Nihonshoku Date

Hamasushi~

Not that I'm a fan of hamasushi but it is convenient for a quick and fuss-free work day dinner. Especially good when you get off work late and hence, skipped the dinner crowds. There is no need to cook or dishes to wash. And you an eat quickly as it s fast food.

It's also good that they have a variety of items, like ramen, kushikatsu and tempura.

Weekend dinner at torikizoku which is a yakitori franchise shop that sells cheap yakitori.

The night before, there was a typhoon and I was worried that I might not be able to attend the zumba workshop on this day. But everything was good. The trains started running in the morning. I attended the zumba workshop with 4 other colleagues and later went to this torikizoku nearby to grab dinner with J before going back home.

Every dish has the same price tag of about 300 yen.

They have a wide variety and it;s cheap. The only down side is that the place is non-smoking.

But it is a good place, if a traditional style yakitori shop that only has counter seating and only has Japanese menu is intimidating for you.

Chanabe time

From this pic, my hair looks very long. It has been a long time since I have had such long hair.

At that time I was growing my hair to be donated and hence, refrained from cutting my hair.

My hair was also completely black as it has been a long time since I last dyed it.

On this day, we went to Kagurazaka Saryo in Shinya Mark City again.

Love this place.... I enjoy their tea desserts and their udon.

Ordered a udon again today as I was craving for some kind of comfort food. As usual, I finish everything including the soup.

Also ordered a seasonal pumpkin tart for desserts! I would recommend you to add on a dessert to your meal as their tarts are always lovely.

Random meals in Oct

My furusato nozei gift arrived.

Muscat grapes again~ Love them as they were sweet and seedless. 

Briyani lunch again, this time with colleagues.

Another work day lunch with colleagues. Really enjoyed my order of prawn sandwiches. The portion is big as the sandwiches had lots of fillings and there were lots of fries in the basket.

Work day breakfast as I arrived early at the place where I was supposed to have a meeting in order to avoid rush hour. So I had some time to grab breakfast at a nearby McD.

More work day lunches. This was from a nearby bento shop near the station. There weren't much choices left as it was almost 1pm. I just came back from a meeting and bought a bento as it was along the way.

Weekday lunch with a colleague at a quaint little shop nearby. I quite like this restaurant but as it's very small, it's always busy during lunch and they close at 1pm so it's hard to go there for late lunch.

Treated myself to a small chocolate cake as I wait for my Japanese lesson.

Had a wonderful dinner with a senpai/advisor. 

She said she wanted to have sukiyaki, so I introduced Shabuzen Roppongi (しゃぶ禅 六本木店). I've been there before for sukiyaki and it was amazing!

So we went there after work and my senpai decided to go with shabu-shabu course instead after looking at the menu.

The dishes were all super good!

There there is this beautiful pork for the shabu-shabu. The meal was delicious and it was nice to be able to get some advice about life and work.

I felt bad that my senpai treated me after that and at the same time felt blessed. Hope to catch up with her again the next time she has a work trip to Tokyo. :)

Sept Weekend

Lunch buffet again at Sky~ This time we were there for Mish's Birthday.

Always enjoy their appetizer selection.

The main this today is duck. I think I was the only one who didn't go for seconds. While it was delicious, I try no to have too much.

Dessert was amazing that day :D

Lol, got this funny pic of the B'day girl testing out a product at Big Camera.

The next day, we went for Ramen with Yuki at his favourite place.

As usual, the broth was super thick and flavourful.

After our ramen, we added a an extra bowl of dried noodles each. I'm so loving the green colour of this spicy sauce.

I honestly thing that their dried noodles is the best. Reminds me of kolomee.

But too bad, I cannot just order the dry noodles.

After that, we took a walk around Sakuragicho and found some interesting things related to the Rugby World Cup.

Look at this huge blown up balloon!

Decided to give Shake Shack a second chance years after as there wasn't any queue when was walked past.

I ordered their Shroom burger, Shack burger, cheese fries and their limited edition caramel shake. The burger this time tasted better than the one I had previously The fries were ok but that caramel shake was too sweet for my liking! I think it will be years again before I ever revisit.

