Drive to Cape Irago (3) - Kingdom of melons

In “Drive to Cape Irago (1)”, I introduced one of Michi-no-Eki or rest areas along major roads in Japan. Cape Irago has also have one named Irako Crystal Porto. Like other Michi-no-Eki, it has a shop of local products and a restaurant, but it also serves as a terminal for ferries to Toba in Mie Prefecture. I had taken such ferries twice to go to Ise Jingu, the most prominent shrine in Japan. It takes about one hour to get to Toba. Then you can take a bus to Ise Jingu (about 40 to 50 minutes).

Irako Crystal Porto had many products of melons such as agar jelly candies,

and big melon bread. It has orange cream on top with the flavor of melon. It looked 2-3 times as big as ordinary melon bread sold in supermarkets and bakeries. Though ordinary melon bread also tastes like melon, it doesn’t have cream on top. Maybe this one is richer in taste.

For vegans, there is dried sea lettuce to add in miso soup, ramen, tempura, etc.

From the building, we could see the port.

They had also a corner of products from Okinawa Prefecture. My mother bought one cup of strong liquor called Awamori for my father.

I was more interested in peanuts caramelized with granulated sugar, black sugar, and coarse sugar. They tasted good with slight bitterness of black sugar when I ate them at home.

We found another Okinawan specialty containing black sugar. It was sata andagi, a kind of doughnut which was, according to the package, originally served in a Chinese court. Okinawa seems to have many traditions influenced by China. Before we went to the next destination, we ate sata andagi in the car.

After leaving Irako Crystal Porto, my mother took National Route 259. Soon we came to a place with a big melon in front of the parking lot. It’s New Atsumi Kanko selling melons, juice, etc. I was surprised again at the reasonable prices of the melons. They offered melon picking and all-you-can-eat course as well.

We had fresh 100% melon juice. It was smooth and delicious! My mother said it was better than melon eaten as it was. I agreed with her.

Finally, we went to the last Michi-no-Eki of the day, Tahara Mekkun House.

As this is the last spot, I bought some vegetables. They were sold at surprisingly reasonable prices (also melons). My mother bought packs of eggplants and pears and gave me some of them.

In the corner of processed food, I found very interesting information. It was about Kikujiro Suzuki (1868-1935) who invented agar jelly candy wrapped with wafer paper. He was from this town Tahara.

Tahara Mekkun House was selling soft-serve ice cream made from melon that was appealing. Maybe next time…