Tsuyahime

Traveled to Yamagata, a prefecture located in the Tohoku region on the main island of Japan, with one of my ex-colleagues.

It was Yamagata Station where I found this curtain advertising the local cultivar of rice in Yamagata. Tsuyahime, written on the curtain, is the name of the cultivar. Tsuya means glossy and hime is a princess in Japanese (one website says this is due to its popularity among women). I liked the rice too when I tried it at the hotel.

Not just this one, various cultivars of rice in Japan are given names, with Koshihikari particularly esteemed one.