VISON is a retail complex in the town of Taki, almost exactly in the center of Mie Prefecture, that serves as a communication hub for Japan’s rich food culture.
A complex that goes beyond the ordinary experiences of product sampling and shopping, VISON lets you watch and participate in the process of producing fermented ingredients and seasonings as a way of conveying the appeal of traditional Japanese food.
This article presents four establishments — the Mie VISON outlet of Okume, an additive-free seafood vendor; Virin Virin de Ise; Mikura Vinegary; and Kuranoya — that provide visitors with firsthand fermentation experiences in the WA-VISON area of VISON, which is packed with the allure of Japanese cuisine.
Try out the world’s only custom-made packs of dashi stock at Okume
Okume, established in 1871, is a seafood company that boasts the longest history of any vendor at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market. All of its products, including dried fish, pickled fish, and dashi stock made from top-quality fish caught in season, are additive-free and naturally sun-dried. With meticulous attention to how it processes its fish, the company has continued to deliver the same classic flavors over the decades.
The Mie VISON outlet is the company’s first regional outlet. At the counter on the right, you can create your own custom-made pack of dashi stock just by selecting your favorite ingredients from the 24 ingredients on hand.
Create your own custom-made pack of dashi stock
Okume’s custom-made dashi packs start from two packs for a total of 60 bags. By selecting one ingredient each for your base dashi, sub-base dashi, accent dashi, and secret-flavor dashi, you can order up your own original taste right at the store.
1. Fill in the order sheet
The order sheet lists the characteristics of each ingredient, the price per gram, and the classification of each umami flavor component.
2. Choose your ingredients
Okume’s recommended golden ratio for dashi is 4:3:2:1 for the base (inosinic acid), sub-base (inosinic acid), accent (glutamic acid), and secret-flavor (glutamic acid and others) ingredients.
Choose one favorite ingredient for the base, sub-base, accent, and secret-flavor dashi from the categories listed on the order sheet.
＜Chart of umami flavor components for dashi＞
・Base (168 grams): Katsuo honkarebushi (dried “authentic kare” bonito flakes); Katsuo arabushi (dried flakes from bonito with its head and entrails removed); Soda katsuobushi (dried Soda bonito flakes); Maguro bushi (dried tuna flakes); Saba bushi (dried mackerel flakes); Muroaji bushi (dried amberstripe scad flakes)
・Sub-base (126 grams): Katakuchi niboshi (boiled and dried shirasu sardines); Hirako niboshi (boiled and dried maiwashi sardines); Urume niboshi (boiled and dried round herring); Ago niboshi (boiled and dried flying fish); Yakiago (grilled and dried flying fish); Aji niboshi (boiled and dried horse mackerel); Eso niboshi (boiled and dried lizard fish); Kamasu niboshi (boiled and dried barracuda); Nodoguro niboshi (boiled and dried black throat sea perch)
・Accent (84 grams): Rishi konbu (rishi kelp); Makonbu (sweet kelp); Hidaka konbu (Hidaka kelp); Rausu konbu (Rausu kelp)
・Secret flavor (42 grams): Donko shiitake mushrooms; Koshin shiitake mushrooms; dried scallops; tori bushi (dried chicken flakes); surume dried squid
Staff are always available to help you with your choices. They have a wealth of knowledge about dashi and the ingredients and after asking about your flavor preferences, will give you pertinent advice.
Store manager Inui Yuma comments: “Many customers choose the more unusual ingredients such as saba bushi, maguro bushi, or nodoguro niboshi. Whatever ingredients you choose, as long as they are blended using the golden ratio, they will definitely taste good.”
3. The ingredients are blended on the spot to make your original dashi pack
Your selected ingredients are blended and put in 30 bags to complete your original pack. After your name is written on the package, you will have your very own dashi.
“We save each customer’s blend data, so you can order the same dashi blend again from our online store. Since the packages are inscribed with the family name, many customers give the packs as mementos to wedding guests.”
