nikko-utsunomiya-tokyo

Breakfast, like dinner was nicely portioned, so I was able to finish my food

I think I've told you before but this type of fish makes me nervous, I never eat it as nicely as Satoshi does

assorted foods including salad and lots of pickles

Tonjiru (pork soup)
 

We caught the JR train from Nikko to Utsunomiya.

We've been wanting to try Utsunomiya gyoza for some time now, maybe from when we lived in Osaka?!

the gyoza statue at the station...

Apparently Utsunomiya has one of the highest consumption of gyoza in Japan

So we started at the #2 ranking gyoza shop...Min Min

And were the 4th in line because they open at 11:00 and we arrived in Utsunomiya at 10:30-ish

They only have 3 types of gyoza on their menu, pan fried, deep fried and soup gyoza.

Since we planned to try another place, we only ordered 1 order of pan and 1 order of fried.

This passed the gyoza snob's test...these are a little small, but the outside was super crisp

The fried was nice too, delicate outside and crisp

360 yen (tax included) each.

Then as we walked to the next shop, we stopped to visit Futarasan Shrine...and climbed up all the stairs to the shrine (you can kinda see it in this picture)

And then went to #1 ranking Kouran

And ordered 1 order of yakigyoza…350 yen (tax included)

1 order of fried, and decided we were done trying gyoza and would have some beer with these….350 yen (tax included, 580 yen (tax included) for the beer.

The yakigyoza also passed the gyoza snob's test.

The fried gyoza's wrappers were a bit too thick for my liking, but the filling was delicious with a hint of ginger.

There are so many different shops and styles of gyoza in Utsunomiya, Satoshi said he would definitely enjoy trying more if he lived here.

After lunch we walked through Orion shopping arcade which we had stumbled on

And went to look at the new light rail.

Satoshi said that most cities are getting rid of their light rail systems but Utsunomiya is the only city that brought it back after 75years! 

After seeing Pallet 0810's fruit sandwiches on social media, I really wanted to try them and was happy that they were in Utsunomiya

Even if we were full from lunch, we stopped in to try the fruit sandwich, pricey! 1680 yen for the coffee and sandwich plus 400 yen for the strawberries!

Happy that they put 6 strawberries in each slice!

They ask that each person in your party order something, so since Satoshi "had to" order something he chose the strawberry parfait...1980 yen plus 550 yen for coffee.

Tochiotome is one of the varieties of strawberry in this area, I often buy it in Tokyo and am glad they used it for these sweets.

Since my photos uploaded wonky, this is the JR Nikko station.

It was declared a historical building so the insides are like you slipped back into time.

There is a room, the White Room, on the 2nd floor of the station, check out the beautiful chandelier.

From Utsunomiya it was about 3 hours or so back to Tokyo.

Even though it was fahreezing, we were glad the weather was fairly nice and we got to see, eat and do all we intended to.

If you'd like to see more photos/videos, please look here.

I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did

Kouran

1-24 Honcho

Utsunomiya, Tochigi

Hours: 11:30-19:45

Min Min

4-2-3 Babadori

Utsunomiya, Tochigi

Hours: 11:00-20:00

Pallet 0810

inside Paseo 1F

Utsunomiya, Tochigi

Hours: 10:00-20:00*

Open when Paseo is