This year marks 50 years since the start! Now a standard tourist spot in Morioka

About 7 minutes walk from Morioka Station. To the west of Morioka City's Chuo-dori Street, which is the venue for the Morioka Sansa Odori parade, there is Zaimokucho Shopping Street, which is loved by the locals. This street, with its granite sidewalks and lined with household goods stores and restaurants, is especially lively on Saturday evenings from April to November. The shopping street becomes a pedestrian paradise, and the streets are filled with stalls selling street food, drinks, and fresh vegetables straight from the farm. Morioka's specialty "Yoichi" started on April 6th this year.

It started in 1974 (Showa 49). The youth group of the shopping district came up with the idea to revitalize the area, which has become less crowded due to the increase in suburban shopping centers. Our goal was to communicate with customers through face-to-face sales and create a town full of smiles. The ''yo'' in ''Yoichi'' has the wishes of ''Man (many things)'', ''Yu'' (excessive abundance), ''Ryo'' (good products), ''Yo'' (provide to customers), and ''Ki (please be satisfied)''.

When we first started, we mainly sold vegetables, fruits, sweets, fresh flowers, etc., so it was mainly a place where locals came to buy groceries and daily necessities, but gradually the variety of products we handled increased, such as seafood, craft beer and wine, and side dishes, and it became a tourist spot visited by many young people and people from outside the prefecture.