suigo sawara & suigo itako ayame festivals

Saturday we planned to check out the Sawara & Itako Ayame (iris) festivals

It is at the far east end of Chiba prefecture, so it took us over 2 hours just to get to JR Sawara station.

Stumbled upon a Pokemon manhole in front of the station

From the JR Sawara station...there is a shuttle bus, 600 yen, to take you to the Ayame park...about 20 or 30 minutes from JR Sawara station by bus

Along the way you will see these "rivers" called suigo

Admission at the Sawara Ayame Park is 800 yen per person

And there are tiny suigo that you can pay to ride through to see the flowers

You can also see people taking care of the ayame

So pretty!

In front of the park is another Pokemon manhole that I stumbled upon.

To the right of the park is a tiny area where you can catch the water shuttle to Itako or take a tour of 3 of the 12 bridges in the area

We took the water shuttle to Itako...1000 yen per person

This is the water shuttle

Put your life vests on..

I don't ever recall having to wear a life vest and think this might be my first time.

Where the suigo meets the Tone (toe-nay) River, you'll need to go through a water lock since the water level of the suigo is lower than the water level of the Tone River.

It was cool to experience this.

And then the water shuttle speeds up and you travel up the Tone River to Itako

We were surprised at how big the Itako Ayame Festival area was...and it is FREE!

From up on top of one of the pedestrian bridges

You can also take suigo rides and they also have weddings (yomeiribune) at certain times of the day which you can watch if you happen to be there.

I hadn't realized this until afterwards, but Itako is located in Ibaraki prefecture...

There weren't too many choices for lunch, most restaurants were overloaded with people waiting...so we just grabbed some dango from Sawata

I wished we could've chosen what combination of dango we wanted, but they only had pre-packed types...yomogi dango with sweet bean paste 260 yen (tax included)

At this event, they were asking for donations to maintain their park.

I gave them a small donation and received this fan...one side

the other side.

We're glad the weather was pretty cooperative. 

It was originally forecast to rain but we were lucky it only drizzled

Dunno if we'd go to see this again because it was really far! but we were glad we got to experience this.

Suigo Sawara Ayame Festival

1837-2 Ogishima

Katori, Chiba

Hours: 8:00-18:00

*800 yen per adult under 65

**discounts for 65 and older

Suigo Itako Ayame Festival

1-5 Ayame

Itako, Ibaraki

Hours: 8:00-17:00

*FREE

3 minutes walk from JR Itako station

14339

Yesterday, on the spur of the moment, we decided to go to Katsuura, to check out their big hinamatsuri.

If you remember, Kat went last year, her adventure is here.

We still missed the morning market because it takes almost 4 hours to get there by train.

FYI: The trains do not run too often in this area, so it was miss a connection to use the restroom then wait an hour for the next train or “keep going” until Katsuura.

We chose the latter and thankfully there was a toilet on the train on the last leg to Katsuura…whew!

Lunch was at Ocean, a tiny shop serving all sorts of things.

Satoshi tried their katsuo zuke don...1400 yen (tax included)

(This area is known for their large catches of katsuo.)

Raw katsuo (bonito) is marinated then placed on top of rice...he said he enjoyed this.

Kat tried the Katsuura Tan Tan men...950 yen (tax included)

This tan tan men is unlike the types with sesame paste in the broth, Katsuura style uses chili oil, large pieces of onion and minced pork.

The onion gets super soft and sweet when simmered in the broth, and amazingly the chili oil was not too spicy.

Mix everything well, so you aren’t just drinking a layer of oil 

Apparently, this dish was created to "warm" up the fishermen and ama (female divers) after a day in the cold ocean.

Loved the thin noodles!

You can find several shops in the area serving their own versions of Katsuura Tan Tan Men.

Unlike the weekday that Kat visited, this was a Sunday, so there was a line to see the hinamatsuri at Tomisaki Shrine.

Kat just took a photo from afar

After a 6 year hiatus, they brought back the large display of dolls at Kuste, the local culture center.

Since I had heard there was a slope/hill to be climbed to get to the center, I kinda didn’t want to see this display, but I’m glad I did, it was amazing to see! 

an auditorium full of dolls!

Many many dolls and many many people too.

500 yen entrance fee at Kuste, but free if you came by train and received one of their free tickets! luckily we received a free ticket.

A small sign that Spring is coming...

I'm glad Satoshi was finally able to experience this event.

Ocean

701-4 Tona

Katsuura, Chiba

Hours: 9:00-20:00 (Mondays-Fridays), 11:00-20:00 (Saturdays & Sundays)

katsuura big hinamatsuri

Not sure if it was when we were living in Osaka or after we moved to Tokyo when I bookmarked this to see, and then the pandemic hit…on the spur of the moment I went on Thursday.

I left the house at 8:45 and with the combination of super poor planning and also getting lost inside of Tokyo station, I arrived in Katsuura at 12:00-ish

There are 3 main areas where the dolls are displayed: A big display at an intersection

Tomisaki shrine : there are about 1800 dolls here and they are put up and taken down every day! (if rain is in the forecast, they don't put the dolls up, just a panel photo of it in its place)

Kakuoji temple

This event started in 2001 and apparently 7000 dolls were brought in from areas of Japan with the same name, Katsuura.

