Nakaminatoosakana Market (那珂湊おさかな市場)

Left out this trip to the market from my trip to Ibaraki.

 Early in the morning, we checked out of the hotel to go to the Nakaminatoosakana Market (那珂湊おさかな市場).

Website: http://www.nakaminato-osakanaichiba.jp/

Everything in this fish market looks cheaper than in the Kanto region. Plus they look fresh and tempting too

This here is my breakfast kaisendon which was amazing! Everything was fresh and yummy!

This is the other kind of kaisendon that they have with boiled shirasu and also dashi, so that you can enjoy it as ochazuke.

J had the kaisen tempura don which looks amazing and of course, taste great too. It was calling my name and hence, I stole some from J.

But first, a group picture before we dig in!

Next stop, we went to a popular tourist spot in the area, which is a place that sells dried sweet potato. Apparently, Ibaraki is famous for it.

I guess you can't miss it, if you spot this big sweet potato statue at the side of the road.

Before we head back, we stopped by a local mall for some food as it will be a long drive back. However, we were too still pretty full, so we just ordered some light meals.

I ordered the matcha kakigori. I like they serve the syrup and red bean separately.

I that it was interesting that the coffee came in the pot that it was made in.

Lastly. 2 more group pics to commemorate the trip.

It was a nice short trip.

 

Bus to Ikea

I read online that there is a bus service from Shin-yokohama station to Ikea Kouhoku, so we decided to try it one day.

But first, lunch!

We stopped by 鼎’s by JIN DIN ROU キュービックプラザ新横浜店.

Website: https://jin-din-rou.net/

We tried this pan fried dumplings. Love the crunchy bits but not the actual dumplings itself as I thought that the skin was a bit thick.

The pan fried radish cake was ok, but in terms of the 'burnt' flavour, I prefer the ones from Dintaifung.

Meanwhile, the tantanmen was amazing! Love how strong the sesame flavou was.

The tantanmen set also came with a small bowl of braised meat on rice. This was super flavourful and went very well with rice.

This here is the stir fried noodles with vegetables. The flavour was not too bad. Hahahaha, you cannot see the noodles at all here as it is covered by the vegetables.

After that, we joined a long queue of people for the Ikea bus. The bus was super packed! Al the seats were taken and we were standing, cramped with many others in the bus.

After walking around a pretty busy Ikea, we decided to grab some good at the Ikea restaurant. And a Daim cake! I haven't had one in a super long time.

This place is super busy, we had to walk around for at least 20 mins before we found seats. But we were lucky to have found a seat at a corner where tables were a bit more spaced out.

It is pretty convenient to travel to Ikea via the free bus because there is 1 bus every hour on the weekend. So you don't have to wait that long, even if the miss the bus. Plus Ikea are usually located at places that are far away from the station so they can be hard to travel to for people without cars.

 

Weekend in Yokohama

Lunch at Malay Asian Cuisine at Yokohama's Chinatown.

We had satay, which was always well-marinated and yummy.

I ordered the char kuey teow as I was craving for something with wok hei, and this definitely satisfies it.

J had this wantan mee that has wantan and chicken char siew. This was also very good.

Very happy to have Malaysia food as I have been craving for it.

After lunch, we walked to Yokohama Hammerhead (横浜ハンマーヘッド).

This is why we came here - Vanilla Beans (バニラビーンズ ザ ロースタリー). 

This is also a roastery, but they were not roasting any beans when we were there.

They also have a web shop: http://chocolatedesign.co.jp/html/page8.html

We ordered a chocolate tea, which was slightly acidic. Don't think I am a fan of chocolate tea.

We also ordered their limited edition chocolate parfait at 1,800yen.

This was super delicious!

I was happy that this parfait was different from the on served at their Minato Mirai store.

Both were good but this is super refreshing as this has orange in it.

I am quite surprised that Vanilla Beans is now 20 years old.

After that we went on a long walk and ended up at Yokohama station.

There we had dinner at Din Tai Fung. Super happy with all the food that we had this day.

My cravings were all satisfied.

We had radish cake, xiao long bai and this spicy noodles.

I also purchased some cream from Loccitane to try. 

This here is the Immortelle Reset.

The bottle looks so pretty with all the little yellow balls in them.

Odawara Fish Market

Early morning, we checked out of the hotel to go to the Odawara Fish Market.

Along the way, we passed by this bread shop called Yanagiya Bakery (柳屋ベーカリー) that sells various red/ white bean bread.

The bakery looks old but it was really popular. There were many locals there who came into the shop to buy bread when we were there early in the morning.

We bought a few to try. We actually had them the next day and they were super good. The skin was paper thin and the enter bun is filled with the bean paste. I will definitely buy some more the next time.

After that, we went to Warabe Saigyodo (わらべ菜魚洞).

Website: http://www.warabe.jp/

This shop opens at 11.30am and we started queuing at 11am and wrote our name down on the list. We were the second on the list. This place is pretty popular I think, as the line built up quickly.

I ordered the 五彩丼フライセット which costs 2,950 yen. I also added a bowl of kani miso soup.

This 5 colour don is very pretty. All of them were super fresh and delicious.

J got the 驚き天丼 (Surprise tendon), which costs 3,200yen. This don is huge!!! We got a shocked when it arrived.

Look at the size!

We had so much food on our table. We didn't expect the food portion to be this big, but I guess you definitely get your moneys' worth.

I like this place because it is relatively new and clean. The food was also good.

After that super big lunch, we carried our big and heavy tummies with us to the station to take the train back home.

At the station, I noticed this Kannon statue.