I found Japan’s best seafood destination on the Chita Peninsula

If you’ve ever pictured your face on a soy sauce bottle or fancy visiting a museum dedicated to vinegar, this Japanese destination is the spot for you.

The just-shucked rock oyster is as large as my hand. I lift the shell to my lips and soft oyster flesh slips into my mouth, releasing a tsunami of sweetness blended with the salty sea. It’s the best oyster I’ve ever tasted.

My exploration of local cuisine has me salivating on a tatami-matted floor in a fishermen’s restaurant on minuscule Shinojima island – it has only 8km of coastline – after a short boat ride from Minamichita Port on Japan’s Chita Peninsula.

The Chita Peninsula, in Aichi Prefecture, is renowned throughout Central Japan for centuries of fermenting unique varieties of miso, pickles, vinegar, tamari, and Japanese sake. Fishing ports, giant fish markets and all-you-can-eat seafood barbecues also developed on the peninsula, the tiny islands and bays of which provide much of the acclaimed octopus, blowfish, sea bream, and rock and farmed oysters eaten in Central Japan. Gastronomy tourism is proving popular here. If you want to savour the flavours of Chita, follow my recommendations.

Fresh Chita oyster. Picture: Greg Goodmacher

Mentaiko samples at Mentai Park. Picture: Greg Goodmacher

Quirky food museums

Tokai City’s Mentai Park is a rare museum/factory/amusement park celebrating mentaiko, a popular delicacy made from walleye pollock roe marinated in peppers and various seasonings. Fish -egg-themed displays, games, and videos teach mentaiko’s science and cultural background and delight adults and kids, as does watching workers prepare it. Mentaiko samples are free or try some strange offerings at the snack bar (mentaiko with spaghetti, ice-cream, and baguettes) if you dare. Mentai Park is one train stop from Chubu Centrair International Airport.

I expected a vinegar museum would be dull, but now I take my friends to the award-winning, barrier-free, architecturally stunning Mizkan Museum where tour guides encourage getting hands-on with interactive exhibits exploring the history and products of one of Japan’s leading vinegar producers. Innovative activities include an avatar game in which we create virtual vinegar and other fermented products; a replica of an ancient wooden cargo ship visitors board to experience ultra-high-tech audio, visual, and music displays of seafaring voyages to Edo (old Tokyo); and olfactory tests of vinegar varieties.

Centuries ago, the Mizkan founder thought of fermenting vinegar from sake by-products. His low-cost product made sushi available to commoners, accelerating the growth of sushi culture. Have your photograph put on the label of a bottle of Mizkan citrus-seasoned soy sauce for about $2 and take that unique souvenir home. Reserve the $5 tour on the website. 

The Mizkan Museum’s replica vinegar cargo ship. Picture: Greg Goodmacher

Sushi lessons

Walk three minutes from the Mizkan Museum to Uotaro Sushi to learn how to make sushi. Order a plate of preformed sushi rice, shrimp, and fish slices at the sushi counter for only $9. The chef will teach the sushi-making techniques of properly anointing wasabi on the rice, placing the seafood on top, and applying finger pressure to form mouth-watering nigiri sushi. You’ll also make succulent ikura battleship sushi by wrapping a strip of nori around a ball of sushi rice and gently adding salmon roe. 

Sushi-making class at Uotaro Sushi. Picture: Greg Goodmacher

Fermented cuisines

Inside a renovated storehouse near where the Morita family started brewing sake in 1665 is Restaurant Morita Aji no Yakata, a restaurant/museum specialising in Chita’s fermented cuisine. The menu features fermented dishes and drinks, such as Aich-style miso cutlet, local pickles, tamari ice-cream, sake, and even miso beer. Miso beer is rarely found outside Aichi Prefecture, where residents love the bold, slightly bitter, umami-rich flavour of hatcho miso. Tables are placed next to aged wooden and bamboo fermentation vats, and black-and-white photographs and old advertisements display Chita’s history. It’s one hour by train and foot from Chubu Centrair International Airport. 

Sake brewing

One of Japan’s rare female sake company presidents, Kaoru Sawada leads tours around the rustic Sawada Sake Brewery and graciously pours sake and plum wine for guests. Giant wooden beams hold up the ceiling of this small brewery established in 1848. You’ll sense antiquity, a passion for brewing, and a connection to the community, especially if you can attend kurabiraki, a party to celebrate the new sake releases in February. Neighbours and Sawada supporters crowd the brewery grounds to eat, drink, and laugh with friends. Some samples are free, while others are surprisingly cheap. Reach Sawada by train and bus in 30 minutes from Chubu Centrair International Airport. 

Nomazaki Lighthouse and the beach in Mihama.

Drive and feast

Drive Chita’s southern coastal roads for views of sunsets, nori farms, seabirds, villages, and fishing ports. Mihama’s port provides heaps of high-quality local crabs, scallops, shrimp, snapper, and other seafood to Uotaro Hamayakibabekyu’s seaside barbecue restaurant. Prices vary by season. I recommend the summer buffet. Barbecue and eat as much seafood (lobsters cost more) as you can within 90 minutes for $50. Soft drinks are included. 

The author visited some attractions as a guest of local tourism departments.

How to get to Japan’s Chita Peninsula

The Chita Peninsula is one hour south of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, about a four-hour train ride southwest of Tokyo. Chubu Centrair International Airport in Tokoname City, one of the 10 municipalities on the peninsula, serves Aichi Prefecture and Central Japan. Train services and buses cross the peninsula, but a rental car is the most convenient travel option. 

Originally published as I found Japan’s best seafood destination on the Chita Peninsula