The Season the Plain Turns Gold
Just before the harvest, the Toyama plain wears its best colors of the year. Paddies ripen to a deep gold as far as the eye can see, and every pass of wind sends slow waves through the ears of rice. In the evening, the dry scent of the rice drifts over the roads, and beyond it, in the eastern sky, the Tateyama mountain range stands like a wall. A single view that holds both the gold of the fields and the ridgeline of the mountains says more eloquently than anything that this plain is rice country.
The reasons for the flavor are already captured in that view: the mountains' water and the plain's climate. Snowmelt from the Tateyama range becomes underground water that feeds the plain, sending cold, clear water into the paddies. And the difference between day and night temperatures during the ripening season lets the grains store up sweetness. Days of full sunlight, nights of rest in cool air coming down from the mountains — a day that suits rice perfectly repeats itself on this plain all summer long.
Koshihikari, and Fufufu
Koshihikari is the mainstay here, but Fufufu, a variety born in Toyama, has also come to be known. It stands up well to summer heat and was bred to suit this region's water and climate. If the rice strikes you as delicious at a meal on your trip, check the name of the variety. The vinegared rice of masu-zushi (pressed trout sushi), the plain white rice beside kobujime (kombu-cured sashimi), rice balls wrapped in shaved kombu — the Toyama table rests on a foundation of rice. From the moment you learn a single variety's name, that foundation steps a little closer to center stage.
The Few Minutes While the Rice Finishes Cooking
In the end, the best way to eat Toyama rice is freshly cooked. The steam that rises the instant the lid comes off, the sweet aroma reaching your nose, the glossy grains standing upright. Your hand, halfway to the side dishes, stops — first, one mouthful with nothing on it. The same rice tastes different when cooked with different water: a bowl of white rice in rice country is local down to the water itself. In Toyama in the new-rice season, the few minutes spent waiting for the rice to finish cooking are the finest sight of all.