Somen noodles put this small island on the map-sort of

Consider it blasphemy for the Japanese to have their soul crop, rice, step out of the lime light. For just a moment, rice's estranged second cousin, somen, needs a few praises to be sung.

In Shodoshima, a small island stranded without much awareness in the Seto Inland Sea, sandwiched between southern Hyogo and Shikoku, is not known for much. The majority of tourism comes from within Japan. and perhaps locals prefer it that way. With a panorama of ocean views and a sleepy, small town feel, Shodoshima may want to keep the subtle charms of the island to themselves.

Yet, a noodle known for a taste as simple as the island it comes from, has even foreigners wondering how these thin, surprisingly scrumptious starches are made. The answer is with complete care and an old fashioned know-how. When visiting a somen factory, the building itself is not a factory at all, but a small barn-like house that can give a start to finish tour in under an hour.

Ingredients are first mixed and processed into a pasta paste that are then elongated several times by different machines. Once as thin as shoestring, they are hung on huge racks and must be separated by hand.
Large wooden chopsticks are used to simply sift through the somen so that each strand of soon-to-be noodle wont stick to itself when set outside to dry. After about two hours of drying, the noodles are put on a machine where they are then cut into a shorter length where they can be packaged and sold.
Shodoshima may not have the waves of Miyazaki, the presence of big city Osaka, or Ise's pearls, but they do have noodles--and tasty ones at that.