One of my old friends from Okinawa invited me to join him for the Fukushima City Half Marathon held in May. To reach the capital of Fukushima Prefecture, it takes about a two-hour bullet train ride to JR Fukushima Station from JR Tokyo Station.

After reserving a hotel room and purchasing train tickets, one issue came up: selecting spots in Fukushima City to check out before the race. Although the prefecture is famous for its fruit production, few of those would be in season during our stay. To reach some of the prefecture’s attractions like Aizuwakamtsu, an old samurai city, some travel is required. Since we wanted to stay in the city and not spend more money on transportation, we did some research and finally came up with an itinerary when we were already on the bullet train headed to Fukushima.

Hanamiyama Park

Our first destination was Hanamiyama Park, located 180 meters above sea level. The park has been owned by a flower farming family since 1959 and offers free admission. In the spring, cherry blossoms, forsythia, plum blossoms are in full bloom. We took a bus from JR Fukushima Station. Though it’s only a 20-minute ride to the nearest bus stop to the park, make sure to check the bus schedule as it doesn’t run often.

To reach the Hanamiyama Mountain Entrance, we walked another 20 minutes from the bus stop. Here we chose between three courses: 30, 45, or 60 minutes. We thought the 60-minute course would be a good warmup for the next day’s half marathon.

The path leading to the park was very narrow and it was difficult to avoid bumping into others coming down the mountain. Fortunately, climbing to the top took less than 20 minutes and we enjoyed a view of rich greenery, surrounding mountains and the city’s sprawling urban district.

Bunka-dori Street

Another popular spot in the city is Bunka-dori Street, a 10-minute walk from JR Fukushima Station’s East Entrance. The 250-meter-long stone-paved street has about 70 shops and restaurants, and leads to the Fukushima Inari Shrine. Founded in 987 and reconstructed in 1938, the shrine, its subtle grounds and single-storied buildings were pleasant in their simplicity.

We still had time to kill before the marathon eve festa, so we stopped at Kohi no Machi café for a break. The café’s name means “town of coffee” in Japanese, so it seemed like a perfect spot to enjoy a cup of joe. From the outside, it was hard to imagine how spacious Kohi no Machi was, but inside the classic coffeehouse held 50 seats.

I ordered a cake set for 700 yen (about $5) which came with a slice of cake and tea or coffee. The rich, chocolate cake with thick fresh cream was decorated and plated beautifully. I bet it would cost more than 1,500 yen at a hotel restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised that all the China used for the set was Noritake. Noritake is a globally renowned ceramic company from Aichi and founded in 1904. I envied the locals who could go to the Kohi no Machi and enjoy their drinks and desserts on this beautiful ceramicware whenever they wanted.

Eve Festa for the Fukushima City Half Marathon

The eve festa, a pre-party for marathon participants, was held at a public square about a 5-minute-walk from JR Fukushima Station. During the festivities, the local basketball team’s cheerleaders and a local band performed. There were about 10 booths, some offering free food like cooked prawns and bouillabaisse soup that went well with the local sake served at the event.

Iizaka Onsen Part 1

After the festa, we headed to our hotel in Iizaka Onsen, a hot spring town nearby. From Fukushima Station, it’s about a 30-minute train ride to IIzaka Onsen Station via the Iizaka Line.

This year, the IIzaka Line celebrates its 100^th anniversary. The train features two cars and only runs two to four times per hour. Inside, the train cars are split with curtains, which is not a common sight on commuter trains.

When we arrived at our destination, it took us about a five-minute walk to our hotel.

Iizaka Onsen receives about 300,000 visitors a year and has had some notable visitors, including author Helen Keller and poet Basho Matsuo. The town has more than 40 places to stay and nine communal baths, which are famous for it extremely hot spring water.

Atagoya Hotel, where we stayed, is fairly new and features five rooms. The rooms were typical Japanese ones with tatami mats and fusuma, or a sliding door made of Japanese paper inside a wooden frame.

We wanted to take a bath before supper to refresh as it reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, which was high for May in Fukushima.

The shared bathroom was simple to use:  All you must do is turn the wooden sign that reads “vacant” to “occupied.”

