Yufuin Town / Onsen / Mission Impossible 2 (dubbed in Japanese)

Woke up in such a perfect scenic setting:  on a futon in a tatami room surrounded by a bamboo garden.  We headed over for breakfast at 9am.  Again, like the night before, a feast lay before us;  a little piece of Aji (mackerel) waiting to be grilled on a little coal grill, chawamushi (egg custard) tsukemono (pickled vegetables), japanese omelets, a salad, and miso soup.  There were a few more dishes, but I can't remember all of them.. It was all very delicious and healthy.  

We headed out to the town (Yufuin) with no plans other than to just wander around and scope out the scene.  The surrounding area is really beautiful here with the mountains, yuzu trees, traditional houses (Japanese citrus fruit) and the Japanese maple trees.  We saw a grocery store on the way and had to stop in since we both love the grocery stores here.  We bought a little yogurt drink and headed towards the main street.  The town is chalk full of cute little shops selling food specialties and crafts from the area.  I'd say about 75% of the shops were food shops.  Most of them sold "yuzu kosho", a delicious spicy paste made from crushed chills, yuzu zest and juice and Himalayan salt.  We came across an amazing little homemade jam store that sold ume and yuzu jam.  Seriously good stuff.  We picked some up for you mom!  We also found cool little vintage toy / candy shop that reminded me of the shops I stopped in pretty much everyday after school in Tokyo as a kid.  We called them "Junk Stores"  They had a bunch of old toys and 10 yen candy.  Natsukashi ne!  After checking out many of the little shops we were a little cute shopped out, so we took a path down a stream heading towards the famous Kinrinco lake.  It was a lovely walk along a canal full of wild flowers.  When we got to the famous lake we were a little disappointed:  it looked more like an average pond you'd see in any park.  There were a bunch of people taking pictures there.  We didn't get it.  

After stopping by a little cafe for a quick coffee, we walked back to the ryokan.  We had a few hours to spare, so we decided to take advantage of chilling in the onsen.  Nothing quite like the feeling when you get out.  One of the perks about this place is the free beer and onsen hardboiled eggs you can eat and drink.  They cook the eggs with the natural hot spring water and you can take all the beer you like.  I never knew a good hardboiled egg could go so well with beer.  

We got dressed in our traditional attire and headed over for dinner.  This time it was "seafood nabe" (seafood hot pot).  A basket with shrimp, crab, sea bream, cabbage, kinako mushrooms, and scallion to be cooked in a shoyu / dash broth along with an assortment of other miniature local dishes I am too lazy now to go into describing each one.  Desert was perfect:  a piece of mellon (the green one) and an orange.  I've never had good mellon in the U.S. but Hilary swears that you can get it in East Hampton.  If that's the case I'll be very happy.  

We finished pretty early, so we decided to watch one of the DVD's from the front desk.  Not much to choose from;  we chose Mission Impossible 2.  After spending about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to switch the TV to DVD we started the movie.  To our surprise, Tom Cruise spoke perfect Japanese.  We didn't feel like figuring out how to watch in English, so we just watched it in Japanese.  Pretty terrible acting and plot line so it didn't really matter.  It was quite entertaining nonetheless. 

Yufuin surroundings

Coffee Shop

Our Ryokan!

Japanese Breakfast

YUZU!

Atom Boy on TV

Old school toy store

Heros

Totoro!

Donuts

Character for "YU" meaning Bath (Onsen)

Dinner

Hangover / Okonomiyaki / Train to Kyushu / Yufuin… Finally

We woke up with a bit of a hangover this morning.  Japanese drink vast amounts of sake and when they take you out, and you just gotta follow them.  Nothing a little coffee can't fix though.  I found an Illy espresso cafe and ordered a cappuccino and an apple pastry.  We checked out and headed over to see the Atomic Bomb Dome, the exact site where an atomic bomb was dropped and exploded 600 meters above the city, instantly incinerating all buildings and all people around there;  a total of over 200,000 deaths in a matter of seconds.  A grim reminder for all generations that follow about the horrors of such weapons.  

We went back to the hotel to grab our luggage, and headed over to Hiroshima station.  We had about an hour before our train left, so we decided to try an okonomiyaki restaurant a few floors above the station.  In Hiroshima, okonomiyaki is served differently from other regions in Japan.  Okonomiyaki is basically a Japanese style pancake with "whatever you want" inside;  typically scallions, shrimp, cabbage, pork, and pickled ginger inside.  How can you possibly top that?  Do it the way they do here:  add yakisoba (fried noodles) and a sunny side up egg on top.  Fabulous!

