Kagamiishi, Fukushima

The plateau sits quietly between two rivers — the Shakadogawa to the west, the Abukumagawa to the east — at an elevation that keeps the air clear and the rainfall low. This is Kagamiishi, a small town in Fukushima's Nakadori region where the land has been farmed in a particular way for well over a century. Iwase Bokujō, established as Japan's first Western-style farm, still operates here, and the old melody "Bokujō no Asa" — Morning on the Farm — takes its image from this ground. The connection is not merely historical; the farm remains a working presence in the town's daily economy and self-understanding.

Kagamiishi Station, which opened in 1911 on the JR Tōhoku Main Line, shares its building with the local chamber of commerce — an arrangement that feels practical rather than quaint. Nearby, the town library sits within easy walking distance, anchoring the station area as a place of ordinary civic life. Each summer, the Ayame Festival and the Bokujō no Asa YOSAKOI Festival animate the calendar, and the Dutch-themed international festival reflects an ongoing exchange between the local agricultural high school and the Netherlands — a relationship built around farming practice rather than tourism.

The town's industrial side runs alongside all of this without much fanfare: pharmaceutical and film-processing plants operate on the same plateau where rice-field art is drawn in seasonal patterns across the paddies. The two things coexist without apparent contradiction, which is perhaps the most honest thing one can say about Kagamiishi.