As you wait for your dashi packs to be blended, we recommend you enjoy some shopping in the store, where you can find additive-free foodstuffs from around the country, carefully selected by the fifth-generation owner of Okume. You can also eat these products at the attached restaurant.
Learn how mirin rice wine is made at Virin Virin de Ise
Mirin rice wine is used in cooking many different Japanese dishes such as simmered dishes, teriyaki, and soba dipping sauce. Although it is a seasoning entrenched in our daily lives, a surprising number of people say they don’t know how best to use mirin or its role in cooking.
Virin Virin de Ise is an outlet of the Sumiya Bunjiro Brewery, brewer of the famed Sanshu Mikawa Mirin, which is made from only three ingredients: glutinous rice from designated Japanese production areas, handmade rice koji malt, and honkaku shochu [a distilled alcoholic spirit]. The brewery, which has been dedicated to mirin brewing since its founding in 1910, is currently headed by third-generation president Sumiya Toshio.
At the store, you can watch the process of mirin being brewed with rice produced in Taki using the traditional Mikawa brewing method.
President Sumiya describes the company’s approach to mirin brewing. “We produce mirin in line with the traditional Mikawa principle of ‘one sho [approximately 1.8 liters] of rice to one sho of mirin’. Mirin is classified as an alcoholic beverage, so brewers are allowed to add a certain amount of brewing sugar or brewing alcohol per unit of rice, but we do not add anything. The only ingredients we use are glutinous rice, rice koji malt, and honkaku shochu. This is why with our mirin, you can enjoy the taste of the exquisite trio of natural sweetness, umami, and aroma from rice alone.”
The company brews mirin at VISON throughout the year as well, although at only one-fifth the scale of its main factory.
“We steam a large quantity of glutinous rice in a bit steamer called a koshiki. Then we let it cool and mix it with rice koji malt and shochu to produce the moromi mash. The moromi is put in tanks and mixed with oar-like paddles to prevent it from drying out and to ensure that the saccharification process progresses evenly.”
After being given several months to mature, the mirin liquid is pressed out of the moromi and further matured in storage tanks. The mirin’s richness deepens and its flavor mellows during this long maturation process. Once the maturation is complete, the mirin is finally shipped to market.
Virin Virin de Ise offers samples of its Virin [which literally means beautiful mirin] made from rice produced in Taki. Tasting it reveals a deep richness that emerges within a crisp sweetness. The sensation you get from this mirin is completely fresh — as if it’s a new kind of alcoholic beverage. It’s so delicious that you can’t help but drink it up in one go.
The store passes out its handwritten Virin News, a pamphlet that explains how to use mirin
“What we’d like to do next is plan hands-on experiences, not just tours, so people can gain a deeper appreciation of mirin. It takes only a night and two days to steam the glutinous rice and prepare it in a tank, so we envision people enjoying the experience as part of an overnight stay at VISON.”
Discover the complexities of vinegar at Mikura Vinegary
Like mirin described above, vinegar is probably another seasoning whose production method and uses are not well known. Mikura Vinegary, which has large wooden vats at both its entrance and in its fermentation room, is a place where you can learn how vinegar is made in these wooden vats.
There are five wooden vats in the fermentation room at Mikura Vinegary’s main facility in the town of Mihama in Mie’s Minamimuro District. By leaving some of the starter vinegar behind in the vats after each production cycle, the acetic bacteria continues to cultivate and begins the next fermentation process.
At the Taki Storehouse, the name of Mikura’s VISON store, the fermentation room has three large vats. Customers can watch the fermentation process through glass windows from inside the store. It’s an odd sensation because just imagining the fermentation process evokes visions of microorganisms wriggling around inside the silent wooden vats.
The store has a variety of products with attractive fragrances and rich tastes matured and fostered within the warmth of the wooden vats. These include sushi vinegars, Shizuka — a black unpolished-rice vinegar made with standing fermentation, Gekka — a white vinegar made with saké lees, and Akane — a red saké-lees vinegar made with surface fermentation.
Also popular is the &vinegar series, which blends vinegar with Mie-produced yuzu citrus, lemon, and other fruits to make very accessible products that still stay true to traditional production methods. The unusual &vinegar Ichijiku (fig vinegar) sells particularly well among women and families with kids.
