Michi-no-Eki Aizu Yugawa Aizubange

Two municipalities built this station together and still run it together, which is rare in Japan. Yugawa village and Aizubange town put it where Route 49 meets the Aga River, more or less in the middle of the Aizu basin. Flat rice fields run in every direction, with mountains on the horizon.

The farm market is the reason to stop, and locals shop here as much as travelers do. About 240 farms from Yugawa, Aizubange, Kitakata and Aizuwakamatsu are registered, and each has to keep a cultivation log and report the pesticides it uses before it can sell. Look for Aizu heirloom vegetables beside the rice and the regular seasonal crops. The Aizu product hall stocks local foods and crafts.

The farm restaurant cooks with what came in that morning and serves Koshihikari grown in Yugawa. Lunch service ends in mid-afternoon, so plan it as a lunch stop rather than dinner. The gelato shop is the other popular counter. Aizubange IC and Aizuwakamatsu IC on the Ban’etsu Expressway are each about 15 minutes away.