Many shops have dolls displayed, even the post office!

Unfortunately, arriving at lunch time, I missed checking out the morning market.

Still, I'm glad I made it out this way.

The event runs from February 23rd until March 3rd, check their website for more details

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

Hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as I did

Happy Girls Day

meister toganeya

So...we used some of the liver pate for banh mi and we ate one of the linguica with rice and egg.

For our pupu party one night, I used one of the chorizo with some fried potatoes and onions.

The chorizo had just enough heat but doesn't totally burn your mouth off.

Instead of making aioli for the potatoes, I used the bits from the everything cashews and added it to the mayo...so ono!

With the corned beef, I made corned beef and cabbage.

It wasn't as salty as the canned type but was still very flavorful and tender.

We had the salami with crackers and a soft cheese spread that had chives and garlic in it.

The salami was aged and so melt in your mouth!

The white sausage I served as breakfast since I read online that the white sausages "should not hear the noon church bells chime"

I read that it should also be served with sweetened mustard, so I mixed grainy mustard with some honey.

The casing are also supposedly not eaten, so we cut a slit and "rolled" them out to eat.

The soft pretzel I bought from Himmel, a bakery in Ookayama.

We still have some of the linguica, chorizo, pate and white sausage left, so we'll be eating this in the coming weeks.

I would definitely order from this shop again.

shine muscat and charcuterie

Over the weekend, Satoshi ordered Shine muscats from his friend.

He said he ordered 2 kilos but it looks like it might be more...with shipping and tax 4000 yen?! not sure how much since Satoshi ordered it...

I ordered a selection of sausages from Meister Toganeya, who makes their sausages in the German style.

I was particularly interested in their Linguica because I am always on the lookout for “portuguese sausage”.

I also ordered their corned beef, chorizo, weißwurst (white sausage), liver pate and salami…5590 yen (tax and shipping included).

Since this charcuterie maker does not use preservatives, I put almost everything into the freezer for us to enjoy with wine or breakfast in the coming weeks.

So far, we've had some of the liver pate as banh mi.

The maker suggest toasting the pate on baguette, so that is what I did, super flavorful and creamy!

And one of the linguica with rice and egg...so ono! the meat inside the casing is super tender and tastes similar to the portuguese sausage we have in Hawaii.

The weather has been in-between Fall and Summer, so it is hard to determine what to wear, whether to bring an umbrella or whether to turn on the ac.

I hope the weather is nice where you are.

foodie saturday

Saturday I went to check out the Coffee Festival being held at the United Nations University.

I am not too sure but think there were about 15 vendors there.

Most were from around Tokyo and parts of Japan, there were also some from Oregon.

You could buy a mini mug and tokens to taste different coffees.

Instead, I bought a cup of coffee by Oregon's Prince Coffee and a plain doughnut from Higuma Doughnuts.

I've been wanting to check out Higuma Doughnuts and this was a good way.

The plain doughnut wasn't sweet and delicious with the cup of coffee.

In another area was a farmers market, I look forward to coming back to buy veggies here.

Lunch was at Koe Lobby which I've previously written about here.

This time around I tried the daily salad and daily bread.

The salad was filled with slices of figs, apples, sweet potato and roasted turnips....loved the fruits with the proscuitto!

The breads were good too, all were heated or toasted. My favorites were the walnut and fig breads.

After lunch, I walked around and checked out Shibuya Stream.

This building has many eateries.

Since it was slightly humid, I stopped in to Lemonade by Lemonica and had their lemonade soda.

So refreshing!

Points if you can find me in the photo...

After Satoshi's German class, we met at JR Shinbashi to go towards Ibaraki.

We stayed at an area called Tennodai (which is in Chiba) and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Taizanippin.

Their menu is quite extensive.

We tried their pork with egg and veggies, chicken with black vinegar (sweet sour) and egg fried rice....everything was good!

The gyoza snob (Satoshi) says that their gyoza was good!

It was a nice start to our weekend adventure...

Lemonade by Lemonica
Shibuya Stream 1F
Shibuya, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6427.3588
Hours: 8:00-21:00

Taizanippin
1-10-8 Shibasakidai
Abiko, Chiba
Phone: 04.7128.6115

Hotel Mark-1
1-9-14 Shibasakidai
Abiko, Chiba
Phone: 04.7186.1717

kazusa-chiba-tokyo

Breakfast the next morning was a little more appealing, though I couldn't eat the natto...too stinky.

Check out how thick this tamagoyaki (rolled omelette) is?!

After breakfast, we checked out the Yorokeikoku area, which has a trail that goes around and over the Yoro River in several places.

This area is a popular spot to view Fall Foliage (we hope to come back to check it out).

There was also this "2-story" tunnel...I think in different seasons there is more moss (other photos I saw online showed the top "tunnel" greener)

Back in Chiba city, it was freaky to see and ride this upside down monorail.

It is apparently more quiet and more stable though.

It was a super short trip and we've hit another cold snap.

If you're interested in seeing some photos & videos that I didn't post, please check out the album here.

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