shinshu nagano-zenkojishita-nagano-tokyo

It had been over 20 years since I had been to Zenkoji

When I first came to Japan back in 2001, we went with Satoshi's co-workers by car from Osaka to Nagano

It was Golden Week and the traffic was so awful...

Anyway, I don't remember that much about Zenkoji, so it was nice to reconnect 

We were there early so it wasn't too krazy with people

This pillar looked like it was twisted...

The leaves were so beautiful

Glad that most of these areas were roped off so that there weren't hoards of people in there...

At about 11:00-ish the head priest (I think) walked through blessing everyone on one side of the walkway

Lunch was at Kado no Daimaru

Apparently they have been in business since 1703!

Kat had their tenzaru...while the soba was delicious

The tempura was disappointing...the outer coating was hard and dry

Satoshi had their sansai (mountain greens) soba...his looked way better

Across the street is Yawataya Isogoro...famous for their shichimi (7 spice)

They have a lot of variations to choose from, even an area to make a custom blend

Around the corner we saw their "so teeny" truck

From Zenkoji walking down to JR Nagano station, we saw all sorts of beautiful leaves

We tried kuri dorayaki from Sakurai Kanseido...they have been in business for over 200 years! so good! 

On the way back to Tokyo, we were lucky to see Mount Fuji as we passed through Saitama

We bought sauce katsu sandwiches for dinner from Meijitei...it turns out that we had tried them before when we were in Osaka.

Their katsu was so delicious, no fat, just tender pork

We ate a lot, saw a lot and walked quite a lot.

I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

Kado no Daimaru

504 Nagano Daimoncho

Nagano, Nagano

Hours: 9:30-16:45

*cash only

Yawataya Isogoro

83 Daimoncho

Nagano, Nagano

Hours: 9:00-18:30

Sakurai Kanseido

1-22-6 Minami Chitose, Midori 2F

Nagano, Nagano

Hours: 9:00-20:00

Closed when Midori is

iwasaki bakery

In the lounge area of Biyu no Yado, I came across a book, “The Nurse and The Baker” and the Japanese title “Sekai ichi no Pan” (The best bread in the world)

This story was about a fourth generation baker,  Iwasaki Koyata

(His great grandfather started the bakery in 1860!)

In the 1930s, turberculosis was taking over areas of Japan

Many Canadians came to Japan to help treat and take care of these patients.

A Canadian nurse, Ms Powell was very strict and seemed kinda scary 

One day she asked Mr Iwasaki to come to her house

He was nervous because she was so strict but she served him Chelsea buns, which I think might be similar to a cinnamon roll

He ate a piece and thought it was the most delicious thing he ever ate

He asked Ms Powell to tell him the recipe

And then began his mission to recreate the buns

After many tries, Ms Powell finally approved of his version

Mr Iwasaki’s Chelsea buns are still made today.

This story was so heartwarming!

When we were in Obuse, we tried to purchase some Chelsea buns to try.

Unfortunately Mr Iwasaki passed away in 2011 and the family members running the bakery have not been feeling well, so they do not operate on a set schedule, so we were not able to try this.

We hope the next time we are in this area we will get a chance to try this.

Iwasaki Bakery

620-1 Obuse-cho

Kamitakai, Nagano

Closed Wednesdays*check before going

Hours: 10:00-17:00

wakita

Satoshi's classmate, A, lives in this area. 

If you've been reading our blog, you might remember that he used to send us boxes of apples.

A and his wife picked us up and took us to Wakita for dinner.

There were all sorts of items that were unique to Nagano/Shinshu

The tsukune (chicken meat balls) were mixed with botan kosho, a fiery pepper...mouth.on.fire!

Next to it is an enoki flower...kinda similar to those awesome blossoms (deep fried onion)...this is a special type of enoki that is coated with karaage mix and deep fried...I was amazed it tasted just like chicken!

In front of that is a bowl with agedashi tofu topped with a slurry of assorted mushrooms

And to the right of that is bairing (a type of eringi) that was sandwiched with nori and mentaiko then fried

And then we tried the tsuke yaki soba...dip the noodles into the worchestershire sauce and mayo

B-kyu gurume! so ono

It was nice spending time with A and his wife. 

We hope to see them in Tokyo the next time they visit their daughter.

Thanks for today A!

Wakita

1-10-4 Central

Nakano, Nagano

Closed Mondays

Hours: 17:30-22:00

yudanaka-obuse-shinshu nakano

Breakfast the next morning also had more Nagano items like miso with shoga

An unusual item was the soy meat simmered with ginger

After checking out we explored the Shibu Onsen area which is about 32 minutes walking from where we were staying.

Kanaguya was apparently a model in the Ghibli film "Spirited Away"

Again, the fall colors were very vibrant!

We then explored the upper area of Yudanaka where the Sekai Heiwa (World Peace) Kannon is

It was cool to see apples growing along the roadway

We also explored Issa's walk, Kobayashi Issa was a poet and I think he was from the Yudanaka area.

I was really impressed that this small town had wifi service everywhere!

From Yudanaka we took the train to Obuse

Obuse is known for chestnuts...in the past we tried Obusedo's mont blanc

Their kuri daifuku! was so ono

One huge chestnut is surrounded by kuri paste then wrapped with a soft mochi...

