UMAJI, Japan -- On a two-lane asphalt road curving up into the mountains of Shikoku, Japan's most hilly and least-touristed island, there is an unusual form of roadkill -- smashed and splattered bits of bright-yellow fruit, exuding the luscious fragrance that has made yuzu, an exotic citrus fruit, one of Japan's most widely admired gourmet ingredients.
The spillage comes from miniature flatbed trucks carrying a late fall harvest in Kochi prefecture, which accounts for over half of Japan's annual production of 27,000 tonnes of yuzu. While the island is popular with Japanese visitors for its famed "88 temple pilgrimage" route, foreign tourists are relatively scant compared with the four other main islands of Japan. Locals seeking to boost visitor numbers have dubbed this loop from the subtropical Pacific coast to higher growing altitudes the "Yuzu Road." Just as the yuzu has brought an essential flavor of Japan to the world, the Yuzu Road can lead global travelers toward an essence of Japan.
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