Iwate · Morioka StationNo.999★★★Open in map →
Morioka Reimen
— Morioka's cold noodle in a beef-bone broth
A cold noodle of wheat flour and potato starch, clear and springy, in a chilled beef-bone broth with kimchi and a slice of fruit. Morioka created it after the war, and the station building is the easiest place to meet it.
- FromTokyo Station
- ~2 hr 10 minTohoku Shinkansen, direct from Tokyo
- Get off atMorioka Station (Tohoku Shinkansen)
- On foot
- Morioka Reimen
Where it is
17 more notes in Iwate · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- The Fesan station buildingthe station's own eating floors, including a basement noodle arcade
- Marios observation floora free lookout on the top floor of the tower at the station's west exit
- Kaiunbashi Bridgethe white steel bridge carrying the road from the station over the Kitakami River
- The Kitakami riverside walkthe path downstream toward Asahibashi, with Mount Iwate standing above the water
How to actually get there
- Tokyo Station → Morioka Station (Tohoku Shinkansen, about 2 hours 10 minutes, no change).
- Inside the station, take the eating floors of the Fesan building, including the basement noodle arcade.
- Cross to the west exit for the free observation floor, then return to the east side.
- Walk out to Kaiunbashi and follow the Kitakami downstream toward Asahibashi for the view of Mount Iwate.
- Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo
- Tokyo Station →(Tohoku Shinkansen, about 2 hours 10 minutes)→ Morioka Station, with no change on the way. Morioka is where the Akita Shinkansen branches off the Tohoku line, so trains here are often two halves bound for two different places; the platform display shows which cars go where. Slower services on the same line stop more often and take longer.
- Back to Tokyo
- Southbound trains leave from the same platforms and take about the same time. Departures thin out through the evening, so check the board before you sit down to eat rather than after. The IGR Iwate Galaxy Railway also starts from this station, which is the line to take if you are carrying on north on local trains instead of returning.
About the place
The bowl is defined by its noodle. Korean naengmyeon is usually built on buckwheat, but the Morioka version is kneaded from wheat flour and potato starch, which leaves the strand translucent and gives it a spring closer to elastic than to soba. The broth is clear and cold, drawn mainly from beef bones, and it carries none of the weight that a beef stock suggests. Kimchi supplies the heat, and most houses will set it at a level you name or bring it in a separate dish so you can add it yourself. A slice of fruit is laid on top as a palate cleanser, watermelon in summer and apple or pear later in the year, and that is the detail first-time eaters remember.
How to enjoy it
The dish is eaten cold all year rather than only in summer, so there is no season to wait for. Ask for the kimchi in a separate dish if you would rather set the heat yourself; most houses will otherwise mix it in at a level you name. With half an hour before a train, the eating floors inside the station are the version built for that gap, and the lookout across at the west exit is the other way to spend it.
Background & history
Cold noodles reached Morioka with people from the north of the Korean peninsula. In 1954 a cook from Hamhung opened a small eating house in the city and put a version of his home dish on the menu; at first it was refused, with customers saying the springy strand was like chewing rubber. What he arrived at set the mild, unspiced style of Pyongyang against the chilli heat of Hamhung. By 2000 the Fair Trade Commission had allowed the bowl to be sold as a named local speciality, and Morioka's three noodles began to be counted together.
Before you go
- Cash
- Walking the station building costs nothing; you pay only where you sit down, and each house posts its prices at the door. The observation floor at the west exit is free to enter.
- Before you go
- Almost everything here is indoors or a few minutes from cover, so weather changes little except along the river, which is open and cold in winter. Shops inside the station keep their own hours and rest days, so read the door rather than assuming the building's opening time applies to all of them.
- Another way
- Iwate Hanamaki Airport links the prefecture to several domestic cities, with a bus connection into Morioka. From within Tohoku, the Tohoku Main Line and the IGR line both call at this station, and express buses from Sendai run to the city as well.
- After you get off
- You have arrived when you step off the train. The eating floors sit inside and below the concourse; for the tower at the west exit, follow the signs through the passage from the ticket gates rather than leaving by the east side.