Isahaya, Nagasaki

Three seas press against the edges of Isahaya's plain — Ariake Bay to the east, Omura Bay to the west, Tachibana Bay to the south — and the city sits at the junction of old roads that once connected Nagasaki to the rest of Kyushu. The Nagasaki Kaidō passed through here, and something of that layered transit history still shows in the station district, where JR and Shimabara Railway lines converge and the covered arcade of Isahaya Aer stretches its six hundred meters through the old commercial center.

The food here follows the geography closely. Konaganoi oysters come from tidal flats shaped by centuries of reclamation work on Isahaya Bay. Ikigawa mikan ripen on hillside groves facing the sea. Karatomi renkon grows in the wetland fields that the bay's history of land reclamation made possible. Suppon cuisine and whale dishes appear on menus alongside the sweet crunch of Isahaya okoshi — a confection that has traveled this town's streets for generations. At Isahaya Shrine, founded in the Nara period, a grove of camphor trees registered as a prefectural natural monument shades the approach, and in spring the shrine grounds host the Yabusame — mounted archery — that marks the rhythm of the year.

The Megane Bridge arcs over the Honmyo River in the castle-hill park, its stone reflection completing a circle on calm water. Above the city, Shirakimine Kogen opens onto highland air, and the Todoro Ravine, whose waters are listed among Japan's notable pure springs, cuts through the slopes of the Tara mountain range to the north. The Isahaya Museum of Art and History, which received a Good Design Award for its architecture, holds the material record of all of this — the floods, the reclamation, the roads, the rice.