Meals Out and About

Japanese BBQ - similar to Korean BBQ. Lots of options for meat and veggies. 

Sushi Go-Round - we have these in the US, but in Japan, it's a guess at what you order..

We thought this would be Tonkatsu - fried pork - served with miso soup, rice, and cabbage salad. Instead, fried oysters - yum!

A thousand and one variations of rice...this was rice with a creamy sauce, calamari and veggies, served bubbling in an iron skillet over fire. 

 Chef-cut sushi from a place near the bae - love the variety!

Black Sesame Latte - seasonal special at a small coffeeshop in Yokohama...Heidi will grab coffee here on her way to the airport.

Ok, so this isn't a meal out...but so much great fish!

Remember that we didn't manage to try horse-meat sushi in Matsumoto? We tried it in Tokyo. 

Fresh-toasted rice cake in Kanagawa

The Japanese have an obsession with French and fusion-french pastry. This is from Vie de la France - Alex's favorite. Heidi prefers "Bun-Bun", so we trade off.... 

This one turned out to be pork! 

Yakitori adventures with Mike from work and his Japanese mother. Heart, liver, kidneys...it was a good education in organ meat. Some were great - but Heidi had a tough time with the cartilage. The cabbage with spicy miso dip, asparagus wrapped in bacon, veggies, soup, chicken were all great too. 

Nagano Getaway Pt 2: Magome to Tsumago

From Matsumoto, we drove the next morning to Magome. The trail between Magome and Tsumago is a well maintained section of the former Nakasendo, the route that ran along the Kiso Valley and connected Tokyo with Kyoto during the Edo Period. We had planned to hike from Magome to Tsumago, return via bus, and then drive home. It made for a very full, but incredibly rewarding day. 

Both towns have been maintained and restored from the Edo period; complete with timbered walls and wooden water-wheels. The hike itself exudes charm, history, and a sense of old Japan. Close your eyes, and you can see the horses, flags and armor passing you by.

The trail is about 7.8 K, going over a steep pass about half-way through the hike. The trail crosses the road several times, and is dotted with bells to ring before crossing. We didn't see any bears - or many people either. Since the rain of the day before had continued through mid-afternon, this wasn't terribly surprising. 

About half-way through, there was a rest-station - a small hut, with a fire in a square fire-ring. An iron kettle simmered. We walked in, and were offered hot tea and brandied ume. Perhaps it was the cold, but those were the best little alcoholic apricots ever. We also bought walking sticks, having read that you could get the sticks branded at each station on the trail to the top of Mt. Fuji. 

Passing houses and charming shrines, we eventually rolled into Tsumago. If possible, it was even more charming than Magome. Less development and more cobbled streets. 

Having skipped lunch, we were starved - after getting our official walking stick brands for Tsumago, we went for the first restaurant we could find. Being cold and wet, we ordered hot soba noodles topped with green onions, mushrooms, tofu, seaweed, yam (kind of slimy) and "grass". We learned at dinner in Matsumoto that all green vegetables that Japanese persons didn't know proper english names for were called "grass".  In this case, "grass" was wild asparagus. Amazing.

We also ordered "gohei-mochi" - toasted rice ball on a stick, glazed in sesame and walnut soy sauce. Absolutely unbelievable. So good. 

A short tour of the town, a little green tea ice-cream, and some photos of the stunning cherry blossom display finished off the town. Mostly dry by this point, we caught the bus back to Magome, and started the trek home. 

Near the end of the drive, we stopped at a Japanese rest-stop off the highway. Now, Japanese rest stops really deserve their own post...I'm not sure they can even be compared to the grimy bathroom-and-vending-machine truck stops in the  US. Think of the duty-free-shop-and-retaurant area in a larger international airport. Better. With cleaner bathrooms - and often more restaurant choices. In any case - we stopped at one of the rest stop restaurants for Japanese-style hamburger and salad. A bit more of the drive home - accompanied by reading-out-loud from "Essays on Japan" (thanks Carrie and Mike!) - and we made it home. One of the best weekends we've had in Japan!

Nagano Getaway Pt. 1: Matsumoto - and Dinner!

One of our first weekends in Japan, we rented a car. Mostly to move our boxes from the Navy lodge to our house…but since we didn’t plan on getting a car of our own, it was a great chance for a getaway. We chose to go north to Nagano, to see the castle town of Matsumoto, and then to hike the old “post trail” from Tsumago to Magome.

Matsumoto is mostly famous for “Matsumotojo”, also known as “Crow Castle”. 

