kyushu

It's been a couple of weeks since the earthquake in Kyushu

10 years since the last time they had one this big in Kyushu

I am kind of disappointed with the government, it seems they still don't have a “good plan” as to what happens after one of these earthquakes occur

I hope everyone in Kyushu will be able to get back to their daily routines soon.

Sending good mojo.

kyushu fair

We shared this kuri (chestnut) sundae by a Kumamoto dairy at the Kyushu Fair being held at Hankyu Department Store.

Chestnut bits folded into the soft serve topped with two halves of a roasted chestnut.

We also came across a vendor from Oita prefecture selling fresh bambucha (huge) shiitake.

There were 3 of these in one styrofoam tray and we bought 2 trays.

The first time we cooked it in a non-stick pan then topped with a little butter and shoyu.

The second time was with a little shoyu and squeeze of sudachi (type of lime).

So good! and I'm glad we were able to help a little to get Kumamoto and other Kyushu areas get back on their feet after their natural disasters.

kyushu

(photo taken at Daikanbo Observation Point, Kumamoto in 2006) Huge earthquake last night in Kumamoto and parts of Kyushu.

I think they said it was a 7?!

They are still trying to assess the damage, but it has been hard since the aftershocks have been almost non-stop for them.

Sending good thoughts and prayers to the affected areas.

Be well everyone.

zabon-zuke

After coming back from Shimabara, I mentioned that besides the mikan-zuke there was also zabon-zuke made from pomelo.

During January and part of February, the train line that we ride, Hankyu, is having a Nagasaki fair inside of the Umeda station.

Last week was Shimabara and it gave us a chance to pick up the zabon-zuke.

This one was made by a different confectioner called Buntando.

The texture of the zabon-zuke reminded me of tong guo, the candied fruits and veggies for Chinese New Year, but boy was this bitter!

I'm glad we got to try this but will stick to buying mikan-zuke.

Buntando
13 Shimokawajiri-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.62.2088 (toll free number: 0120.62.2085)

shimabara-isahaya-hakata-osaka

The next morning, there was a haze, which seemed liked fog.

The breakfast buffet had slim pickings...mostly pre-packed stuff that was re-heated...

After walking the town a little, we caught the train to Minami-Shimabara.

This is apparently where Ryoma Sakamoto landed in 1864 to travel to Nagasaki City.

And then we walked to the port area because we wanted to check out the fish market, Funabito Tottoto.

We had intended on eating an early lunch, but they weren't serving anything until 11:00.

So, we just bought some frozen sardines roasted in olive oil & garlic.

These are good. We've had them with our New Years' foods and also in a pasta.

From Fujita Cherry Mame, we bought these seasoned fava beans, which they call "cherry mame".

I'm not too sure why they call them by this name.

There were sweet ones and savory ones in the sampler packet we bought...we liked the savory ones best because they were crunchy. The sweet ones were coated with sugar and were a bit stale.

Tatsumiya Sohonten makes a tora-maki.

A light sponge cake wraps smooth sweet bean paste. We agreed that they didn't need to coat the outside with granulated sugar.

and a mikan-zuke.

A whole mikan (tangerine) that is dried and covered with granulated sugar. This was similar to orange peel. They also make a zabon-zuke (pomelo), we should've bought some of that to try too.

From Shimabara it took us about an hour to get to Isahaya.

Most of our guide books had nothing written up about Isahaya, so we grabbed a couple of pamphlets at the train station and went in search of lunch.

We found a huge unagi restaurant up a steep hill called Uoso.

Satoshi had their sashimi.

I ordered their Isahaya sushi, which was seasoned shiitake and kanpyo (gourd) mixed into the rice. Shiso placed in the center and topped with Uoso's kabayaki unagi.

The sushi is a pressed type of sushi rather than a rolled or hand-molded sushi.

I really liked this, the flavors were balanced, not overpowering.

Satoshi also ordered their una-zen. (ooh-nah-zen)

This was served in a Kyoto raku style dish, the dish holds hot water in the base to keep the unagi hot all the way through the meal.

I also ordered the u-maki. (ooh-mah-key).

The unagi they use is prepared lightly (edo-mae style) and is put into their omelette. The photo in the menu looked small, but when this arrived at the table it was HUGE!

Since we had some time before our train, we walked along the river until we reached the Spectacle bridge.

This one was larger than the one we saw in Nagasaki City. We also realized that we didn't go across the one in Nagasaki city.

On the way back to the train station, we stopped in at Tsukasa to pick up some of their okoshi (puffed rice). Peanut (on the left) and Isahaya (black sugar) on the right.

Not as light as some I've tried before, these kinda stick to your teeth.

And then it was time to go back. From Isahaya, it took about and hour and 40 minutes to Hakata and then 3 hours back to Osaka.

