Work trip in July

After staying home for a few months. It was time to go back out for work again.

It feels like I haven't been on a Shinkansen for a super long time, but it was only 4 months ago that I was on one.

Probably not a good time to be eating in the shinkansen, but it was a work trip and I didn't have time to eat before that so I had no choice but to eat on the shinkansen.

Finally arrived at Tokuyama station.

It was my first time here and I was surprised that the station had such a pretty Tsutaya + Starbucks.

Checked into my hotel for the night - Route Inn Tokuyama Ekimae Hotel (ホテルルートイン徳山駅前). This hotel is old, but functional and near to the station. On busy periods, the rooms can get booked up quickly. You will find mostly salaryman here.

Website: https://www.route-inn.co.jp/hotel_list/yamaguchi/index_hotel_id_253/

The view was not bad. It was interesting to see so many factories in the back.

This is truly an industrial area.

After checking in, I continued to work before grabbing dinner at the hotel restaurant. That night, I had their buta syougayaki which was delicious and went really well with rice.

After dinner, it was back to my room, to prepare for the meeting the next day.

Whenever I go on a business trip, all I ever see is the station, hotel and the customer's place.

Soba making experience at そば打ち体験 観音亭

Next morning, we enjoyed a nice Japanese breakfast at the ryokan.

Saba was served that morning and while it was simple, it was yummy.

We checked out immediately after breakfast because we wanted to go experience making our own soba.

We went to this place called そば打ち体験 観音亭 (Sobauchi taiken Kannontei).

Website: https://taiken-jp.net/kannon/

We chose the 3,500 yen course which included tempura, sashimi and sazae gohan along with our soba.

There was only another family there with us that morning. We got to mill our own soba flour, roll the dough and also to cut the dough at the end.

It was a really nice experience. Makes you feel like you can easily make soba at home too.

After making our soba, we went down to the restaurant to wait for it to be cooked.

The tempura was served first but we wanted to wait for the soba first before eating.

Finally the soba arrived! We were even provided an instruction on how to deliciously enjoy wasabi with soba.

As our set came with sashimi, we also had a small platter of sashimi, which I didn't really enjoy. The tako was tough and chewy.

Soba on the other hand was yummy. Not sure if it was because we made it ourselves, so we felt that it was very good. Lol

But this is a lot of food, as we also had sazae rice too. One good thing was that they allowed us to pack the sazae rice into an onigiri to bring home, so there will be no food wasted.

 

Izu Granpal Park (伊豆ぐらんぱる公園)

After dinner, we drove to Izu Granpal Park (伊豆ぐらんぱる公園).

 

The carpark was already pretty full when we got there.

Website:https://granpal.com/information/price.html

The price for the illumination was 1,500yen / adult.

This place was much bigger and more beautiful than expected.

Other than just illumination, there was also a display of lights and music show at designated intervals.

I suppose that if not for COVID-19, this place would be packed and really hard for us to get a nice picture.

Luckily for us, while there were many people, we still managed to find spots that allowed us to take some nice pictures.

Other than just the illumination area, there was also an area which looked like a big park, but it was hard to tell in the dark.

There was this big slide there. It is the kind of slide requires you to be on a mat to go down. I have always wanted to try it. There are mats there freely available for visitors to use. I queued along with other families and kids to go on it and while my butt hurts after that, it was fun! I will definitely go on it again.

Then there was this area with dinosaurs too, which I think is popular with kids.

Some of the dinosaurs actually move a little when you go near them. There must be some sensors nearby.

After visiting the dinosaurs, we had to leave as the park was closing. 

I recommend families with cars to visit this place as it is far away from the station. But it is worth the visit as it is a place that the entire family can enjoy. They can easily spend the whole day here.

Izukogen Yutopia (東京機器健康保険組合伊豆高原ユートピア)

For our trip to Izu this time, stayed at Izukogen Yutopia (東京機器健康保険組合伊豆高原ユートピア).

Website: https://izukogenyutopia.com/access

We applied online and did not know which room we will be placed in till we got there.

Our room is very spacious. Right at the entrance is the genkan. Next to that, we have the sink and toilet.

It was nice to get our own private toilet even though we did not have a bath in the room. There is a common shared bath area on the ground floor.

Here is the living area which will be out bedroom at night.

I believe this place is popular with families which is why the room is big and can easily sleep 4.

Next to that, we have another living area that sits 4 too.

Here, we have the fridge and pots to make tea with.

Inside the closet are our yukata.

This is how the place look like on the inside. These stairs here led us up to our room on the 2nd floor. There is also a lower ground floor with many rooms for indoor activities. There is also a reading room and meeting room here. I believe companies use this place for functions too.

This is main lounge area where you can just sit and chill. There are also 3 massage chairs for guests to use. 

Right next to the lounge area is the dining area. Meals are served at fixed time and when it is time, the hall quickly fills up. Each group is assigned their own table and the food is already on the table before they allowed guests in.

This here is the dinner. There were many dishes and they were all good.

I like how we had sashimi and tempura.

This abalone here is not part of the standard meal set. I added this when I made the reservation for this place. It was interesting to grill our own abalone.

The abalone was nice and not tough to chew on.

There were so many dishes. Cold appetizers, salad and beef.

The meal also ended with desserts!

Overall, we were very satisfied with the food served. We also had 2 bottles of Pepsi. Honestly, I haven't had Pepsi in a long time. This we added at extra cost. While other tables were having alcohol, we had soft drinks!

After dinner, the futon was already prepared for us.

While it looked welcoming, we did not immediately go to bed. We went out for one of the best illuminations we have seen that night.