We are struggling to upload pictures on our new connection, please bear with us!
Breakfast @ Island Hotel, Nagano
The Hotel was a simple affair. Large room (clean but no decorative touches).
This also reflected in the breakfast. But who am I to complain, free food!
All Japanese meals are multi-part, served in little plates and bowls.
A bento box (fried fish, salad, pickles), Rice (+furikake), Miso soup. Egg. Toast (but we were too late so bread ran out). Coffee.
Sadly, no nori with our breakfast.
We visited Zenkouji temple before we left. It is apparently the only tourist attraction, and even then, it was... limited.
Trip to Yudanaka
One of Dee's wishes on this trip was to go see the snow monkeys.
So despite the long & tedious train journey (ok, it was only 3hours+1hour), we ventured to the town of Yamanouchi to see them.
The train from Nagano to Yudanaka (the closest train station) was SUPER cool, there's a giant window at the front (& back) of the train, so you can sit there & watch the track as if you're in the driver's seat. Like a rollercoaster only slower. We both got a great kick out of it, especially while we were still underground, since it strongly reminded both of us of being in a video game.... we're not geeks, really...
Besides, we can't be as bad as the ~10 middle-aged men (& possibly 1 that was under 30) standing next to the train track (when we went above ground) to take photos of us (ie the train, not dee & i).
Lunch: Soba making class
As soon as we got off the train, we had to find Sato-san, the lady who was picking us up from the station & will teach us how to make soba. She turned out to be this sweet little lady who was awfully enthusiastic. You should've seen how excited she was when she saw the 2 lines of basic japanese i wrote in her visitor's book.
Soba making was.... hard work, but immensely fun. Sato-san unfortunately only knew 3 words of English: "good", "change", & "softly". Luckily, with my rudimentary japanese & her demonstrations, we got the gist of it. Tho it was kinda worrying when there were a few "ii ja nai" (not good) in there (luckily, denise didn't know what that meant & enthusiastically continued on). (Clara did NOT translate this during the class... *goes to scream at clara*)
Eating our own hand-made soba was not only a novel experience but it was also incredibly yummy. Best EVER.
Soba Making:
(1) Start with buckwheat flour "Soba-ko". (2) Add Water slowly. (3) knead in wooden bowl (>30 min!), keep adding water slowly (4) Turn out onto board, knead moreinto round elastic ball (5) flatten and roll (6) Roll over the rolling pin, keep rolling in special japanese fashion until it is <1mm href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_EeC1GsIT7B-P1vpytfYAyjtwS5Amo9Uzy7N9aouSRonrZ9TXRg7Rf4XeJzYm0wLdK6L-m5y_GiLLcXfL0xg166isVG8FfjNhx4qE4haMfhLs0zrIFX-9LFFa7nmmcXnw1cd_oJD_L8/s1600/IMG_3344.JPG">
The finished product - The length of noodles is a test of its quality :) See the speckledness of the noodle? Fine, top-grade, hand-made buckwheat noodlies...
Sides with our Soba: Sweet corn, Some bitter vegetable lightly braised, freshly grated daikon head to go in the soba dipping sauce, and huge fuji apple. The apples and daikon were grown from her own garden at the back!!
Thanks Sato-San!!
Snow monkeys
After soba class, Sato-san drove us to our ryokan (traditional japanese hotel): Kokuya (which has been open for 400years...). We were greeted by Zeno, the English-speaking employee who kindly helped us book this hotel via email, who then informed us that we should hurry to see the snow monkeys as there was a 90% chance of precipitation the next day.... it was already 3.30 at that time & the park closes at 4... did i mention it takes a good 25mins to walk there from the closest taxi drop-off point?
Let's say we never hiked so fast, but we made it, before dark & just in time to see the be fed. Those monkeys were ruthless when it came to their apples & they like to hoard, although i'm unsure of the etiquette behind eating in the bath...they were super cute tho!
After a while, we were kindly informed by the staff that it would get dark soon... and remember, there was a 20min hike through a forest before we got to any area with light. Once again, we nearly raced out of the forest & luckily made it out to the street before it got dark (phew!).
That was one big adventure!
Onsen
Of course, the other thing the area is known for is the onsen (hot springs). The monkeys were in onsen. The place we're staying at is in Shibu Onsen. We had a dip in a couple of open-air onsen & then went off for dinner.
Dinner: Kaiseki @ Ryokan
"Kaiseki" is a term referring to the traditional multicourse Japanese dinner, usually about 10 courses. It is a formal affair, and reflective of seasonal ingredients as well as and regional specialties. Not only that, a variety of techniques are used - sashimi, chilled, boiled, broiled, fried, steamed, pickled, hot pot, soup, dessert - none twice. There are rules which must be followed, eg. the order of the dishes, and each course is plated up taking in about balance and presentation. Needless to say, hours goes into the planning and preparation of a kaiseki. Its a work of art.
Apparently soba, salmon and mushrooms are the local specialty.
Dinner Menu @ Kokuya ryokan for Dec 2010
In our own private 3X3 meter kaiseki room. Whilst sitting in said heated room with feet on heated floor. Incidentally, toilet seats at our ryokan are also heated (presumably not heated for the last 400 years, ditto the bar fridge).
(I have typed the menu word for word below)
- Assort of appetizer. Vinegared persimmon with radish.
- Simmered local chicken in miso soup with chinese herb. Shinano-chicken, chinese herb.
- Rainbow trout sashimi with vinegared miso
- Broiled Local-Carp after a putting in the sweet soy sauce
- Pot of steamed grated turnip with variety of ingredients (rice-flour dumping, dried scallop, shrimp, chicken, mushroom)
- Shinshu-salmon with shrimp in spinach sauce
- Depp-fried yam with mushrooms (tempura)
- Soba noodle with wild plants and grated radish
- Steamed rice- the first crop of the year
- Soup with mushrooms. Honewort, crear soup
- Vegetables pickles
- Apple compote with red wine
My thoughts of our kaiseki:
Appetiser: Persimmon was a nice touch, it was almost stewed before hand so it fell apart on hitting mouth, but it was at room temp.
Simmered Chicken: "Chinese herb" = ginseng and other random nuts you'd find at bottom of your grandma's chicken broth. Does not impress me. I dislike thinking I'm eating local specialty mushroom stalk and finding after one bite its in fact some dirty root. Ginseng.
Sashimi: the sauce miso was good
Steamed turnip: Despite having one of my fav ingredients, scallop, in it... :( Texture of baby food. Somewhat nauseating.
Salmon in spinach sauce: looked like a fusion dish from iron chef, quite nice.
Deep fried yam: yeah, deep fried.
Soba: Our noodle was fresher! I've never had soba with mushrooms before
First-crop-rice: smells good, but doesn't taste too different from normal...
Soup: what is honewort?
Pickles: I love pickles. Clara hates them.
Apple Compote:
1. Red wine is not very japanese.
2. Neither is Compote.
3. Unless you say it with a japanese accent, like "ap-pul cum-po-te wit-ta red-d wine". In which case it tranforms the taste to something completely japanese. But it was very very enjoyable. Fuji apples are of the area, they are HUGE. 12cm diameter sorta huge. Very crisp normally, it was poached basically, changing the texture to firm but supple. Am i allowed to use that word to describe food? Supple? Maybe not.
Overall, not my favourite kaiseki. Acceptable for one that comes with our ryokan package. Some parts were very nice, on the whole it was good, but not mind-blowingly brilliant (which is what one expects. One being myself.).
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