We were happy that the weather turned out to be nice the whole time. We did lots of walking, lots of eating! I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

Have a nice weekend!

Funabito Tottoto
451 Minato-shinchi-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.63.9911
Lunch: 11:00-15:00, Dinner: 17:30-20:00

Fujita Cherry Mame
1850-8 Imagawa-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.63.1100
Hours: 10:00-17:00

Tatsumiya Sohonten
275 Nakagumi-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.62.3127
Hours: 8:30-17:30

Uoso
3-41 Uzu-machi
Isahaya, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.22.0039
Hours: 11:00-21:00

Tsukasa Honten
5-5 Eisho-higashi-machi
Isahaya, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.22.2380
Hours: 8:30-18:30
Closed 1st and 3rd Thursdays

nagasaki-isahaya-shimabara

We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Breakfast was at the hotel buffet. I wasn't sure what time we would be able to have lunch, so I ate kinda hardy foods...curry, dim sum...

After breakfast, we had some time before check-out so Satoshi suggested we check out the former Chinese settlement area.

Since our hotel was right next to Chinatown, getting to the former Chinese settlement area was just a couple minutes walking distance (uphill, of course!).

This area was home to many of the Chinese sailors and traders during the 15th to 19th centuries. Many Chinese came to Nagasaki because this was the only open port in Japan at the time.

Strict rules were placed on the Chinese. They were not allowed outside the settlement area at night, nor were they allowed to live outside the settlement area.

There are 4 temples that have been preserved.

Throughout our stay, we noticed many stray cats around Nagasaki City.

I was also amazed at how narrow the walkways between houses were.

As we walked back to the hotel to pick up our things, I spotted this cake shop. They had a huge poster advertising this...The Holland Slope Stone. Eight layers of cake and cream created to resemble the cobblestones of the Holland Slope.

They sell this in large elongated cakes as well as pieces. We asked the girl working there if we could have a plastic spoon and shared a piece...super rich but oh so good!

Here are some souvenirs that we picked up in Nagasaki...Izumiya's castella rusk covered with dark chocolate and honey castella...the rusks are castella baked crunchy while the regular style castella was very moist.

Soshurin's Ma-fa-ru. Sweet dough that is deep fried. These were quite hard and not too sweet but we enjoyed the simplicity of this snack.

Izumiya's chocolate castella, honey castella and Soshurin's kinsenpin. Kinsenpin is a sweet dough covered with sesame seeds then deep fried. Another crunchy snack!

And then we were off...

From Nagasaki City to Isahaya it is about 50 minutes by express train. Then from Isahaya to Shimabara it is an hour and 17 minutes by local train.

The train route from Isahaya to Shimabara takes you along the coast, and the city of Shimabara faces Ariake Bay.

After dropping our things off at the hotel we would be staying at, we went to look for lunch.

The guy at the tourist information desk told us that the area was known for a dish called gu-zoni. If you know about Japanese cuisine, you'll know that we eat o-zoni for New Years.

Well, gu-zoni is similar but it is eaten all year around. "Gu" means ingredients. "zoni" is the soup.

Gu-zoni dates back to 1637 when the leader Amakusa Shiro Tokisada and some 37,000 followers were trapped in their castle. All they had were rice cakes (mochi). Amakusa made the farmers provide him with all sorts of ingredients from the mountain and the ocean.

They added these ingredients to their rice cake soup and were apparently able to fight for three months, sustained by all this goodness.

We tried gu-zoni at Himematsu-ya, one of the many places that serves this dish in the area.

There are lots of goodies in this dish. Besides mochi, there is also anago (salt water eel), gobo (burdock root), egg, shiitake, chicken, carrots renkon (lotus root), koyadofu (freeze dried tofu), hakusai (chinese cabbage), shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves), 3 kinds of kamaboko(fishcake) & mitsuba (wild Japanese parsley)

We both ordered the nami (regular size)...980 yen. This was perfect.

I loved all the different goodies in there!

After lunch, we walked up to see the castle, but it was closed for the year.

We checked out the street where many samurai houses used to be.

I loved the stone walls in this area, reminded me of the kinds we've seen in Okinawa.

There are also actual samurai homes which you can view, some of the samurai's relatives still live in them too!

I love how this truck was a moving grocer. Very helpful for elderly in the area.

A barber shop on the verge of being demolished was turned into a cafe.

We stopped to rest our feet and also to try a popular dessert in the area called Kanzarashi. Kanzarashi are tiny rice dumplings that are cooked then cooled in the spring waters of Shimabara.

The syrup they are served in are made from honey, sugar or brown sugar.

The kanzarashi we tried was served with brown sugar syrup. I like how we got two hearts in our cup too! This dessert is served cold, so I can see why it is popular in the summertime.

