---
title: Oyaki of Shinshu
url: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/oyaki-of-shinshu/
lang: en
journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/nozawa/
---

# Oyaki of Shinshu

A little of each town’s story　/　Nozawaonsen, Nagano

One of Nagano's best-known regional foods: a wheat-flour dough wrapped around nozawana, seasonal vegetables or sweet bean paste, then baked or steamed. Fillings and methods vary so much from place to place that people say you could draw a map of oyaki. In 1983 it was registered, together with nozawana pickles and hand-made soba, as a Nagano Prefecture intangible folk cultural asset.

## This moment in the journey: Oyaki and onsen manju

Beyond the Ogama signpost, steam wrapped the stone steps in white. First, Nagano's famous oyaki. Breaking one open with my hands revealed a filling packed with nozawana. I once made oyaki by imitation in an old house in Nagano, but the real thing is in a different class: the sweet-salty filling goes perfectly with the warm dough.

Then an onsen manju. Eating a steamed bun in a hot-spring town is as essential as soaking in the hot spring itself. At a shop whose sign read 'Famous onsen manju, made here', I split one open to find it packed with smooth bean paste.

![Nozawana filling inside a broken-open oyaki](https://karigurashijourney.com/img/nozawa/s41-1200.jpg)
- Sources: https://www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/area_stories/nagano.html

Read this scene in the full journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/nozawa/