Din Tai Fung

Dinner at Din Tai Fung.

One of my favourite place to go to when I miss Chinese food.

I always get their raddish cake, which is probably the best in Japan. 

While I also enjoy their xiao long bao, I always order their spicy dumplings.

It's just really nice comfort food. Really good when you miss something with a little bit of spice to it. I like it so much, I will order the spicy noodles with dumplings and another plate of spicy dumplings.

That's the end of our trip to Izu.

Murakami Gasshozukuri Mingeikan (村上合掌造り民芸館) & Kurofune train

After our late soba lunch, we went back to the hotel for a quick swim.

There were only 3 other people in the pool when we were there. Most of the people who were there were just chilling on the chairs, reading a book. As it was the end of summer, the water was cold!

Nevertheless, I was super happy that I was able to swim in it for a while as I haven't swam in a long time.

As we had a super late lunch, we didn't just had some light snacks in the hotel room, such as chips, ramen and bread. This Shizuka green tea was interesting. Lol....not cola but it still makes for a nice fizzy soft drink.

I spotted with other chestnut bean bread at the local supermarket and had to get it. I wonder if chestnuts are popular in the area because this and the bread that I had the night before also had chestnut in it. 

Breakfast at the hotel the next morning.

Today, we got a nice window seat.

After breakfast, we walked down the steep hill to visit the Murakami Gasshozukuri Mingeikan (村上合掌造り民芸館).

Highly recommend this Murakami Gasshozukuri Mingeikan (村上合掌造り民芸館). The first and last gasshozukuri to be brought out of Hida.

Website: http://www.gasshou.com/

This place is run by an elderly couple who were super friendly.

Had an amazing experience here, learning about the gasshozukuri here.

As they are very old, the mingeikan might be closed even on weekdays, so make sure you call beforehand to confirm that they are operating before visiting.

I really enjoyed talking with the elderly couple despite how smoky the room was.

The ojisan wasn't feeling well when we were there. Hence, we was pretty quiet and we were shown around by the obasan. According to his wife, when he was genki, he would talk about the history and culture of gasshozukuri to as many as 100 people at a time.

We were super surprised to find that he speaks good english as he spent about 5 years studying in the states and has travelled around Europe on his way back to Japan.

The experience was very educational and homey as they were just so warm and welcoming. When we left, the obasan gave us an extra caramel each, maybe because I commented on how delicious it was.

You will be served some simmered fukki, home-made caramel which the obasan learned from her mother-in-law and houjicha. The fukki were from the garden.

We did have to pay 600 yen per person for visiting but we gained so much more!! I think they could charge double as we were served tea and snacks. They even had to climb up 5 floors to show us around the entire structure. Plus, it's like having a personal guide to explain about this history to you.

You can tell that it's really hard to maintain such a huge structure just by themselves. And I think more funds are required to maintain it. After all, it is a beautiful part of the culture.

They have accumulated so many 'gifts' from others over the years that it's like a small museum on it's own. There were so many old artifacts from back in the days, that you can no longer see now. According to the obasan, they just keep receiving 'donations' from various people, even though many of the objects received have no connection to Hida. Lol~

We were also given a tour up to the roof.

This is where they grew silk worms and made silk back in the days.

Of course, for them it's became an area to put more stuffs that they have collected or received from others over the years.

They even presented us with a free magazine which showcased their mingeikan and where the ojisan was interviewed.

From that magazine, we learned that the udon shop called 合掌, located right in front, was being operated by their relative. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't open when we were there.

I would definitely want to dine there next time!

After that, we checked out of the hotel and took the bus back to the station where we too the Kurofune or The Black Ship train back.

You can check the timetable for the Kurofune train here:

Website: http://kiha81.com/kurofune-train/

As you can see, this is a special train, which is why the passengers are taking pictures with it.

There weren't many people and we found a nice cozy corner for ourselves.

Had some local snacks that I bought from the souvenir shop near the train station. It's called milk mochi and I'm not a fan of both it's taste and texture.

We've been to Izu several times and most explored around the east side. Next time, I would like to explore the west side of Izu.