How many times have I been to Kitakata?
Most of them were to ride the local steam locomotive.  
Thanks to the JET Study Tour, I was able to enjoy Kitakata from a different point of view.
The guidebook says that Kitakata is a town of storehouses, and is home to the most storehouses in all of Japan. However these storehouses were not made for tourists, and serve vital roles in peoples’ lives as their homes and workplaces.
 
It is no exaggeration to call Otazuki Kura Doori(Lit. Otazuki Storehouse Street) the grand sum of Kitakata City’s storehouse culture. There are many stores that visitors are free to enter, such as ‘Basha no eki’ (Lit. Horse and Cart Station), and the long-established ‘Kanechuu’ that sells Miso and Soy Sauce vital to making the soup of the famous Kitakata Ramen.
 
What left the most impression on me was ‘Oharashuzo’ famous for its ‘Mozart Sake’
 
At this store they were selling Japanese sake that had been brewed while playing classical music in the background!
 
Mo, Mozart!? No doubt Mozart himself would be surprised
No doubt Mozart himself would be surprised at this choice, but the sake produced is one of the best.
There are several reasons why so many storehouses were built in Kitakata.
First of all as one can see from the storehouses being used to brew sake, and make miso even to this day, as a town that focuses on its brewing industry, storehouses make the ideal building. In Kitakata, where there is a saying ‘A man who can’t build a storehouse in his forties, is an embarrassment’, building one’s own storehouse was the dream of every man in Kitakata, and a source of pride once they had accomplished it.
 
Each storehouse express their owners passion and dreams Apparently one person owns all of the storehouses in this area I see now that the storehouses are the fruits of passionate work and dreams.
I feel the drive to work hard from now on too!
Someday I’ll build my own storehouse in Kitakata! （Posted by：Xu) | 
