【根曲がり竹を追え】神奈川→長野 道の駅めぐり旅！人気の山菜に今年も出会えた？

【根曲がり竹を追え】神奈川→長野 道の駅めぐり旅！人気の山菜に今年も出会えた？

Heading from Kanagawa to Nagano on a journey to buy ‘nemagari’ bamboo shoots. Let’s get started! Entering Yamanashi Prefecture. Right off the bat—I’m sleepy. Time to hit the caffeine. Frisk juice, Sweet kiss? Found a concentrated Monster! This one packs 150mg of caffeine. No time to chill. Let’s hurry. At Road Station Kai-Yamato. Probably no nemagari bamboo here, but I’ll check anyway. They’ve got young corn. And it’s reasonably priced. Nemagari bamboo is mainly found in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku, and northern Nagano. So it probably isn’t sold in Yamanashi. Road Station Hakushu is also in Yamanashi. Still, worth a check. Nope, not here. Kurochiku? Is kurochiku a black bamboo shoot? Maybe the shoots are a bit dark too? Crossing this bridge means entering Nagano Prefecture. But this is the southern part, facing the Pacific side. So Road Station Tsutakijuku in southern Nagano probably won’t have them either. Still, I’ll check. I asked the staff if they carry nemagari bamboo. They said, “Not sure about last year, haven’t seen it this year.” So they probably don’t stock it. Time for another caffeine hit. Maybe I’ll try buying a Frisk. 190 yen. Feeling lucky! Got it! Smiley face. Tastes like grape juice with a cooling patch inside. This Shiojiri Pass is the watershed. Beyond here is the Japan Sea side. So the Road Stations up ahead should have nemagari bamboo. Road Station Osakada Park. “They usually stock it, but deliveries can be spotty,” they said. It’s popular, so I guess it’s often sold out. Road Station Ikeda. Looks tempting, but 3 packs for 1,000 yen is kinda steep. No nemagari bamboo here. This is called hachiku—written as淡竹. See? The staff were busy chatting with customers, so I couldn’t ask, but they usually carry nemagari bamboo here. Maybe they couldn’t harvest it yesterday because of the rain? If the rain ruined harvesting, that’s really bad. It rained across the whole country yesterday, after all. Road Station Hakuba definitely carries nemagari bamboo. Their BGM is “Auld Lang Syne.” Not on the shelves… Next Road Station is the final one… Road Station Otari—last stop. But no worries. I’ve bought nemagari bamboo here many times! ?????? Closed today… This is a journey to buy nemagari bamboo, and I couldn’t get any?! Anyway, I’ll head to my base camp in Niigata. Entering Niigata Prefecture. Arrived at base camp. New gear. This Chinese fleece sleeping bag is super thin… Didn’t know fleece could be this thin. Time for a grocery run at Gyomu Super. What should I eat tonight? Let’s try some frozen food. Making French-style mixed rice in a mess tin. Add microwave rice into the mess tin. Add frozen fried chicken. Add tomato-flavored meatballs. Add teriyaki-flavored meatballs too. And garlic. Add the French-style seasoning. It’s cold out here… Cheers. Can’t believe this is 9% alcohol. So smooth. Strong Zero Plum flavor is surprisingly good. All done! Buono. Heading back to Road Station Otari tomorrow morning. Good night. I still want to sleep, but the construction noise is intense. For breakfast, it’s meatball rice. The side dish is fried chicken. Fried chicken needs mustard, right? Though garlic is also tempting. This frozen store’s fried chicken is actually pretty good. Let’s eat. I’ll pack the bamboo shoots I bought in this to avoid exposing them to light. Now, let’s head to Road