Lunch was at Masuichi Club, I tried their Shinshu Pork with apples and balsamic sauce...so so good! The pork had a crisp outer crust and the meat was so tender

Satoshi had their Shinshu Pork Ginger, he let me taste some and it was so good too.

The yamaimo (Chinese yam) pickles were so good!

After lunch we checked out the Hokusai Museum.

Apparently Hokusai was in this area for many years.

The panels in front are real, and huge! the ones on the float's ceiling above are replicas

This variety of chrysanthemum is called Hokusai tomoe nishiki...so pretty!

We saw these at the Takai Kouzan Memorial Hall

Again the fall colors were vibrant especially at the Obuse Museum and Nakajima Chinami Museum

It was a great day

From Obuse we headed back to Shinshu Nakano, to meet up with Satoshi's classmate for dinner.

Masuichi Club

807 Obuse

Kamitakai, Nagano

Open daily 11:00-22:00

Obusedo Sanpuro

500 Obuse

Kamitakai, Nagano

Open daily 9:00-17:00

Route Inn Grand

4-3-27 Nishi

Nakano, Nagano

tokyo-yudanaka

From Tokyo it takes about two hours and a half to Nagano and then about an hour to Yudanaka

Lunch was from Lawson because there didn’t seem to be anything around the station open

From Yudanaka it’s about a 40 minute ride by bus to the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park

Where the bus drops you off you then walk about 30 minutes to the park

At the entrance there is a sign indicating if there are monkeys out and about 

Bear bells on!

Luckily we did not see any bears even if there were signs that noted sightings of them

Once you reach the end of the trail there is a geyser, this is where we saw a monkey on the hillside

Climb up the stairs to the monkey park

Admission is 800 yen for adults

*TIP: if there aren’t any monkeys I would suggest not climbing up the stairs to the monkey park and save your money on the admission

otherwise, you will only see an empty hot spring for 800 yen....boo!

If you wondered how the monkeys learned how to use the hot spring... 

When the owner of the ryokan below, Korakukan, put out some apples for the monkeys and one of the apples rolled into the hot spring.

When the monkey went into the hot spring to get the apple, this was supposedly how they learned to use the hot spring.

Even if we didn't see any monkeys or bears, we were glad we were able to explore the area

We returned to Yudanaka and checked into our ryokan, Biyu no yado 

After setting down our things we went out to look for Yudanaka Onsen Pudding

It was an unmanned shop with an honor box, we ended up trying 3 puddings (flan) since they had a “sale” 3 for 1300, price of 1 was 500 yen

We tried the retro (firm), nameraka (smooth) & cinnamon apple

My favorite was the cinnamon apple because it was like a crustless custard apple pie  

We returned to the ryokan to bathe in their hot springs and get ready for dinner.

The fall colors that we saw on the way back to the ryokan were so vibrant!

Dinner was an assortment of ingredients especially found in Nagano prefecture.

I thought picking your own shiitake off of the cork like log then grilling them was cool!

They asked if we wanted to take the log home to grow more shiitake but I didn't want to lug it around, so we declined.

It was quite a long day but we got to see a lot and do a lot.

Biyu no Yado

2951-1 Hirao Yamanochi

Shimotakai, Nagano

I'll continue with our trip in the coming days, but if you are interested in seeing photos from our trip, please look here.

ambulance

Did you know that if a train is coming, the ambulance also has to wait until the train passes?

Sometimes the crossing area stays closed for some time until the train passes and whenever we see an ambulance waiting there we always worry that it won't be able to get to the person in need in time...

Another thing I noticed is that whenever they come to an intersection, they stop to make sure other cars know they are coming.

Oh and they also have speakers, so they can tell you "to move" or "thank you for moving"...(the police also have this)

What kinds of rules/actions do the ambulances in your area have?

le petit mec

I thought I posted about Le Petit Mec before but I guess I didn't

I first learned about this bakery when we lived in Osaka and I would visit Tamakikat in Kyoto.

They mostly have shops in Kyoto and in some areas of Osaka.

Back in 2019, when I went to see a movie in Hibiya, I had lunch at Le Petit Mec at Hibiya Chanter (their only shop in east Japan).

Fast forward to yesterday, I bought some items from them for lunch and dinner.

This saba (mackerel) sandwich...the bread which I think was supposed to be foccacia was too chewy/sticky, I probably should've toasted it also, but eating it as is, the texture wasn't too nice.

The fish though was perfectly cooked and seasoned simply with salt…delicious

The marron glace with coffee filling was delicious in this hard style baguette.

The base of the filling was coffee flavored cream, with bits of marron glace and walnuts here and there

And their currywurst...it got koge (burnt) because I had it in the fish grill on a timer and was doing something else...

Aunty Marialani style cooking...ha!

But I loved the snap! the curry was a little spicy and the ketchup a little sweet

It was nice to reconnect with this bakery and I'll be back whenever I am in the area.

Le Petit Mec

Hibiya Chanter 1F

Chiyoda, Tokyo

Hours: 8:00-20:00

Closed when Hibiya Chanter is