Michi-no-Eki Ryujin (Roadside Station)

Overview

Michi-no-Eki Ryujin sits on Route 371 in Ryujin-mura, a forested village high in the mountains of Tanabe. It is run by the local forestry cooperative, and the place shows it: the building takes a dragon for its motif and is framed in Ryujin cedar, its pillars cut from trees more than 160 years old. Just inside the entrance stands a hemlock trunk reckoned at over 350 years, 4.72 metres around at the base, and visitors may touch it. Ryujin Onsen, one of the three hot springs Japan has long counted as the best for the skin, lies a few minutes further up the valley.

The Wood Craft Room and the display hall sell tables, chairs, shelves and tableware made by local hands, alongside yuzu and plum preserves from the surrounding hills. The dining corner runs on meal tickets, and its draw is game and river fish: wild-boar donburi with miso soup, boar curry, a nameko mushroom bowl, and udon topped with amago, the red-spotted trout of these rivers. On fine days take a tray out to the terrace, where the tables look down on the Hidaka River. Nearby, a suspension bridge built of whole logs — said to be the only one of its kind in the Kinki region — leads to a riverside park where children paddle in summer. Reckon on about 90 minutes from the Wakayama IC, with parking on site; shop and kitchen keep different hours, shorter in winter, so check the official channels before a long drive.