One of the store’s attractions is discovering new ways to use vinegar. You can search for your favorite flavor from the bottles of vinegars lined up on the counter and learn about dishes you can make with the vinegars you sampled. On the day of our visit, the store had samples of dried bonito flakes from Kezuribushi Honpo Isewa, which is also located in WA-VISON, that had been pickled overnight in Gekka and Shizuka vinegars as well as samples of black vinegar pickled with muroaji bushi (dried amberstripe scad flakes) from Okume’s Mie VISON outlet.
The store’s vinegar arrangements are recommended for those who don’t like sour foods. The store also sells soft-serve ice cream, salads, drinks, and more, so you might discover an out-of-the-ordinary and delicious way to savor vinegar.
Prepare your very own miso at Kuranoya
Kuranoya is a specialty miso store, with its main store in Tokyo’s Toyosu Market. You can buy local miso from all over the country by weight starting from 100 grams. At the WA-VISON store, some 30 brands of miso — including Shinshu Kura miso, Iyo Barley miso, and Edo Sweet miso — are displayed attractively inside a glass showcase, much like flavors at a gelato shop.
“Many customers told us that regular package sizes are too large to buy just to experiment with miso types they fancy. That’s why at Kuranoya you can buy any of our miso brands by weight starting from 100 grams, which we recommend if you want to try changing up your family’s regular miso flavor or are looking for a flavor that suits your own palate better,” explains Koide Tomokazu, a member of Marukome Co., Ltd.’s Retail Business Department and Public Relations Department.
The store’s miso concierges are available to help you pick out miso flavors. Kuranoya ensures that all its miso types are additive free and so delicious that you can enjoy them without any dashi stock.
In addition to in-person sales of miso by weight, the store also runs daily miso-making classes. With the theme of learning about miso through seeing, touching, and tasting, the classes give visitors a hands-on experience in making miso.
What is the miso-making experience at Kuranoya like?
Miso-making classes are held twice a day at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. In about 30 minutes or so, you can prepare around 1.4 kilograms of handmade miso (enough for about 90 bowls of miso soup). Even young kids can join the experience, which makes it popular among families.
1. Sign up for a class at the store and learn about miso
The Kuranoya store’s classes are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Signups are limited to six groups per class. You can sign up on the day if a class has space. After signing up, you will be shown an informative video that provides a straightforward explanation of the making of miso.
2. Check that you have all your miso-making materials
Four ingredients are used to make miso: steamed soybeans, water, salt, and rice koji malt.
3. Mash the soybeans in the bag
Carefully mash the freshly steamed soybeans while still in the bag. The trick is to rotate the bag while leaning with your body weight and pushing down with your palm.
4. Add the rice koji, salt, and water and mash some more
Miso that still has some soybean or koji grains remaining is called koji miso or chunky miso. If you want a smooth miso, you have to keep on smushing the ingredients.
5. Add the starter miso to finish
Add in the starter miso to promote fermentation and maturation. Starter miso is essentially raw miso paste.
6. Pack your miso into a box and write the prepared-on date and the expected completion date on the label
Remove the air from the bag, tightly tie off the opening, and pack it into the box. After firmly securing the bag with a rubber band, stick the label with the prepared-on date and the completion date on the box and you’re done.
After taking your miso home, the fermentation process will continue causing moromi mash to accumulate near the knot and carbon-dioxide gas to build up. As a result, the bag will puff up. For this reason, a replacement bag is provided with the kit. Store the bag in a cool place in your home and watch over the fermentation process.
Learn, experience, and rediscover the attraction of everyday seasonings
We use dashi stock, mirin, vinegar, and miso in our everyday cooking without much thought about them. At WA-VISON’s storehouses, you can eat, learn about, experience, and get to know in depth these familiar traditional Japanese fermented ingredients.
Come visit WA-VISON and watch the process of making the seasonings that define well-known Japanese flavors and, perhaps, rediscover the rich tastes of Japanese cuisine.