The moment I dipped my toe into the bath, I shouted, “hot!” The water temperature, which I later learned was a scalding 60.2 degrees Celsius (140.36 degrees F), was not something my body could adjust to, so I added cold water to the bath for a few minutes. However, the water temperature would not drop! So, holding the shower hose, I entered the bath as I sprayed cold water over me. I felt like I was being boiled in a hot stew.

Iizaka Onsen Tourist Association

Gyoza Restaurant Terui

After our boiling baths, we headed to Terui, an enban gyoza restaurant. Enban gyoza are Chinese-style pan-fried dumplings grilled together in a pan and turned over onto the serving plate when ready.

This style is said to have come from China after World War II and these gyoza are one of the must-eat dishes in the city.

The restaurant we visited was founded in 1953 and had a line of 15 people waiting when we arrived. We considered going elsewhere, but decided to wait as Teuri is the highest-rated gyoza restaurant on Tabelog, a popular restaurant review site in Japan.

We waited over an hour to be seated and ordered ramen, stir-fried pig entrails and vegetables and one order of 22 of their famous gyoza. Despite my friend wanting to steer clear of alcohol before the marathon, he could not suppress his desire and we both ordered a beer to go along with our meal.

When the gyoza arrived, the dough looked thin, crisp and a little oily. After the first bite, I realized that the gyoza was not oily at all. Compared with some other gyoza in other regions of Japan, it also had more vegetables than pork, which made it easy to eat. Though there were 22 gyoza, we quickly devoured them and the other tasty dishes we ordered.

I’ve visited Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture, which is the most famous city for gyoza, but Fukushima City’s gyoza was way better. I would even apply for the marathon next year just to have gyoza at Terui again.

Fukushima City Half Marathon

Though it reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit on the day of the marathon, the course had a gentle rise and fall so that it was easy to run. My friend chose the 20K course, but I was on the 10K one. My course required running over four bridges crossing the Abukuma River with clear views of the surrounding mountains. It was a relaxing run.

Spectators, marathon staff and volunteers lining the route cheered us on. Local students handed out water or performed dances and Japanese drum riffs. It was a great atmosphere to encourage runners to keep going.

I finished the 10K in 1:02:41. My friend bested his performance on the 20-km route by five minutes, so we were both pleased with how we did.

After, we visited the marathon booths to get the free enban gyoza we were given tickets for ahead of the race. The gyoza was good, but we were disappointed to only receive two each. We completed a meal with skewered local beef and pork, which cost 600 yen each. We also had three big oysters from the Sanriku Region, famous for sea products. I had never seen oysters as big as those before and at 1,000 yen a piece, they were a steal.

While we were eating, it was announced that they cooked too much gyoza, so they would give away some more. That was a nice surprise, and I enjoyed 10 more to celebrate.

Iizaka Onsen Part 2

After freshening up at the hotel, we strolled Iizaka’s quaint streets. We stopped at the Former Horikiri Residence, a home dating back to the 16^th century that once belonged to a wealthy farmer. Today, this traditional home is a peak inside the life of the Edo Period farmer and offers free entry. Don’t miss the free foot and hand onsen on site.

Next, we visited Atogosan Park with Mt. Atogosan rising 141.3 meters above sea level. We climbed stairs for 10 minutes to the summit where Atago Shrine sits. The view of Fukushima Basin, the mountains and Iizaka Town was wonderful.

After we climbed down, we went to Hakoyu Bath, one of the nine local communal baths, with 1,200 years of history. The original building was reconstructed in 2011 and overlooks a river. Unlike the bath at the hotel, the two here were of a manageable temperature. After dipping my toe into the 45-degree Celsius bath, I decided the 43-degree one was the best to relieve the fatigue from the run.

Heading home

After enjoying two days of sun, our last morning in Fukushima was a rainy one. Our agenda for the day was to buy souvenirs and grab lunch at a shopping and dining area attached to JR Fukushima Station before riding the bullet train back to Tokyo.

We shopped for souvenirs and walked around the shopping mall next to the station in search of a restaurant for our last meal. To our surprise, we found a branch of the gyoza restaurant Terui! We enjoyed our third gyoza feast to the fullest.

Fukushima City is blessed with beautiful nature, delicious gyoza, relaxing hot springs and is only 2-hour bullet train trip from Tokyo. Consider Fukushima City for your next trip in Japan!

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