Short Detour To Mentai Park Oarai

The last time I was in Ibaraki, I've been curious of the big mentai on top of a building near the wharf. Last October when my partner and I had a roadtrip, I was able to finally satisfy my curiosity!

This facility is named as Mentai Park Oarai, and is located on the town of Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture. It is a factory that's open for public viewing, and in here, you can enjoy all kinds of mentaiko.

Mentaiko is spicy cod roe in english. Have you tried it before?

Our first agenda was their cafeteria. It's a simple cafeteria that sells onigiri, rice bowls, and steamed buns. Of course, all mentaiko themed food.

We were a bit full but since we were in the Mentai Park, my partner couldn't resist to try their mentaiko rice bowl. It was kinda normal.

I couldn't eat anymore but there's room for desserts so I had a mentaiko flavored soft ice cream. The sweetness of the cream and the spiciness of mentaiko were so contradicting I wished I didn't get this ice cream. 😅

Since it's a "park", they added all kinds of stuff to attract kids.

And they even decorated the mentaiko with halloween themed. We went here before Halloween.

After our snacks, it's time to explore more! The corridor leading to some place had a lot of interactive learning for kids and later it was a full of knowledge sharing. I really wanted to read everything but with my limited Japanese capability, I gave up. They had illustrations though so I could connect the dots.

For kids only area

Games for kids and kids at heart

That "dark" corridor led us to the play area! There's a special area for kids but there's also an area for kids at heart - where you can play on the screen. The games were not just fun, it was also good for learning.

And in here, there were clear windows so we could view the production process. Every table or corner was a stage to bring out the best mentaiko to the market. It was fascinating to watch them work. That day's mentaiko was 5,000 kg and 100 people were working on it. That's a lot!

Displayed on the wall were the different meals you can eat with mentaiko.
What have you tried so far? If I could choose my favorite, I'd probably choose the mentaiko pasta.

Before leaving, we made sure to check out their sales corner. Nothing really attracted us, maybe because we don't like mentaiko that much. But for mentaiko lovers, I bet you'd get something for a souvenir.