Food Paradise Tokachi

Tokachi

The Movers & Shakers Of Tokachi

Haruyoshi Kashiwaba

The owner of Oakleaf Fram and Kagura is a respected figure in the farming community here because of his persistence in producing food that is safe and healthy.

Your farm has created its own brand of beef – the Mirai Memuro. Can you tell us more about it?

I started cattle-farming 36 years ago. My farm currently owns 4,000 cows.Since the beginning, I have been insistent on using non-GMO and non post-harvest feed because I want my beef to taste good and be beneficial for the consumer’s health.

The Mirai Memuro beef is leaner than Wagyu but still tender and tasty. Normally, more than 100g of Grade 4 Wagyu may cause some discomfort to your digestive system because of the high fat content. With my beef, you won’t suffer from that.

What makes Tokachi so ideal for cattle farming?

I think first, the people of Tokachi have an inherent frontier-spirit that we inherited from our forefathers. We have learned to live with the land for generations! We’re blessed with a wonderful environment. We get lots of sunlight and our seasonal temperatures keep the animals healthy – they suffer very low risk of contracting parasites.

What three foods would you recommend to visitors of Tokachi?

My beef! You definitely have to come to my restaurant and try the beef from my farm. The second thing to try is the potatoes. The third is hard to choose because there are too many wonderful things to try!

Which three places would you recommend they check out then?

The outdoor onsen at Lake Shikaribetsu – the view is breathtaking. The second place to visit is the Tokachi Millennium Forest. Last, I would say to get some farmstay experience!

Katsuhiko Hayashi

An enterprising individual with his fingers in many businesses,　he is perhaps most well-known for starting the Tokachi Millennium Forest.

Why did you start the Tokachi Millennium Forest?

My family owns the local newspaper company. It is an industry that consumes a lot of paper and I thought up the Tokachi Millennium Forest as a way of giving back to Nature. However, I knew we had to make it economically viable for it to thrive so I developed the Tokachi Millennium Forest as a tourist attraction where visitors can not only enjoy spending the day in Nature, they can also dine at the restaurant or visit the cheese factory.

It must have been a success from the get-go.

In the beginning, I had thought people would come to visit it from Furano (location of another famous garden in Hokkaido) but that did not work at all. So, I came up with the idea of a romantic drive, inspired by a trip in Germany. Working together with the other gardens, we developed the Hokkaido Garden Route where people can enjoy a scenic drive from Asahikawa to Furano to Tokachi. Today, we are the best performing attraction in Hokkaido in terms of growth, attracting some 550,000 visitors annually.

Which three places would you recommend visitors check out then?

Tokachigawa onsen in autumn as it is a nice place to spot cranes. Taushubetsu Bridge over Lake Nukabira, and the Ice Bar (see P23) at Lake Shikaribetsu in winter. I’m very proud of these three things as you can’t experience them anywhere else.

(TEXT DEBORAH TAN PHOTOGRAPHY ATSUSHI TAKAHARA, YASUSHI IWAMA, IKUE WADA, MASATSUGU SUGAWARA, TOMOAKI KAWAMURA)