After our meal, Hilary chatted with an old lady who wanted to practice her English.  She told us she learned English on the radio and listened everyday at 2pm.  We were quite impressed.  She asked if I was Hilary's boyfriend or husband, and when Hilary told her "husband" she said "thats better I think"  

We got on the Shinkansen to Kyushu;  first stopping at Kokura.  From there we transferred to an express train to Oita.  You could actually view the scenery outside the window on this train which was nice.  The shinkansen is so fast its hard to notice anything.  From Oita we transferred to the slow local train;  just a one car train heading for Yufuin.  I wasn't sure about schlepping all the bags on there but it worked out just fine.  It was getting dark and by the time we got there it was evening.  There were a few cabs at the station and we took one up to our Ryokan;  a little gem surrounded by trees and lanterns with little stone paths crossing running streams.  It was awesome.  We went straight into the onsen (Japanese hot spring) and immediately relaxed.  The water all flows from the natural hot springs in the area.  The actual hot spring bath was made from rocks.  Sooooo nice.  We got out and changed into our traditional robes (as required here) and went to sit down for dinner in the dinning area.  A beautiful traditional kaiseki (seasonal) meal lay out in front of us:  A hot stone plate to cook the thinly sliced beef, chicken, and vegetables.  There were numerous side dishes including two soups, tsukemono, sashimi, some roasted chestnuts, yuzu infused mushrooms, and a grilled salted sardine.  All was rapidly consumed.  These meals typically feature only seasonal and local ingredients.  Desert was apple sorbet with yuzu peels and three types of mochi.  

No internet here, (so writing off line) so we decided to watch Japanese TV before heading to bed.  Hilary picked up a few more words;  sugoi (amazing) being her new favorite.

Hiroshima area wandering

Atom Bomb Center November 1st 2012

Atom Bomb Center August 6th, 1945

Okonomiyaki!

Hilary Happy before dinner

Beef Yakiniku

A few of the small dishes

Our bed in all its glory which included a magic glowing orb!

Miyajima / Best Sushi Ever / Late Night Karoke + Lots Of Sake

Our hotel room here was pretty tiny, which made our yoga morning routine a little more challenging, but we were able to modify it a bit anyhow.  Its amazing what you can still do in a cramped space.

We headed out early for Miyajima, the small island off of southern Hiroshima, famous for the "floating" tori gate.  We took the electric car (the local subway) to the train station and used our rail pass from there taking the train to Miyajima-guchi station.  From there we took the ferry ride over to the island.  When we got off, we immediately were greeted by several roaming deer, none of which were shy at all.  One of them actually took a bite out of Hilary's map.  We had considered renting bikes, but thought it might be easier to walk around since the hikes around the area looked great.  We walked through the shrine, open and surrounded by water, towards the temples which were scattered throughout the mountain on the way up.  These were some seriously old temples, dating back from 523AD.  The whole area seemed very peaceful and somehow separate from the time it occupies. There was a little room in a cave that had hundreds of lanterns hanging, all barely lit.  You could hear the low tone chanting of monks in the background and the whole experience was initially eery and then rather peaceful.  I imagined this is what death may be like;  initially disorienting and then peaceful.   Throughout our hike up the mountain, we could hear the monks chanting and low bell tones and drumming;  all characteristics of zen buddhist practice.  Later on, we stopped by a little restaurant that specializes in "an ago" (eel) and ordered the "set menu"as is commonly done here.  Eel served over rice, tsukemono, and a shiso dash based soup.  After that we headed down the path towards the town.  We both noticed that the water had receded from the temple and the tori gate, and the area looked totally different.  We explored the town a bit, passing by someone who was grilling oysters which looked phenomenal.  

After getting back to Hiroshima, we got ready for our plans to meet my friend Hiros' parents for sushi.  Hilary got ready while I wandered the streets for a few hours.  We got there and they were there happily waiting for us.  I recognized Hiro's mom Natsuko since she looked a lot like Hiro.  At first the conversation was a little awkward;  Hiro had spontaneously called his parents a few nights ago asking them to meet up with us at this spot.  But as we started to drink some sake, the conversation opened up.  The mother was a lot more talkative.  The father was more reserved.  We were served a few sashimi appetizers;  conc shell (which was a first for me;  chewing but actually pretty good) steamed Hiroshima oysters (amazing), and an anago (grilled eel).  We weren't' sure if we should order or not, so we just left it to them since that's how its done here.  We could never have imagined what was to come;  the most beautiful nigiri sushi carefully served one piece at a time, placed right in front of us on counter, no plates, no chopsticks.  Pure and gorgeous minimalism.  We started off with O-Toro;  the fattiest part of the tuna.  Once it hit your tongue it just melted.  The rice was perfectly flavored and cooked and was purchased from a rice specialty store as told to us by the head sushi chef.  His father goes to the fish market just north of the city every morning around 3AM to look for the best stuff.  Next up:  Uni, tiger shrimp, squid, shell, sea bream, and mackerel.  Hilary squealed with delight;  "Oishi Oishi Oishi!"  Next up, more Toro, and more Uni… This is pretty much what I envisioned Jiros three Michelin star sushi spot to be like.  Honestly the best sushi I've ever eaten.  You could taste the salt water of the sea in the uni.  

