---
title: Aridagawa
url: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/places/aridagawa/
lang: en
---

# Aridagawa

Travel journal from Aridagawa, with 14 notes on the places I ate, the dishes I cooked and the sights: Aragijima Rice Terraces, Washigamine Cosmos Park, Arida mandarins and stone-walled terraces, Soy sauce of Yuasa.

## Journeys

- [Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/aridagawa-2/index.md): Autumn Flavors of Wakayama, Part 2（2023-11-26）
- [Sushi, Cosmos and Ramen](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/aridagawa-1/index.md): Autumn Flavors of Wakayama, Part 1（2023-11-19）

## Cook the local flavors once more

- [Chestnut rice (kuri gohan)](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/chestnut-rice/index.md): My first chestnut rice, made with chestnuts I had picked myself.
- [Charcoal-grilled saury with sudachi](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/charcoal-grilled-saury-with-sudachi/index.md): 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.
- [Wakayama bonito and mandarin carpaccio](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/wakayama-bonito-and-mandarin-carpaccio/index.md): In contrast to the lean first bonito of spring, the fish that head south from around September are called modori-gatsuo, returning bonito.
- [Foil-grilled mushrooms with butter](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/foil-grilled-mushrooms-with-butter/index.md): Mushrooms are another essential of the autumn table.
- [Mehari-zushi](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/mehari-zushi/index.md): A Wakayama specialty: a large rice ball wrapped in salt-pickled takana leaves.
- [Umeboshi and red shiso rice ball](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/umeboshi-and-red-shiso-rice-ball/index.md): Wakayama grows more ume than any other prefecture in Japan: 58% of the national harvest in 2024 (64% the year before).

## A little of each town’s story

- [Ryoma 1865, a non-alcoholic beer](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/ryoma-1865-a-non-alcoholic-beer/index.md): What I drank on the veranda and at dinner was Ryoma 1865, a non-alcoholic beer from Nippon Beer Co.
- [Aragijima Rice Terraces](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/aragijima-rice-terraces/index.md): A fan-shaped terrace of rice paddies wrapped by a bend of the Arida River.
- [Washigamine Cosmos Park](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/washigamine-cosmos-park/index.md): About a million cosmos bloom across the summit of Mt.
- [Arida mandarins and stone-walled terraces](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/arida-mandarins-and-stone-walled-terraces/index.md): Wakayama produces more unshu mandarins than any other prefecture.
- [Yura Wase, an extra-early mandarin](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/yura-wase-an-extra-early-mandarin/index.md): Discovered in 1985 in Yura, Wakayama, as a bud mutation of the Miyagawa Wase mandarin, and registered as a variety in 1995.
- [Soy sauce of Yuasa](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/soy-sauce-of-yuasa/index.md): Yuasa, the town next to Aridagawa, is known as the birthplace of soy sauce brewing.
- [Wakayama ramen and hayazushi](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/wakayama-ramen-and-hayazushi/index.md): Locals call Wakayama ramen simply chuka soba; it is said to have begun at street stalls in the early Showa era.

## Places we stopped along the way

- [Chuka Soba Marutoku](https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/chuka-soba-marutoku/index.md): A long-standing shop serving old-style soy-based chuka soba.