Shirahama Marine Museum

"The charm of fishing is that 
it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, 
a perpetual series of occasions for hope."

John Buchan

Scottish novelist and historian

The sign board, showing the direction to Shirahama Marine Museum.

The small wooden structure that houses hundreds of collections from the Edo period.

The geographical location of Tateyama makes it cannot be separated from the sea. Our next stop took us to Shirahama Marine Museum, to learn more about the life of fisherman and also to see an unique kind of folk costume, worn by the fisherman during the Edo period, called maiwai (万祝). Maiwai, (literally translates "ten thousand of celebration") refers to a celebration of a huge catch, and is believed to be originated from the Bōsō Peninsula, which later spread to the Pacific Ocean coast of Japan.

Initially, maiwai was more commonly known as maiwai-hanten (万祝半纏) or short coat, and is made whenever there was a big catch. This Japanese traditional garment is later worn during the celebration of the big catch. The main characteristic of maiwai is the beautiful motif, each individually hand-drawn at the back of the costume. A good quality maiwai could fetch up to 200,000 yen (approximately RM6,000), which maiwai-hanten costs about one-third of that.

Did not wanna miss out trying out this piece of maiwai (photo credit: Tooru Ishikawa).

All kinds of seashells on display in the museum (photo credit: Ayako Uchiyama).

Shirahama Marine Museum has a huge collection of beautiful maiwai on display. Besides that, this unique museum also exhibits marine-related collections which are more than 400 to 100 years ago. Visitors to this museum will be warmly greeted by the ever-friendly owner, who is willing to explain in detail the history and stories behind each collection in the museum. 

There is a gallery corner in this museum that features various of art collections, and also small souvenir shop here. Visitors can take a short coffee break in a small garden outside this museum after the visit, making this a place you would not want to miss out when you drop by Shirahama.

Chiba Kun Ambassadors listening attentively to the explaination by the owner (photo credit: Masataka Ishizaki).

They even have a parking space for pets lol! See how great the hospitality this museum provides.

|| INFORMATION ||

Shirahama Marine MuseumOperating hours: 09:00 - 17:00 (closed every Thursday)
Admission Fees: Adult: 500yen; Student: 400yen; Children (below 15): 200yen
(10% discount for group admission, senior, disabled individuals)
Parking spaces: Available (no charge, no reservations required)
Address: 628-1, Shirahama, Shirahama-cho, Minamiboso-shi, Chiba Prefecture, 295-0102, Japan.
Tel: 0470-38-4551        Fax: 0470-38-4551
Website: http://homepage2.nifty.com/kaibi/ (Japanese only)
Access: Train: Tateyama station (館山駅) on JR Uchibō Line (JR内房線), then take local bus to Shirahama.
Car: Route 127 and Route 86, approximately 30 minutes from Tateyama.

Tateyama's Hasshokudon

"Omotenashi"

Japanese philosophy

of hospitality

Ikoinomura Tateyama (いこいの村たてやま), where we made the stop for our lunch.

We were greeted with gorgeous swaying palm trees upon our arrival to the hotel.

Tateyama is a town blessed with beautiful sea around its surrounding. Realizing this fact, the city has come out with a local specialty menu based on the concept of "omotenashi" or Japanese hospitality. This menu which made its debut early this year on January 30, 2013, is called Tateyama's Hasshokudon (八色丼), or literally, "eight colours rice bowl dish".

The main characteristics of this menu is that eight different kinds of topping is served in eight mini rice bowls, giving us the chance to enjoy various flavours in one meal. You may wonder why the number "8" is chosen here. The eight different mini dishes included in this set symbolizes the orbs possessed by the eight warriors from the story "Nanso Satomi Hakkenden" (南総里見八犬伝), or the "Tale of Eight Dogs".

 Upon entering the cafeteria, we came across these mysterious-looking gigantic bowls!

An aerial shot of our lunch set.

A closer look at the condiments, pickled vegetables, clam soup and dessert.

Another shot from the top.

However, I am very sure everyone is curious what is inside the huge bowl on the left. Hmmm....

Each of the eight rice bowls is carved with Japanese kanji characters that represents the kanji appeared in the tale. All eight bowls which contain about 25-30 grams of rice is placed in a huge bowl with a cover which measures 36 centimeters in diameter and 25 centimeters tall.

