The First City Which Used the Heating Stove and Where People Drank Coffee

Stove The first person who made a stove in Japan was an official of the Hakodate Magistrate's Office named Nashimoto Yagoro. In 1856 he was ordered to to go to the Soya region on assignment but being afraid of the cold climate asked a crew of Japanese blacksmiths to make a stove for him. He had seen it on a British ship that he visited. The craftsmen did not know how to make the stove which made him impatient. He decided to ask a noted local Ainu (aborigine) blacksmith to make the stove. This became the first stove to be made in Japan.

Coffee Coffee now parallels green tea and black tea consumption in Japan. It is said that coffee was drunk for the first time by the ordinary people in this city. During the Tokugawa period, the bakufu sent samurais from its northern clans to patrol northern Japan. It rationed coffee beans to them to keep them warm from the cold northern climate. It is said that the samurais already added sugar to the coffee.