Station Otari. It didn’t rain yesterday + it’s still midday, so there’s a high chance I can buy bamboo shoots. Re-entering Nagano Prefecture. They’re not selling them… What should I do? Let’s go to Michi-no-Eki Hakuba. It’s 30 minutes from here. I should be able to find bamboo shoots there. They have them, but… They’re unusually big. 8 pieces for 1,000 yen. Let’s hold an emergency meeting. Those overly grown bamboo shoots probably taste bitter as heck. If they were cheap, I’d compromise and buy them, but they’re not cheap at all. Hmm… Luckily, this is northern Nagano, the home of bamboo shoots. Let’s try Michi-no-Eki Shinshu-Shinmachi. It takes about 30 minutes from here. Since I’m heading into the mountains of Nagano, better fill up the tank. Base camp → Otari → Hakuba → Shinshu-Shinmachi
30min 30min 30min I’ll have to return to base camp, so that’s 3 hours lost in total. On the way to Shinshu-Shinmachi, I found another Road Station. Doesn’t seem to have a produce stand. Nope. Is this bamboo shoot? Looks like a bamboo shoot. Bamboo shoot? Found another Michi-no-Eki. Full of bamboo shoots. All of them are hachiku (another kind). This road is full of Michi-no-Ekis. “They do sell bamboo shoots, but even when ordered, they don’t get delivered.” Is this year a poor harvest? Road Station Shinshu-Shinmachi. They probably don’t have it either, but I’ll check just in case. I’ve been eating annoying gnats all over the place. I’ll just buy those overgrown bamboo shoots (1,000 yen) from Hakuba. Any further searching is likely pointless—only Hakuba had them! Full throttle! If I don’t hurry, someone else might buy them. Alright, I’m back at Road Station Hakuba. Seriously!? Now heading to the plains of Nagano (Azumino). I was planning to go fishing tonight, but that’s not happening. My travel schedule is totally off. JA’s direct sales produce shop. Road Station Azumino. Not even hachiku here. If they don’t have them at the next Road Station Ikeda, I’ll give up. Any more searching is just a waste of time and gas. Road Station Ikeda. This is probably a cousin of bamboo shoots. Heading back to base camp. It’s about a two-hour drive back to base camp from here… Maybe they’ve restocked or put out new items. They didn’t have any at midday, so probably still none, but… I’ll check just in case. “They haven’t received any recently,” they say. “No recent deliveries” + “The only ones for sale were overgrown” = Isn’t bamboo shoot season already over?
Today: 6/5 I’m exhausted… I must’ve driven around 200 km just visiting Road Stations. I’m going to make French-style menma. Here’s the rice bran I brought. Now let’s season it. French-style seasoning. Taste test. Okay, the French-style menma is done! It’s just plain good. Next year, I’ll come buy bamboo shoots at the end of May. The next part will be the sea fishing edition!

神奈川県から長野県へ、毎年恒例の「根曲がり竹（ネマガリダケ）」を求めてバイクで道の駅を巡る春のツーリングキャンプ旅。今シーズンも入手困難な旬の山菜「根曲がり竹」は無事にゲットできたのか？道中で立ち寄った道の駅は、国道20号沿いや、白馬・小谷・信州新町などです。各道の駅での根曲がり竹の取り扱い状況も、ちょっとだけですが、シェアしています。
今後、根曲がり竹を買いに行こうと考えている方の参考になれば幸いです。
【With English subtitles】

※Twitterやってます！
Tweets by dragon9uest

※天狗のビーフジャーキー（アマゾン）
https://amzn.to/3iPsj2S

魔王魂
https://maoudamashii.jokersounds.com/

DOVA-SYNDROME
https://dova-s.jp/

甘茶の音楽工房
https://amachamusic.chagasi.com/index.html

※わたしやシマちゃんに対する誹謗中傷コメントは、削除いたします。
※撮影場所の公開・非公開は、状況に応じて、毎動画、熟考して判断しています。非公開（場所が書かれていない、場所について述べていない）の場合は、コメントに場所等を書き込まないでください。コメントを削除する場合があります。
※アソシエイトリンクを使用しています。