Wakayama produces more unshu mandarins than any other prefecture. In Arida, farmers have built stone-walled, stair-stepped groves for more than 400 years. On August 26, 2025, the "Stone-walled Terraced Mandarin Orchard System of Arida and Shimotsu" was recognized as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System.
Sources: pref.wakayama.lg.jp
This moment in the journey
Over the mandarin hills
In the afternoon I headed for the hilltops. Along the way, terraced mandarin groves built on stone walls appeared, with houses lined up along the slope.
The mild climate and the steep slopes, I learned, are ideal for growing mandarins. The fruit was just beginning to turn orange, and a small monorail for hauling the harvest ran between the trees. Past villages that felt unmistakably Wakayama, I kept climbing.
Watch this scene on YouTube3:01
More notes from this journey
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Mehari-zushi
A Wakayama specialty: a large rice ball wrapped in salt-pickled takana leaves.
From: Sushi, Cosmos and Ramen
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Umeboshi and red shiso rice ball
Wakayama grows more ume than any other prefecture in Japan: 58% of the national harvest in 2024 (64% the year before).
From: Sushi, Cosmos and Ramen
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Aragijima Rice Terraces
A fan-shaped terrace of rice paddies wrapped by a bend of the Arida River.
From: Sushi, Cosmos and Ramen
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Washigamine Cosmos Park
About a million cosmos bloom across the summit of Mt.
From: Sushi, Cosmos and Ramen
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Yura Wase, an extra-early mandarin
Discovered in 1985 in Yura, Wakayama, as a bud mutation of the Miyagawa Wase mandarin, and registered as a variety in 1995.
From: Sushi, Cosmos and Ramen
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Soy sauce of Yuasa
Yuasa, the town next to Aridagawa, is known as the birthplace of soy sauce brewing.
From: Sushi, Cosmos and Ramen
More notes from Kinki
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup)
Ozoni in and around Kyoto is built on kombu dashi and white miso, with round mochi, taro, carrot and daikon.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Osechi (datemaki, red-and-white namasu, decorated kamaboko)
Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toshikoshi soba (nihachi soba)
The custom of eating soba on New Year's Eve is said to have spread among ordinary people in the Edo period.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Chestnut rice (kuri gohan)
My first chestnut rice, made with chestnuts I had picked myself.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled saury with sudachi
Sanma is written 秋刀魚, "autumn sword fish," but that spelling only spread from the Taisho era on; older texts wrote it 青串魚.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Wakayama bonito and mandarin carpaccio
In contrast to the lean first bonito of spring, the fish that head south from around September are called modori-gatsuo, returning bonito.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast