend the local dish "hittsumi" (similar to "suiton" in the Kanto region) sold at the market, since it was early morning with temperatures near 0°C.

After meeting the guests at the hotel for the first time, we headed on foot toward Morioka Castle Ruins Park. On the way, we checked the location of the steakhouse where the guests had a dinner reservation that day. The castle park was right in front of us. Inside the park, the maple trees were a vivid red and very beautiful. There was also a large ginkgo tree, and the guests were delighted to see the yellow ginkgo leaves. The guests brought up the subject of ginkgo nuts, saying, "Two or three ginkgo nuts are fine, but eating too many is dangerous — you can get poisoning." Hearing this was completely news to me, and I replied, "Ginkgo nuts are one of my favorite foods, and I've easily eaten not just two or three but more than ten at a time, for decades. If that were true, I would have died long ago," which made both of them burst out laughing. (When I looked into it later, it seems it has been medically confirmed that people who drink a lot of alcohol are more prone to symptoms of poisoning.)

According to plan, we were supposed to pass through Morioka Castle Ruins Park in about 10 minutes, but in the end we strolled through the park for about an hour. After this, we entered the adjacent Morioka History and Culture Museum. For the first time, at the guests' request, we viewed the paid exhibition on the second floor, which displays the history of the Nanbu domain and treasures of the Nanbu family. The dioramas recreating structures that no longer exist, such as the main keep of Morioka Castle, are exhibits well suited to sparking the guests' imagination. At the shop corner on the first floor, one of the guests purchased an item they were interested in.

After the history and culture museum, it was time for lunch. I had informed the proprietress of the lunch reservation spot, "Tea House Liebe," that we would arrive between 11:30 and 12:30, so even though we were about 20 minutes late, there was no problem. Since it was a Saturday, the shop was quite busy. The atmosphere of "Tea House Liebe" was reminiscent of a Showa-era coffee house. One of the guests preferred coffee, and the other preferred tea. After finishing the lunch set, one of the guests headed to a Nanbu ironware shop called "Kamasada." The other guest really wanted to drink delicious coffee at a self-roasting coffee shop called "Hataya," which they had researched themselves, so we called a taxi and went to the coffee shop. I rode along with that guest. Morioka really does have a great many coffee shops. According to plan, we were supposed to visit a different coffee shop in the morning, but because we ran over time at Morioka Castle Ruins Park and the Morioka History and Culture Museum, we were unable to visit the planned coffee shop. The coffee-loving guest had been in a state of "smiling on the face but crying in the heart."

When we arrived at the coffee shop, there was indeed a wonderful aroma of coffee. To me, used to drinking instant coffee, even the blend coffee was more than satisfying. The guest ordered two kinds of coffee and was truly satisfied after drinking them. It seems that self-roasting coffee shops have been increasing in Morioka lately.

Now, the next destination was the "Asabiraki Brewery," where we had a reservation at 2:30 p.m. We had also arranged to meet the other guest at "Asabiraki." We arrived at 2:25 p.m., and the other guest had already arrived. Here we became a group of three again. That guest greeted the other with the biggest smile of the day. I heard that the guest had purchased a Nanbu iron kettle at "Kamasada." According to the story, the purchased kettle would be delivered a year later. I did not ask the price, but they must have bought quite an expensive kettle. The tea-loving guest had long wanted a Nanbu iron kettle in order to drink delicious tea. The other guest looked happy too.

After this came a tour of the sake brewery and sake tasting at "Asabiraki." The shop inside was packed with a group of about 100 visitors. Saturdays really are crowded. We went on the brewery tour with a female staff explainer. We were shown the sake production process in both the handcrafting workshop and the mechanized brewery. The brewery tour finished in about 30 minutes. On the way back to the shop where the sake tasting takes place, there was an explanation about the "sugidama" (cedar ball). Every November, when the new sake of the year is completed, you can see a spherical sugidama made of green cedar leaves. This was my fifth time being taken care of by "Asabiraki," and until now every sugidama I had seen was brown. However, luckily, this year's new sake had just been completed on November 20. Being able to taste freshly made new sake is truly fortunate. In the tasting you can sample several kinds of new sake, and the taste of Junmai Daiginjo is truly exceptional. The guests savored the "Junmai Daiginjo" as well. After finishing the tasting, we ate "Ginjo ice cream." This was also well received. The guests seemed pleased and purchased a half bottle of Junmai Daiginjo sake. The tasting finished in about 30 minutes.

Since the guests had a steakhouse reservation at 5 p.m., we took a taxi to their hotel at around 3:40 p.m. This time, due to time constraints, we were unable to stroll through the "Natayacho area" and "Morioka Machiya" that had been included in the plan, but we viewed them from inside the taxi. The walking tour concluded at the hotel at 16:00.

