Odaka Micro Stand Bar (OMSB, “omusubi”) is a cafe located near the JR Odaka Station (小高駅) in Minamisoma City, in the coastal area of Fukushima prefecture.
This narrow but charming coffee house is popular among visitors and residents, who gather to indulge in its pastries and freshly brewed coffee. Odaka is an area that saw its population decrease to zero for several years while the evacuation order was in place following the nuclear accident.
Mr. Takashi Moriyama, a young IT specialist and entrepreneur, decided to open a kitchen car cafe in front of the JR Odaka Station in 2016, after the evacuation order was lifted in the area, to serve returning residents.
Mr. Moriyama knew he wanted to play a part in revitalizing Odaka. At the time, there weren’t many other stores or businesses open in the area. He decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign to open a cafe, bakery and coworking space.
The campaign raised the necessary funds, and Odaka Micro Stand Bar, the cafe that he envisioned, finally opened to the public. The coworking space and offices on the first and second floor have also opened. OMSB also hosts programming lessons and IT literacy seminars for senior residents in the area.
So, more than only a cafe, OMSB is a place where the community comes together, bridging the old and the new.
Odaka Micro Stand Bar serves coffee, sandwiches, pastries, matcha and more. We recommend enjoying their rich hot chocolate on a winter afternoon.
| Website | https://omsb.co/ |
|---|---|
| Contact | https://www.facebook.com/odakao.msb/ |
| Best Season | All Year |
| Opening Hours | Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (Last order is at 5:30 p.m.)<br>Saturdays: 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (Last order is at 5:00 p.m.)<br> Sundays, Mondays and Fridays |
| Parking | Available |
| Related info | Free wifi available. |
| Access | 1-67 Higashimachi, Odaka, Minamisoma City, Fukushima Pref. 979-2121 View directions |
|---|---|
| Getting there | By Public Transportation: 3 min. walk from JR Odaka Station (JR Joban Line) By Car: 22 min from the Minamisoma I.C. exit (Joban Expressway) |
<p>Natsuigawa Valley continues 15 km along JR Ban-etsu East Line. In autumn, the train passes the valley at a slow speed so that passengers can enjoy the awesome views from its windows. The beautiful view of the waterfalls and clear streams meandering through rocks is definitely worth seeing.</p>
Approximately 1,500 cherry trees of the quintessential Japanese Somei Yoshino variety create a beautiful tunnel of cherry blossom for visitors to pass through. Many of these trees are over 100 years old.
<p>The Minamisoma City Museum is located on the eastern side of <a href="https://fukushima.travel/destination/soma-nomaoi-festival/62">the Soma Nomaoi festival</a> grounds within the spacious Higashigaoka Park.</p><p>Its exhibitions center around the Soma Nomaoi festival, a traditional festival of the Soma region that is a nationally-designated important intangible cultural property, and the nature, history, and culture of the local region.</p>
<p>Tenzan Bunko is a quaint old-fashioned house stood in beautiful Kawauchi Village, which has been opened up as a museum. This house was presented by the village to the famous Japanese poet Kusano Shinpei. Kusano found inspiration to create many of his works at Tenzan Bunko, and this house now serves as the venue for the annual Tenzan Poetry Festival, which gives local people and poets a place to meet and network.</p>
The Suzuki Sake Brewery used to operate a sake brewery in Namie Town's Ukedo district, this building was located steps from the sea and was physically destroyed by the tsunami wave. This left the owner of the brewery without a home or a livelihood. They managed to evacuate with the necessities of the brewery and after the disaster, the brewery was moved to Nagai City to the mountains of Yamagata Prefecture in October 2011 (the same year as the earthquake). Since then, they’ve continued to brew sake with the hope of preserving the traditional sake brewing techniques that had been developed by generations of brewers in Namie Town. Finally, on March 20, 2021, the brewery was able to return to its hometown of Namie with the opening of a new brewery at the Namie Roadside Station. Here, visitors can watch the Suzuki brewers at work making their delicious sake. They even use locally grown rice to make some of their sake, with a focus on maintaining their hometown flavor. At the Namie Roadside Station, you can visit the sake brewery and taste their freshly brewed sake. For visitors who don't drink sake, there is also a sake flavored soft serve ice cream that is absolutely delicious. The soft serve comes in a traditional wooden sake cup!
<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#000000">Café Amazon Kawauchi is a modern cafe and restaurant located only 350 meters away from the Tenzan Bunko Museum. </span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#000000">Café Amazon has over 1500 restaurants abroad, and serves Asian food and coffee.</span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#000000">This was the first Café Amazon restaurant in Japan, opened to help reinvigorate Kawauchi, attract visitors and, of course, serve delicious Thai dishes!</span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#000000">In 2016, following extensive revitalization efforts, all restrictions were lifted in Kawauchi village, which had had to be evacuated in 2011 following the nuclear accident. Kawauchi is now is a quiet, green village surrounded by mountains and streams, home to a few thousand people.</span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#000000">But because the village had remained uninhabited for some time, the only coffee shop there had closed, and, left without a local hub, it seemed difficult for the community to rekindle—that’s when Thai restaurant chain Café Amazon stepped in.</span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#000000">Café Amazon Kawauchi has a warm and light wooden interior (built using wood from Fukushima!), as well as a piano and guitar you can play freely. You can sit indoors or outdoors on a wooden deck.</span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#000000">Café Amazon Kawauchi isn’t only a coffee shop, it’s a fundamental part of the reconstruction of Kawauchi village, a meeting place for both locals and visitors.</span></p>
<p>Full House is a stylish bookstore and cafe run by critically-acclaimed Japanese novelist Yu Miri. It is located near the JR Odaka Station in Minamisoma City, in the coastal area of Fukushima prefecture.</p><p>Full House is located on the ground floor of a refurbished house. The interior is wooden and elegant, and there is a selection of books in Japanese chosen by the author. The cafe serves meals like pasta and doria, as well as desserts and drinks with seasonal options.</p><p>Author Yu Miri is famously known for her novel <em>Tokyo Ueno Station </em>(translated into English by Morgan Giles), which won the U.S. National Book Award in the Translated Literature category in 2019.</p><p>Following 3.11, Ms. Miri has worked extensively to communicate the stories of residents of evacuated towns and villages in Fukushima’s coastal area, and has been living in Minamisoma City since 2015.</p><p>When Ms. Miri moved to Minamisoma, there were no other bookstores open in the area —the few bookstores that had been there before 3.11 had closed following the evacuation—, so she decided to open her own in 2018, and named it ‘Full House’ after one of her novels.</p><p>But something was missing. She quickly realized that people who traveled all the way to visit the store wanted to sit down with a warm drink, and there weren’t many restaurants or cafes nearby yet, so she decided to turn Full House into a book cafe the following year.</p><p>Today, Full House is a lively and cozy hub where locals and visitors can bond over their love of coffee and literature.</p>
<p>At Iwaki's Tourism and Products Center, visitors can purchase products and specialties from Iwaki as well as enjoy eating local produce. The Tourism and Products Center also introduces visitors to Iwaki City's local history and culture.</p><p>The Lalamew complex includes 7 fish shops, 15 gift shops, and 12 eating and drinking establishments. The fish shops have the feel of an open-air market, and visitors can bargain for seafood direct from the port.</p><p>Please enjoy dining in the establishments that present to you an abundance of seasonal seafood.</p>