九州各地域の隠れた資源を磨き上げ、国内外へ発信

Kikuchi Furusato Suigen Koryukan is a community center renovated from Kikuchi Higashi Junior High School (formerly Suigen Junior High). It opened in 2004 as a base for community development and nature-based tourism. A non-profit organization Kirari Suigen Mura runs the center, offering exciting programs for experiencing the richness of rural life in every season. They organize, for example, an outing for gobo (edible burdock) digging and a cooking class of yomogi dango (mugwort flavored rice dumpling) in spring; nagashi-somen or Japanese thin noodles served in cold water flowing down a bamboo chute in summer (this involves not only eating noodles flowing past in front of you but cutting a bamboo to make the chute first!) as well as Ideventure or kayaking down irrigation canals; and rice harvesting and chestnut gathering from autumn to winter, just to mention a few. The community center has a cafeteria and accommodation facilities so that it is also suitable for residential seminar courses or training camps. The old-time feel of wooden school building is nostalgic but reinvigorating.