Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn japanese cuisine. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn japanese cuisine. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Hai, 15 tháng 10, 2018

Published tháng 10 15, 2018 by ana03 with 0 comment

JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: A Day In Takayama


Shirakawa-go was on my last year trip itinerary, and after some researches, I decided to visit the place from the city Takayama. Actually Takayama is closer from Kyoto, but because of one thing and another, I decided to visit Takayama from Tokyo, which is quite far. So this post will be about my one night stay in Takayama.

You could actually visit Shirakawa-Go from another city, like Kanagawa. But since I found a tour package from a hostel in Takayama, I decided to stay there. It was a total of 5 hours something trip from Tokyo to Takayama. I used my JR Pass and rode Hikari train to Nagoya, then I got transferred to the JR Hida limited express train to Takayama. The view from Nagoya to Takayama was absolutely stunning. Let me share some of the pictures I took from my seat. I was all alone on this trip, but I was not bored at all because of the view.







Since I love konbini food so much, I purchased from food 7 Eleven to accompany me along the way. Konbini food never fails! And yes I bought Evian for the sake of Mickey Mouse, anyway it didn't cost much with other mineral water brand there. They're all expensive.


Finally I arrived at Takayama. This city is much colder than Tokyo, even colder than Kyoto. The weather forecast told that it was going to snow that day. I was excited to experience my first snowing day, too bad it didn't snow after all.


It was Saturday, and the city was quiet. I think Takayama is a perfect city for an introvert who enjoys wandering around alone like me. But if you don't like quite place, you could head to Sanmachi Suji / Takayama Old Town where all the people are buzzing around.


This is the place where you can find the infamous Takayama's delicacies like Hida Beef Sushi, Hida Croquette, Mitarashi Dango and else.


My first joining the queue activity here was for the Hida beef sushi. Don't leave Takayama before you have this! Takayama is all about Hida beef.


Hida Beef Sushi - JPY 500

And yes, they were good! The beef was so tender and nice.


Above is a place that sells Hida Gyuuman, or may I call it beef bun, another well known Takayama's delicacy.

Next, I made a stop at this Mitarashi Dango stall.


Mitarashi Dango - JPY 80

Basically it was a skewered round mochi grilled and covered with soy sauce. Well, not my favourite but worth a try since it was cheap anyway.

My next stop was to purchase Hida beef croquettes. Since the order was made using a machine, I entered the wrong type of croquette and made another purchase for the one I was aiming for. So, two croquettes for me.

Croquettes (2) - JPY 450

They were still hot and good. This was quite a cure for a chilly day like that day.

I spotted a 'sarubobo' in front of a shop.


This red doll is a mascot of Hida region. I think they were on every packaging of the town's souvenir.

I was quite full from all the snacking, and decided to move the other part of the town.


This city was quite tranquilizing for me. It has a countryside charm, quiet yet relaxing and pleasing the eyes. I just walked here and there enjoying each corner I spotted.













It got colder in the afternoon, that I decided to enter a random coffee shop. The name 'Traveller' coffee house bought me.


Black Tea - JPY 400

I chose tea though, afraid that caffeine would affect my night. Nice place to relax my feet for a while.


It was not even 5 PM and the city started to get dark and chilly. The temperature dropped to 0°C and I headed back to my hostel, entered my room, and set the heater on. I was thinking to have dinner but the weather kept me away from leaving my room.

And I paid a visit to the place I planned to had dinner the day after. The place is called Mame Tengu, a restaurant that serves Takayama Ramen.




Hida Takayama Noodle - JPY 800

Takayama ramen is quite different from the other ramen I had before. It has clearer broth, quite unique one since the broth used dried bonito flakes, and vegetables as a base, and mixed with a secret sauce made with soy sauce and miso before boiling. The noodle itself was springy and curly.


It was overall delicious! Especially when the weather outside was freakin' cold.

I think Takayama is a wonderful city to spend a night or two.




-------
JAPAN TRIP SERIES 2017
Konnichiwa! I'm back!
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Preparation and Cost
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Back to Dotonbori
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Fall Foliage at Minoo Park and Quick Visit to Kuromon Market
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Autumn in Kyoto
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: A Day In Takayama
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: November Snow at Shirakawa-Go

JAPAN TRIP SERIES 2015
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Chủ Nhật, 23 tháng 9, 2018

Published tháng 9 23, 2018 by ana03 with 0 comment

JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Autumn in Kyoto


Kyoto has been one of my favourite city to visit since the first time I stepped my feet there, and I was so excited to re-visit this city. Since I visited some of the top spot on my previous visit like Kiyomizu-Dera, Fushimi Inari Shrine, which I'm sure are also beautiful in autumn, I decided to pay a visit to different spots this time.

Kyoto on 20th November 2017 noon was cloudy and a bit freezing. As I remembered, it was below 10°C that day, and I was wearing three layers clothing inside - well I'm not really good with cold weather. 


We stayed in a hostel located within 10 minutes walk from JR Kyoto Station. After dropping our luggage, we walked towards Kyoto Station and spotted this Katsugyu restaurant with a queue of people in front of it. Apparently this place is quite famous, so we decided to have our lunch there.