After the best sushi meal, they asked us if we wanted to get a drink and try Karaoke.  Neither of us are big fans of Karaoke, but after that special meal they treated us to, we certainly weren't going to refuse.  We headed over to a spot near by and took the elevator up to a small floor in a building where we were shuffled into a small room with men in business suits singing and drinking their hearts out.  Thats the spot they go often, so we got the special table right by the Karaoke monitor.  We were served sake and several crunchy snacks and a fruit salad.  Nakamura-san went through a few rounds of old enka Japanese songs and then handed the mic to me.  After a few cups of sake, my guard was down, so I just went with it and chose "personal jesus" by Depeche Mode to sing.  I won't describe this experience since Hilary caught the whole thing on video and I'm sure will be using it for blackmail purposes.  Clearly I entertained (or mortified) everyone in the room.  More sake followed, and as we left a woman who had been singing a lot that night stood up to shake Hilary's hand and kept saying "I'm sorry".  I wonder if that was a reference to my karaoke skillz.

Miyajima Tori Gate 1

Close up!

Hangin with the Nakamura clan

Our unagi lunch!

Deer near the temple

A wall:  I liked 

Miyajima town center

Miyajima Shrine

Miyajima Tori Gate 2

Grilled Oysters

Hiroshima Streets

Toy Shop

Sushi!  

Nakamura san rokking karaoke night 2012!

Ginkaku-ji / Testugaku no michi (Philosophers Walk) / Kushi-Yaki

After a little yoga morning workout we headed over by bus to Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion.  This is a place I absolutely hope all you will visit at some point.  It is serene.  Walking through the garden and traditional landscape and taking pictures just didn't make sense, so turned our cameras off for a bit to just enjoy the scenery as it was.  After going in, we stopped for a snack at one of the stalls outside the pavilion:  a miniature okonomikaki (japanese pancake with vegetables) with a perfectly fried egg in the middle and bought a rice cracker with dried shiso leaves.  Yum.

Then we headed over to a path called Testugaku no michi (Philosophers Walk) which runs down about three kilometers or so from Kinkaku-ji.  It is a quiet walk along a little stream with shops and tea houses all along the way.  We stopped at one of the tea houses and had macha and an omochi daifuku (rice cake with red bean paste and chestnut)  Of course it was great.  We walked all the way down the path and back for a nice long and slow stroll.  

From there we headed back to our ryokan to get ready for dinner.  The day before, we had seen a yaki tori restaurant that looked great, but it was full.  The waitress was kind enough to reserve a seat for us that night.  It was actually a "kushi yaki" place (grilled foods) similar to the robotayaki place in the east village.  They specialize in all things grilled.  But not just grilled… We started off with crunchy lotus chips and "buri" sashimi (yellowtail)  The buri was so fresh it just melted when you tasted it.  Sooooo good.  We wanted more but that was the last of it!  Then we ordered some yakitori (grilled chicken) and a few different grilled vegetables.  Standouts were the eggplant and the the lotus with uni sauce!!  Incredible.  Then we tried a recommendation from the chef:  a mixed salad with an ume (plum) vinaigrette.  Definitely one of the highlights there.  It had mixed greens of lettuces and mizuna (personal have) and a sticky japanese yam that blended perfectly with the delicious ume dressing.  After that we tried the pumpkin tempura which was so lightly fried, it didn't taste fried.  Then we tried the tsukune which was just awesome.  I told the chef how much I liked the sauce to he gave me an extra bowl.  We finished with sesame ice-cream with yuzu marmalade on top.  Yesterdays meal was exquisite, but this was one was just immediately gratifying and hit the spot.  We are doing this one again, if we can get in… 

After that we jumped back into the hidden ally and headed for a little sake bar we found.  There was only one other couple at the end of a minimalist long wooden table with very low light.  The server was dressed in a kimono and served us some incredible sake.  We chatted for a quite while and I can actually say that my Japanese was improving.  Such a nice hostess, she told us about her life in Kyoto and her aspirations to be an elementary school teacher.  After two hours or so, we were ready to go and she walked us all the way up the stairs and out the door for an Iowa goodbye.

Ginkaku-ji

Tetsugaku no michi (Philosophers Walk)

Kushi Yaki

Sake Bar