gujo hachiman-mino-nagoya

You might be curious as to what we were served for dinner.

It was an array of the specialties of the area.

Kishimen (a flat noodle), ayu (sweet fish), keichan (a spicy chicken dish which I want to re-create), tebasaki (chicken wings) and kaki (persimmon).

I didn't upload a photo because it wasn't too colorful.

As usual, the kaiseki dinner had way too much food. I gave up halfway and passed a lot of stuff onto Satoshi to finish.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast kaiseki...this was also another assortment of specialties of the area...houba miso (miso that is cooked on a magnolia leaf), dried fish (sorry they didn't say what kind), TKG (tamago kake gohan (raw egg on hot rice)) as well as a few more items.

> They also served us myogata ham. This ham is different from the types we've had before.

First off the shape, it is kind of octogonal rather than round. They also add spices (though I couldn't quite place what spices they were) to the ham when making it which to me made it taste more flavorful than the types we've had before. When served they often serve thick slices.

After checking out, we had some time before the train to our next destination, so we went back to the village to explore a little more.

We checked out Igawa Komichi, a tiny waterway that is home to really huge carp.

And since we still had one more free entry to a museum, we checked out Yudokan, which features the artwork of Mizuno Masao. (300 yen without the coupon). This guy is so imaginative! Animals made from pieces of wood, paper cups...fun!

We had just a little time to rest at Machiya Saito, a teahouse that is connected to the Saito Museum. If I'm not mistaken, this family run teahouse/museum has been around for over 300 years.

Satoshi had some coffee while I had some frozen matcha. It was like eating crushed matcha ice, super refreshing!

From Gujo Hachiman, we then took the train to Umeyama which is part of Mino City.

If you are familiar to the city where we live, it is spelt "Minoo" but this place is "Mino", also the kanji (chinese characters) are all different...

Mino City was recently added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage for washi (literally Japanese paper) which is made from 100% Japanese mulberry pulp.

It was neat to watch a woman who is following in her father's & grandfather's footsteps to make chochin (paper lanterns).

The "frames for the lanterns are made by hand, then wire is wrapped around the frames.

Then washi is glued to the frames. When the lantern is dried, the frames are disassembled. Really amazing stuff!

Another thing Mino City is known for is udatsu (firewalls). Between most houses are these elaborate firewalls.

Mino City also has the oldest suspension bridge in Japan (since 1917?!)...can you tell how blazing hot it was??

Lunch was unagi (eel) at Ozeya, since it is a popular dish in the area.

I've said before that it isn't my favorite, but this was tender and flavorful...delicious.

Satoshi had their unagi-mabushi which was more like a chirashizushi of unagi.

After lunch, we walked a little more around the town and then made our way to the train station.

On the way, I noticed some children and adults sitting on the side eating ice cream.

I read the flag/sign that was outside of the store and it said that they have been making ice cream monaka for over 60 years!

We stopped to try their vanilla (100 yen) and azuki (130 yen)

The owner was a cute grandma. Monaka is made out of the same ingredients that ice cream cones are made of except that monaka are shaped to look more like a shell.

The ice cream was more like ice milk, very hard not too creamy, I'm glad we got to try these.

By the time we got to Nagoya, it was getting dark.

We checked in and then went in search of dinner.

Instead of finding some Nagoya foods, we ended up at a bar that served Hokkaido fare.

Our favorites were the

corn fritters,

fried scallops and

ramen salad topped with shaved frozen foie gras.

Another long day, but we were able to see a lot, eat a lot and walk a lot.

Machiya Saito
927 Hachimancho Shinmachi
Gujo, Gifu
Phone: 0575.65.3539

Ozeya
2170 Tawaramachi
Mino, Gifu
Phone: 0575.33.0361
Closed Wednesdays
Hours: 11:00-14:00

Suehirodo
2686 Tarawamachi
Mino, Gifu
Phone: 0575.33.0044

Wine Watanabe
4-5-6 Sakae
Nagoya, Aichi
Phone: 052.228.9860
Lunch 11:00-14:30, Dinner 17:00-24:00

Hotel Route Inn
4-7-12 Sakae
Nagoya, Aichi
Phone: 052.259.7300

If you're interested in tourism info:

Gujo Hachiman

Mino City

Nagoya