Roadside Station Hitoyoshi

A long-established hands-on park becomes a roadside station!
Enjoy a handmade craft experience

Hitoyoshi Craft Park Ishino Koen," which has been popular for its craft experiences including the traditional handicrafts "Kijima" and "Hanatebako," was registered as "Hitoyoshi Roadside Station" and opened on August 10, 2048. It was reborn as an information transmission facility for Hitoyoshi Kuma wide-area tourism. At the same time, the Hitoyoshi Kuma Smart IC on the Kyushu Expressway opened. Access to the roadside station is less than 2 km away, making it easy to get there. Visitors can still enjoy the traditional pottery and blacksmithing experiences, and there are also facilities such as a product store and other facilities to support families with children. There is also a campsite, a plaza, and playground equipment, so that visitors can enjoy themselves with their children.

Roadside Station Hitoyoshi Map

Roadside Station Hitoyoshi Gourmet Information

Local product: Kuma shochu

The Hitoyoshi and Kuma regions are blessed with an abundance of rice, and shochu production flourished using this abundant rice. This is the reason why Kuma shochu is a rice shochu liqueur while Satsuma shochu is a potato shochu liqueur. Kuma shochu has a history of about 500 years. In 1995, Kuma shochu was designated as a geographical indication of origin by the National Tax Agency, and is one of the four shochu with designated geographical indication recognized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Japan. Currently, there are 27 breweries, and each brewery produces two methods of shochu: traditional normal-pressure shochu with a strong individuality, and reduced-pressure shochu that is light and easy to drink. We hope you will stop by the roadside station and buy the shochu from the brewery of your choice.

Buy this Veggie Pasta

This colorful pasta caught my eye at Hitoyoshi Roadside Station. It is a hand-pulled tagliatelle (flat?) of three kinds: burdock root, red beets, and spinach. The vegetables are grown by "Asagiri Farm" in the neighboring town of Asagiri. No salt is needed when boiling, and the boiling time is only 5 to 6 minutes. The texture is chewy after boiling. The chewy texture of the boiled pasta is said to be made possible by the hand-pulling method. The pasta sauces are all said to go well with white sauces, but just for reference, you can use your favorite pasta sauce. The photo shows gobo (burdock root) with Japanese soy sauce, red beets with white sauce, and spinach with tomato sauce. 180 g per bag, 399 yen each (tax included). The farm also sells a recipe for takikomi-gohan (rice cooked with beets and spinach) and tomato pilaf.

The best place to eat Hitoyoshi Pudding

It is served at "Chabo Hitoyoshi," a snack cafe in the Roadside Station. It is actually the same as the "Nishiki Pudding" at "Roadside Station Nishiki. It is one of the representative desserts of Hitoyoshi Kuma area, and you can enjoy its smoothness and rich taste that melts in two seconds at the Michi-no-Eki. The price is 330 yen (tax included).

Around Hitoyoshi Roadside Station

Craft Experience

I'm proud of this one too.

There are eight hands-on workshops on the premises, including pottery, glass art, woodworking, and blacksmithing, offering more than 40 different hands-on experience menus. Visitors can also try their hand at painting traditional folk crafts from the Hitoyoshi Kuma region, such as kijiema and hanatebako, and the Kumamon Hanatebako with Kumamon's design on it is very popular. The shortest experience takes about 15 minutes, and the longest takes about 3 hours. (Experience menus vary depending on the day of the week.)

Aoi Aso Shrine

If you want to have fun in the area

The Sagara family ruled Hitoyoshi Kuma area for about 700 years from the Kamakura period to the Meiji period. Aoi Aso Shrine, Hitoyoshi's main shrine, was built 400 years before the Sagara family's entry into the region. Known locally as "Aoi-san," the shrine boasts a history of more than 1,200 years. The thatch-roofed tower gate, main hall, hall of worship, corridor, and hall of offerings, as well as one building tag from the time of construction and five nameplates that clearly state the date and details of reconstruction, are designated as the first national treasures in Kumamoto Prefecture. The shrine was partially damaged by the torrential rain in July 2020, but visitors can still visit the shrine.