The names of the eight bowls are "jin" (仁丼), "gi" (義丼), "rei" (礼丼), "chi" (智丼), "chu" (忠思), "shin" (信丼), "kou" (孝丼), "tei" (悌丼). "Tomo" is placed on the centre, "jin" is placed on the 12-o-clock position, and the rest will follow on clock wise rotation. The condiment to be enjoyed together with the rice dish is also arranged according to the same order.

 Tada! There you go - eight little rice bowls, each containing different kinds of rice dish.

Lets take a closer look at the colourful dish.

From this wonderful dish, you can get to taste everything Tateyama has to offer, as each dish features famous ingredients from the area, such as vegetables of the season, aji (horse mackerel), Ise-ebi (spiny lobster), pork, fish of the season, hijiki seaweed, and fruit of the season. Within these standards, each establishment determines the method of preparation and seasonings for these ingredients. 

The fish used in the dish differs from one restaurant to the other, and depending on the season, the types of fish in the same restaurant might be different. This gives people the chance to try out this dish multiple times as it offers a different kind of menu and experience on each visit. This unique dish can be enjoyed for just 1,800 yen.

This is what they call Tateyama's hasshokudon.

And, now you know why nobody can beat Japanese omotenashi.

Another half of the Chiba Kun Ambassadors had the opportunity to try another local specialty - Aburikaisen-don, which I have tried early this year. One thing to take note is that these two dishes are only available in five selected restaurants within Tateyama city. Furthermore, the number of meals served per day is limited to 125 sets for aburikaisen-don and 70 sets for hasshokudon. It is recommended to make a reservation before you visit the restaurants, especially during the weekends.

By the way, the place we had our lunch - Ikoinomura Tateyama (いこいの村たてやま) is a hotel that sits on a magnificent location just right in front of the Pacific Ocean. This strategic location offers a picturesque view of the ocean and islands far beyond the horizon from the room and public bath.

 

 The Chiba Kun Ambassadors enjoying our sumptuous meals.

The best way to drop by this hotel is by car, on the way driving through Minamiboso area, because the nearest train station is location quite some distance away. However, there is a bus stop nearby the hotel which the local bus runs on a frequent basis. Alternatively, the hotel is accessible from the station by taxi in approximately fifteen minutes.

By the way, there is a tropical botanical garden called Nanbo Paradise (南房パラダイス). It was built in 1970, and has set up a partnership with Singapore Botanic Gardens. There are about 5,000 kinds of tropical plants in a large glass houses with 11 rooms. And in the site, there are the beds of flowers, the house of butterflies, petting zoo and other some facilities.

The three popular local food from Tateyama.

Finally, a group photo of Chiba Ambassadors in front of the hotel we had our lunch.

|| INFORMATION ||

Ikoinomura Tateyama
Check-in time: 15:00 p.m.
Check-out time: 10:00 a.m.
Lunch time: 11:30 - 14:00 (abura-kaisendon and hasshokudon is only available during lunch time)
Closed days: None (except special holidays)
Number of seats: 200 seats
Number of servings per day: Aburi-kaisendon - 20 servings; Hasshokudon - 10 servings
Parking spaces: 60 cars (no charge, no reservations required)
Address: 1495-1, Fujiwara, Tateyama-shi, Chiba Prefecture, 294-0224, Japan.
Tel: 0470-28-2211        Fax: 0470-28-2215
Website: http://ikoi-tateyama.com/index.html (Japanese only)
Access: Tateyama is located in the southern region of Bōsō Peninsular. It takes approximately 90 minutes from Tokyo; and 30 minutes from Tateyama Station by car.

Five establishments offer Tateyama's Hasshokudon:
・Umi no Hana (Tel: 0470-25-5151) 2903-101 Hojo, Tateyama
・Hana Sohonten (Tel: 0470-22-1385) 2619-6 Hojo, Tateyama
・Kyukamura Tateyama (Tel: 0470-29-0211) 725 Kenbutsu, Tateyama
・Ito Daibo Kobo (Tel: 0470-29-1221) 963-1 Ito, Tateyama
・Ikoi-no-Mura Tateyama (Tel: 0470-28-2211) 1495-1 Fujiwara, Tateyama 
Inquiries: Tateyama New Local Gourmet Promotion Council (within the Tateyama City Tourism Association)
Website: http://tateyama-gourmet.com (Japanese only)
Tel: 0470-22-2000