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Tour Report by Toshi

Hello and welcome! If you’re an inbound guest, I’d like to extend a warm greeting to you. I hope you have a pleasant stay in our beautiful city. If there’s anything you need, feel free to ask – I’m here to assist! My name’s Toshiya Ozawa. Please call me Toshi. I have 25 years’ experience as National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter guiding in English. Presently, I live in Ohsyu-shi, Iwate-ken where the Major Baseball player Shohei Ohtani was born and bred. The followings are the places where I attended as a tour guide for your reference. [Guide experience] Nara’s UNESCO World Heritage sites. Japan’s largest lake Lake biwa and Azuchi-jyo Ruins in Shiga prefecture. Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara:Horyu-ji, Nara Park, Todaiji Temple. Former Site of the Imperial Palace at Heijokyo, Todaiji Temple, along with Kasugataisha Shrine and the Kasugayama Primeval Forest. Koyasan (Shukubo Rengejo-in) shukubo literally means sleeping with the monks. Yagyu-no-sato (or the swordsman village of Yagyu), known as the home of Yagyu Shinkage-Ryu (traditional style of swordsmanship), is located in Northeast of Nara-city with rich natural environment. In Kyoto: JR Kyoto Station, The Golden Pavilion, World Heritage Site Former Imperial Villa Nijo-jo Castle, Ryoan-ji Temple, Nanzen-ji Temple. In Mie Prefecture: Ise Shrine, Wadakin (Japan’s one of the best wagyu-beef restaurant, Matsusaka-shi). In Shiga prefecture: Mother Lake Lake Biwa, Azuchi Castle ruins.
In Tokyo: Meiji shrine, Odaiba, Imperial Palace, Takeshita Street in Harajyuku, Akihabara (the otaku mecca and has its own unique atmosphere), Asakusa Kannon (Bodhisattva of Mercy) Sensoji Temple, and Tokyo Tower.
In Shizuoka Prefecture: Mt. Fuji.
In Aichi prefecture: 1. Atsuta Shrine 2. Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology 3. Inuyama Castle (Inuyama-shi) 4. Ohsu Shopping District 5. Konomiya Naked Festival (Inazawa-shi) 6.Tagata Jinja Shrine’s Honen Festival 7. Toyota Automobile Museum (Nagakute-shi) 8. Thousand Rice Paddies of Yotsuya (Yotsuya Senmaida) (Shinshiro-shi) 9. Asuke/Korankei (Toyota-shi Asuke-cho) 10. Chubu Centrair International Airport 11. Rest Stop (Highway Oasis Kariya, Donguri-no-sato Inabu)

10 years’ experience in a trading operations position and 7 years’ experience as an Exporting Manager and 5 years’ experience as a Domestic Sales Representative: All of the experiences above included contacts with respective customers both externally and internally.
I spent more than 2 years in the United States and Canada. Attended Kibbutz Hebrew class for six months in Israel.

Aug1991– present MASPRO DENKOH Corporation, Aichi prefecture in Japan.
Sales presentative/Exporting Manager “Export of TV reception and related equipment to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand”
Negotiated prices and specifications with the makers “Drafting and arranging the needed documentations requested by custom houses”
OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) supply of CS antennas to SONY Corporation
OEM supply of U.S. DirecTV Satellite Dish Antenna Dual LNB to Sony Corporation
Attended the customers from overseas when they came to the head office
Interpreter, translator to the C.E.O. (engaged in direct report to the company president)
Import of invaluable western style paintings, Japanese potteries and porcelains
Export of receiver and transmitter for Qualcomm Omni TRACS Ku-band satellite fleet tracking system in the U.S.
Export of CATV Tap-off for Time Warner Cable in the U.S. OEM supply of ETC In-Vehicle Unit in Singapore to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Apr. 1989–March 1991, employed by ESPO Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. Manager of secretarial section to the C.E.O
Interpreter, translator to the C.E.O “Assisted M&A transactions”
Formula 1 ESPO-LARROUSSE Team negotiation and interpreter. Was in charge of training new staff (26 university graduates )
Supervised new graduate recruitment activities as a part of training new staff and successfully recruited 40 prospective employees
Apr 1976 – March 1991 Nissait English School in Tokyo, Japan
1989 Director of Nissait English School “Management of English schools in Tokyo and Saitama prefecture”
Instructor: Taught English conversation more than 1000 students “Was in charge of training new instructors (12 vocational college graduates )”
Supervised new student recruitment activities as a part of training new instructors and successfully recruited 420 students at ten different schools for 5 years
Was in charge of International Exchange program
Chaperoned and supervised 160 Japanese youth delegates for cultural immersion homestays in the U.S.A. and Canada.
Education: In 1976, Completed the curriculum at a university, received a degree of B.A. in Economics, Aoyama Gakuin University, in Tokyo.

Windows MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Certified as a National Licensed English-Speaking Tour Guide in 2009 (License No. Aichi EN00307)
Passed Grade 1 of the EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency in 1989.