Search criteria

Registered Facilities
/Groups

Iruma Exchange Center (Iruma Community Council)

Area name	Unnan Area
Practitioner	Asato　Matumura
Hands-on Experiences	Culinary Experiences/Traditional Cultural Experiences
Accommodation	Accommodation
Meals	Available (Meals are prepared with others)

Iruma Exchange Center is an experience-type lodging facility that has been expanded and rebuilt from the former Iruma Elementary School building.
The Aiai Cafe opens here once a month, with the aim of ongoing interaction with local residents. The 500-yen Aiai Lunch, always anticipated by local working people and neighborhood residents, is colorfully served on a single plate with side dish, rice, and soup made from locally picked seasonal vegetables. Dessert is served with seasonal fruit, in a single dish with fresh and appetizing appeal.
During tea time, you can enjoy coffee with sweet potatoes and cakes made locally, for 100 yen.
　
The members of the Women's Association, skilled in choosing and preparing foods that can be enjoyed by all ages, are truly fonts of countryside wisdom. Looking forward to friendly smiles and conversations, neighborhood young couples with children come to enjoy tea, as do elderly people from facilities visiting as a part of day care service.

In addition to a place for residents to interact, the facility offers local cuisine and traditional performing arts experiences several times a year. Come and get up close to the people, history, and culture of Iruma through various experiences, and sample delicious local cuisine.

See all experiences

Cafe Aiai
Sasamaki-making experience
Katara dumpling-making experience
Iruma hanataue experience

Cafe Aiai

detail

Experience category	Others
Period	Second Wednesday of every month (please inquire)
Suitable age group	Nothing
Number of participants	Nothing
Time required	Free
Things to bring	Nothing
Necessity of reservation	Yes
Experience content	Opening once a month at the Iruma Exchange Center, the Aiai Cafe is eagerly anticipated by the local people. This popular cafe opens only on the second Wednesday of every month, and offers dishes made by women at the Iruma Women's Association using local foods. From country dishes such as simmered dishes to children's favorites such as omelet rice and croquettes, the cafe has earned a good name for its varied menu and tastiness, and is visited by many people from inside and outside the area. In addition to the lunch set, the menu includes sweets and cakes made with locally grown sweet potatoes and pumpkins, serviced with coffee. The cafe is widely used by day care services as a place for interaction. The taste earns a full endorsement, too. ☆ ☆ ☆ By all means, come and visit! ♪

Sasamaki-making experience

detail

Experience category	Culinary Experiences
Suitable age group	Nothing
Number of participants	5 to 10 people
Time required	Around 3 hours
Fee	3,500 yen
Things to bring	Apron, head kerchief
Necessity of reservation	Yes (telephone reservation seven days in advance)
Experience content	This treat, which is indispensable for the Boy's Festival that prays for the healthy growth of boys, goes by many names including sasamaki and chimaki, and is made and shaped differently by region. When the Iruma hanataue rice-planting rite has ended and a refreshing breeze blows through the greenery, the Iruma Exchange Center offers a sasamaki-making experience. Rice flour flour harvested and naturally wind-dried in Iruma is used. There is an artistic wrapping method called shamisen wrapping that decorates the tips of the sasamaki with bamboo grass ears. The preparers' manual dexterity shows through in the finish, but this too is individualistic. Everyone from children to adults can enjoy making sasamaki. The steamed sasamaki evoke the feel of early summer, when a slight scent of bamboo grass is in the air.
Note	* Each person can take home 3 to 5 sasamaki made in the experience.

Katara dumpling-making experience

detail

Experience category	Culinary Experiences
Period	Late July
Suitable age group	Nothing
Number of participants	5 to 10 people
Time required	２ hours
Fee	2,500 yen
Things to bring	Apron, head kerchief
Necessity of reservation	Yes (telephone reservation seven days in advance)
Experience content	Are you familiar with katara leaves? The official name is saritoriibara (China root). The plant has long been part of people's lifestyles, with its round, glossy leaves used as a substitute for oak leaves. At the Iruma Exchange Center, you can experience making dumplings, similar to kashiwa-mochi (oak leaf-wrapped rice cake) dumplings, called katara dango in this region. All of the ingredients, including wind-dried rice flour and azuki beans, are ordered from contracted farms in Iruma, Kakeya-cho. The steamed dumplings wrapped in katara leaves are soft, with a faint aroma of leaves and a warmth that gently refresh a tired body. Come as a family or a group, and make both katara dango and summer memories.
Note	As katara dumplings made in season do not keep long, they cannot be taken home.

Iruma hanataue experience

detail

Experience category	Traditional Cultural Experiences
Period	Late May
Suitable age group	Please inquire
Number of participants	Please inquire
Time required	All day
Fee	Please inquire
Things to bring	Please inquire (children bring their own yukata robes)
Necessity of reservation	Yes (telephone reservation seven days in advance)
Experience content	Hanataue is a rice-planting ritual in which saotome (rice-planting maidens) perform planting in time with planting songs by accompanists, to pray for good health and a good harvest. As an initiative by Iruma, Kakeya-cho to pass down traditional culture and performing arts, people can participate in the hanataue rite held every year during rice planting. 　　 It is worth visiting just to see the musical accompanists and saotome dressed in bright garb walking through the town toward the rice fields for planting, following a procession led by cows and horses decorated with ornaments. This scene, evoking the mood of days long gone, overlaps with the voices of the musicians resounding in the quiet mountains. It is sure to awaken something forgotten in the hearts of Japanese.
Note	Saotome costumes can be rented. The role of saotome is originally one for women, but inquiries from children or men are welcome.

Facility details

Facility name	Iruma Exchange Center
Group name	Iruma Community Council
Practitioner	Asato　Matumura
Address	498-5 Iruma, Kakeya-cho, Unnan, Shimane Prefecture
Inquiry phone number	+81854-62-0403
Business hours	8：30～17：00
Transportation method	■By car From Route 54, turn right on 283 toward Okuizumo.