Asahikawa, Apr.5 – 6, 2025
Special exhibition at Miura Ayako Literature Museum and Fried noodle at Restaurant Nanohana
It is my fourth visit to Asahikawa in three years since I came to visit Miura Ayako Literature Museum in 2023. I am a supporting member of the museum since 2022. I visit the city every year since then. I like this land-locked city surrounded by mountains. The Taisetsu Mountains are located in the east. Ayako Miura once stated the happiness she could live looking up the brightly shining Mountains every day on her essay “Mt. Taisetsu and me.” I stay at Route inn Grande Asahikawa in front of JR. Asahikawa station. It is a simple accommodation: Clean room, comfortable bed and nice staff. It is just 30minutes to Miura Ayako Literature Museum from the hotel by walk. I like the view of the station from the room. I make sure to ask a room facing the station for me when I book a room. There is a large bath on its 17th floor. From the large bath, you can see the east side of the city where Asahidake Mountain is located. I like taking a bath watching the sun is rising above the mountain in the morning. There is a Seico mart, Hokkaido native convenience store here one block north. I like eating snacks from their “hot chief” washing down with Sapporo Beer watching the view from the room after taking bath. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and relaxation after the day. I tried to eat at a popular restaurant in a tour guide book on my first visit. Now Buying food for dinner at Seico mart or Aeon super market become my routine. No need to eat in a crowded place or wait in a long ling. I would read a book of Ayako Miura which I bought at the Museum in the bed before sleep. It is now my favorite routine at the hotel.
I got Asahikawa around 1 o’clock in the afternoon. There were not much snow on the streets. I realized I did not need to wear heavy coat. I stopped by the hotel to leave my luggage at the croak before check-in. It is just a walk of some thirty minutes to the Museum. They have a special exhibition every year. New exhibition ”Reflect on the times” has started from the previous day. She was a popular novelist/essayist in the Showa era. She debuted as novelist by “Freezing point” in 1964 and continued to write many stories with Christian belief as its background. She was born and raised in Asahikawa. She became an elementary school teacher at 17 years old. She was enthusiastic about raising good kids to Emperor Hirohito. She liked kids. She spent all of her energy and loved her students. When the war ended and Japan surrendered to the allied forces, she was forced to teach completely different things. She was thrown into the dark sea of vast emptiness. She quit her job the following year. She tried to kill herself once in a cold sea. She made promise of marriage with two men at the same time. She fell down with tuberculosis which kept her almost 13 years in bed. She found light in Christianity through her boyfriend who had tuberculosis and promised to marry with her. However, he passed away after surgery. She encountered with Mitsuyo Miura, her future husband one year after his death. He waited for her recovery patiently and finally married when she recovered in 1959. She ran a small grocery shop while Mitsuyo worked at the regionary forestry office. She learned the Asahi Shimbun news announced they hold a prize competition on novels on the morning edition of January 1st, 1963. The price was ten million yen. It could worth 100 million yen now. Her novel “Freezing point” won the price and she made a spectacular debut. She wrote many novels and essays with Christian motifs and continued to encourage people to live positively through those works. I took Shiokari Touge or Shiokari pass in my hands first, followed by Deiryu Chitai or Mudslide area. Hyoten or Freezing point. I am reading her works one by one. Now I am reading Kairei or Ocean ridge, her historic novel. I would continue to read her works.
At the corner of the tourist information center in the building of JR. Asahikawa station, there is a cafeteria “Nanohana” or mustard flowers. One of their popular dish is Yakisoba fried noodle. They have a large size called “Gakusei Yakisoba”, literary meaning for students, which uses noodles for two. The price is just different about 50 yen from this standard size I had. I would choose Gakusei if I were young. But now over 60 years old, the standard is good enough. It goes well with a glass of Taisetsu beer, a local craft beer. Noodle is made by a local noodle manufacture who won and run the restaurant. It is not too soft. I want to eat again. I got just a couple of minutes before the bus leaves for the airport. I quickly had it washing down with the beer and walked to the bus stop.