nenmatsu

Hope you had a nice holiday season...

I'm going to break our trip into 2 parts starting with nenmatsu which literally means "year end".

On the 28th, Satoshi cleaned the windows and other areas of the apartment while I cleaned the kitchen area.

Lunch was at Ikegami Shokudo...Satoshi has eaten here before.

It was my first time and I was bummed that the oyakodon I ordered had egg shells in it...blah!

AND this place allows smoking...eww!

In the afternoon, Satoshi went to a catch-up German class while I went to buy omiyage to bring with us.

Dinner was at a new (to us) place, Rakyo.

You can either choose these tickets near the door to order teishoku (set meals)...or order a la carte off the menu.

I ordered the takabe (labracoglossa argenteiventris also known as yellow striped butterfish) karaage (fried) with black vinegar sauce set, while Satoshi ordered the sashimi set.

I ordered the ume liquor diluted with hot water...the amuse bouche (the stuff you don't order but need to pay for) was a dish of fresh seaweed with grated ginger and ponzu (citrus soy).

The wait staff also gave us some edamame (soy beans) because we had to wait to be seated.

Look at how much food each set has!

This is Satoshi's and pretty generous for 1100 yen (about $11)...besides his sashimi he also had a piece of fried fish and other small dishes.

Here's my fried takabe...1000 yen (about $10)

I also enjoyed the zuke style fish that was soaked in some shoyu based sauce.

Everything was delicious and we want to go back to try other items from their menu.

On the 29th, we left kind of early and took the train to Shimizu.

This is the hometown of Sakura Momoko, a manga artist.

Unfortunately, she passed away in 2018.

From the JR Shimizu Station, we were able to see Mount Fuji.

Shimizu is famous for soccer and its players, so this area had lots of soccer decor.

At Nihondaira, which we visited before, we went on the ropeway to check out Kunozan Toshogu.

There are many Toshogu shrines around Japan.

The most famous might be the one in Nikko, but this one is the oldest.

The last time we were at Nihondaira was in 2016.

Since then, they built this walkway called Yume Terrace, which looks out at Suruga Bay (and Mount Fuji).

The day we were here the terrace was closed for the year...boo!

We had some Shizuoka Tea Soft Serve...even though it was fahreezing!

And then we caught the bus to Shizuoka city.

Dinner was at Umibozu...where we tried Shizuoka Oden...which is a dark soy sauce based version.

We also tried some Fujinomiya Yakisoba...I liked this version because the noodles were on the dry side.

Look at the big pot of oden that they have!

On the 30th we were up early to make our way to Kyoto.

There was a really sad, free breakfast in the cafeteria of the hotel.

It was gross because they dumped all the weiners into the ketchup...oh well, it was free, right?!...

I came upon some fantastic Shizuoka katsuo chip snacks...if you've eaten beef chips in Hawaii, this is the fish version...so good!

We bought some musubi from En for the train ride, takuan okaka (katsuo flakes) and mehari (musubi wrapped with mustard cabbage leaves).

And when we arrived in Kyoto, we stopped into Kamo Donuts to pick up some dessert.

This is Satoshi's obake (monster) donut...

Dinner was a hodgepodge of things while we caught up with MIL.

And on the 31st, we helped MIL with some cleaning and dinner was toshikoshi soba with some tempura bought at the market.

I'll continue with the rest of our travels tomorrow.

Rakyo
3-40-25 Ikegami
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6410.5254
Hours: 11:00-14:30 (lunch). 17:00-22:30 (Sundays-Thursdays dinner), until 23:00 (Fridays & Saturdays)

Umibozu
6-11 Minami-cho
Suruga, Shizuoka
Phone: 054.284.8282
Hours: 15:00-23:30

Orange Hotel
1-6-4 Inagawa
Suruga, Shizuoka
Phone: 054.283.5100

En
47 Kuroganecho, ASTY Shizuoka 1F
Aoi, Shizuoka
Phone: 054.266.4096
Hours: 7:30-22:00