Katsu Set - JPY 1,598

It was a good lunch, not bad at all, but not as good as we expected since we were still awed with the deliciousness of Gyukatsu Motomura and comparing this one to it.

Before this trip, I did some research on places to visit in Autumn in Kyoto and Tofukuji appeared on the list. And so we head to this place after lunch.


Tofukuji is one of the most well-known zen temple in Kyoto. Quite many people were visiting this place on Monday afternoon. Let me show you some parts of this temple, and don't miss the Tsuntenkyo bridge like I did, which is actually the best autumn viewing spot there.





Taking picture with Kyoto's autumn foliage mission accomplished! 

From Tofukuji, we were heading to Ninenzaka area with bus. Oh yeah, this is a good tip, do buy Kyoto bus pass, it is super worth it. It was only JPY 500 - FYI each bus trip cost JPY 230 in Kyoto. Why Ninenzaka? Actually because my friend wanted to visit the traditional Japan styled-Starbucks there.


The walk towards Ninenzaka was captivating. You could spot the beautiful Yasaka Shrine there. And if you love coffee, you could spot % Arabica shop on this lane, and yes people were queuing for their cup of coffee. But I skipped this one for the Arashiyama shop.


I remembered it was still 5 PM something but the sky got dark so early. We should've gotten here earlier to enjoy the afternoon charm of this captivating narrow lane with traditional wooden styled shops on the sides of the street.  


You could find from traditional souvenir shops to Ghibli & Hello Kitty shops here which some Hello Kitty merchandise were only available exclusively here. I did not take so many beautiful pictures here since my main camera battery died just right after we reached this lane.



After considering on where should we had our dinner, we left this area and rode the 202 bus to a ramen restaurant called Fire Ramen Menbakaichidai. And talking about the weather, can you guess how much more freezing it would be later in the night? It was much colder, yet we had to wait outside the restaurant after taking our queue number. Yep, we were on the waiting list since the shop didn't have much seat and there were already people queueing before us.


I consider myself quite lucky since I could still enter the waiting 'camp' with heater in it. People who were coming after me had to wait outside, since it was only a small waiting booth. After maybe, almost an hour or less, we finally entered the shop.


There were only maybe 8-10 seats inside the shop, and they were dividing the guest into two batch. The other batch was already enjoying their ramen, and our batch was waiting for our turn. 


If you could see the hanging things in the kitchen, guess what? They were selfie sticks. So here, we couldn't put anything on the table since it was dangerous, so the restaurant provide selfie sticks to place our phones in order to record this blazing experience which you could view on the video below. Something that didn't always happen when I'm having my ramen.


Well it was only a one second firing ramen experience, but it was still amazing. Now, how about the ramen itself?

Fire Ramen - JPY 1,250

The ramen was covered with green onions, that you might called it green onions with ramen not vice versa but I loved it! The after taste of the green onion was sweet. The broth was also clean and fresh. And the chasiu was also good.

The next day, we were planning to visit Arashiyama with bus. We got lost for riding the wrong bus, but thank God we managed to get down and wait for the right bus to Arashiyama.


We know that we had arrived in Arashiyama when we saw this Togetsukyo bridge.


It was cloudy that morning, but soon after the sky was getting clearer and we were reaching for our first destination.


And this was our first destination.


The % Arabica Shop!


There was a queue of course, but I heard from my friend who visited this place two days before my visit, the queue was super crazy. But on the day of my visit, the queue was tolerable, so I happily queued for my one cup of coffee.


Don't expect to have a cafe-experience here since there's only one table inside and you have to pay a certain amount to sit there. 



I love this small and simple coffee shop theme, where people just visit this place to enjoy their coffee rather than just taking pictures of their coffee. Believe me, I've witnessed local food instagrammer ordering coffee just to take picture of it and left it, without drinking it at all.


Bonus: good looking barista!

Latte - JPY 500

After a while, I finally got to enjoy my cup of latte. It was all worth it, the wait and the view where I enjoyed my coffee. 

From % Arabica, we headed to Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, passing by several temples with beautiful autumn foliage around. 





And finally the bamboo grove. This is a place for you who enjoy zen moment, and on the other side I think this place might be boring fod the other some. Me? I think I'm in between the two sides. I still enjoyed the walk between the bamboo trees but not for so long.


Meanwhile taking beauty shots here was quite hard since it was pretty crowded with people.


And if you are walking the same direction with me, you might spot Nonomiya Shrine, which is small, but beautiful.



From Arashiyama, we went back using train to Kyoto Station and got ready for Tokyo! 
See you on my next post. Anw, should I write a post regarding my JR Pass experience?











-------
JAPAN TRIP SERIES 2017
Konnichiwa! I'm back!
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Preparation and Cost
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Back to Dotonbori
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Fall Foliage at Minoo Park and Quick Visit to Kuromon Market
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: Autumn in Kyoto
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: A Day In Takayama
JAPAN AUTUMN TRIP 2017: November Snow at Shirakawa-Go

JAPAN TRIP SERIES 2015
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