The somewhat precarious staircase climbs past a snazzy exhibit of old armor and firearms up to a lookout over the town.  The woodwork and exhibits of the castle were outstanding. The pounding rain made the views somewhat less stunning, but the town itself was charming, full of restaurants, shopping streets, and (for some reason), frogs. We stayed in a charming Ryokan (traditional Japanese-style hotel) complete with tatami floors, shoji screens, and incredible bathing facilities.

However, the best part of Matsumoto was undoubtedly dinner. Our guidebook recommended  a little place called "Sa-No-Haru", noting that it served incredibly fresh, local, traditional Japanese food, in a space more like someone's living room than a restaurant.  

The guidebook was right - and then some. It wasn't the basashi (horse meat sushi) and soba noodles the region was famous for - but it was much better. 

We sat down at a low bar-counter, facing in to a narrow prep space - rather like sitting at the sushi bar. It was spring-time, and all the food was seasonal. We didn't order any of it. But a slow procession emerged from the kitchen, was carefully plated (on appropriately sized and shaped dish ware), and was placed in front of us. First was some sort of small bean, served with local salt, and fresh bamboo shoots. Also, some sort of marinated raidish-y vegetable. Next came tempura vegetables and shrimp; the broccolini served with green-tea infused salt, the shrimp served with a soy-based dipping sauce.

Chef poured sake - sometimes hot, sometimes cold -drinking along with us t each pour. Next came new potatoes - boiled simply, and served with salt. Absolutely delicious, especially with eaten with the pickled radishes.

Following this came a fish course - thick-cut tuna, flash-seared, served with daikon, ginger, green onions, and a soy-and-sesame sauce. Chef grated fresh wasabi into the sauce for us. There are no words.  

Soup followed after - just a simple broth, made with clams, a halibut-like fish, and the softest, silkiest, most amazing tofu we've ever tasted. 

Following this came house-made pickles - cucumber, daikon, and...not quite sure. All delicious. The perfect palate-cleanser.

Rice with yuzu, and fresh oranges (the best this california girl has ever tasted) finished up the meal. 

By the end of the night and conversation, we were pronounced family - photos and gift exchanges followed. 

Home

Special request of my sister-in-law: Photos of the house. So a somewhat belated post about our house here:

***

We got lucky. The house we finally found isn’t a typical rental house, but a family residence, thoughtfully designed and built by a family whose name still hangs on the gate. Even without any furnishings, the house still felt like a home. The two daughters left handprints in the cement steps to the handkerchief-sized patio, and the lease agreement forbade us to cut down the olive tree in the front yard. Even our real estate agent looked a little surprised at that!  Someone in this family is a little like Heidi’s custom-builder father – organized, highly efficient, and aware of small details which generate disproportionate convenience and/or luxury. Multiple electrical outlets in every room - including the tiny finished storage attic. (Alex has claimed this as his home office/man-cave. “Cave” being a literal descriptor of its height, he outfitted it with a Japanese-style ground-height leather armchair and low desk.) 

Hamling Medical Service's Home Office!

There are built-in storage cabinets in all the right places, plus a large entry area for shoe-changing. Light switches that have a small green light when they are off – so you can see them to turn them on.  Roll-down metal wind-screens have an “automatic” switch. Most commonly, these are opened and closed by hand…most places we looked, it was a 5-step process. The automatic switches give you privacy when needed, and light when wanted.

The bathroom has a deep-soaking tub, which can be controlled via a panel in the bathroom OR from the kitchen. Let your hot water fill up while you finish cooking/the dishes.

There's a classic Japanese "tatami" room, with lovely grass matting, that we've outfitted with a futon as our bedroom.

The living room/dining room is long and narrow. We brought in a comfy couch, more grass matting, and a low-to-the-ground Japanese tea table.

The kitchen is narrow, larger than many Japanese kitchens, and with a connecting bar counter through to the dining room.

Since the master bedroom is also long and narrow, we re-purposed it to be Heidi's Home Office on one half and the Yoga room/Guest bedroom on the other half.

Heidi's Home Office.

We moved in with not much - clothes, mostly. Since the stay isn't long-term, we didn't want to fuss about furniture.  Furniture was second-hand, or from Nitori (the Japanese Bed-Bath-and-Beyond meets Ikea). Since we're lacking certain non-essential furniture, and since the batterie de la cuisine is somewhat less extensive as when I (Heidi) was in college, there is a certain back-to-basics feel.

On the whole, loving it! Thank you, Hosue family, for renting a house that lets us enjoy Japanese home life, with a few little luxuries.