I loved the stained glass lamp that was in the cafe.

As we walked around the town there were many natural springs that you could stop to take a drink at if you wanted to.

One of the nicest people we met during our visit was Mr Nagahama. He refurbishes old houses. After Satoshi chatted with him, he insisted that we must see Mount Heisei Shinzan...so we got into his jeep and up the mountain he took us.

He also showed us a lot of the other sightseeing spots in Shimabara.

He dropped us off here, at the Japanese tea house, Yusei-teien-shimei-so. We thanked him and said our goodbyes. Here we rested our feet and chatted with the caretaker over a cup of tea made with the spring water.

Right outside of the tea house is an area called Carp Street, where there are carp swimming alongside the roadway.

We went back to the hotel and then went in search of dinner.

After getting a bit lost (we blame the maps!), we had dinner at Tsune. We started off with their mimiga salad. Mimiga is the cartilage part of the pig's ear.

I know, different, but we enjoyed the "crunchiness" of this salad. Lots of mimiga, cabbage and some green onions.

Sashimi...nothing out of the ordinary.

Nagasaki sirloin steak...tender!

And an order of yakionigiri (grilled rice balls) coated with shoyu and butter.

Our hotel was old and scary looking. But, the rooms were quite large, there was free wifi and our room had this thingy...a foot massage machine!

Another great day with great weather.

Tomorrow: Shimabara-Isahaya-Hakata-Osaka

Soshurin
13-17 Shinchi-machi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.825.6781

Izumiya
Hamamachi Arcade
10-6 Hamamachi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.825.5501
Hours: 10:30-20:00

Neoclassic Clover
5-11 Kagomachi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.822.3323

Himematsuya
1-1028-3 Jyo-nai
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.63.7272
Hours: 10:00-20:00, Closed every 2nd Tuesday

Rihatsuten (barber shop cafe)
888-2 Ueno-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.64.6057
Hours: 10:30-18:00, Closed Thursdays and every 1st and 3rd Wednesday

Tsune
522 Yorozu-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.64.1888
Hours: 18:00-24:00

Shimabara Station Hotel
930 Imagawa-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone:0120.711.163

nagasaki

Since our hotel had a convenience store located near the lobby (there was a "secret" entrance for hotel guests), we decided to pick up some baked goods and have them with some coffee from the convenience store for breakfast.

Before catching the light rail back to our hotel the night before, I spotted this bakery, Pan no Ie.

When you enter the bakery, there is a wall of tobacco, I figured out that this place mainly sells cigarettes to the bars in the area and the baked goods are just around for people feeling peckish after midnight.

We picked up their salad bread, this was supposedly potato salad in a soft roll, I didn't find any potato salad in there and wasn't too impressed with this.

A baked curry pan, and a croquette pan.

This thing called renga (brick). Boy, was it heavy!

Filled with raisins and fruit, this was probably my favorite of all the things we chose.

The weather that was forecast to be rainy turned out to be cloudy...whoo!

We purchased an all day light rail pass for 500 yen and made our way to the Peace Park. (FYI: one ride on the light rail costs 120 yen)

The Peace Park was created with a desire for world peace. The statue sculpted by Nagasaki native, Kitamura Seibou is about about 13 meters high (including the pedestal).

The raised right hand pointing towards the sky symbolizes the threat of nuclear weapons. The flat outstretched left hand represents eternal peace. His eyes are closed in prayer, in hopes that the souls of the victims may find rest.

Near the Peace Park is Urakami Cathedral. The original church was destroyed in the nuclear blast.

There is a remnant of the original bell tower on the side of the church. It is huge! It was hard to imagine a blast so strong it would blow the bell tower off the church! Definitely eye-opening.

Nearby, is Enokijunseido, a Japanese confection maker that has been around since 1844!

They are famous for these...Ikkoko

You'll be surprised if you try these because they are filled with..air!

Apparently, if you eat them as is they are very hard, but if you put them into the toaster oven or into a heated pan for a bit they become a little softer.

I wish we had bought enough to try it once in the toaster...

Simple and not too sweet...86 yen a piece.

Down the road from the Peace Park is the hypocenter.

Seeing this area was also eye-opening and left me with mixed feelings (since I am Japanese-American)...

We then hopped back onto the light rail and headed to Chinatown to drop off our bags at the hotel we would be staying at.

Since the weather turned out to be cloudy with spots of sun, we decided to join a tour to Hashima. This island was abandoned 40 years ago when the undersea coal mining under the island ended.

The island is also known as Gunkanjima because it looks like a battleship.

As we walked to the light rail station, we shared this kakuni manju by Iwasaki Honpo. Love kakuni (shoyu pork)! This one was sweet-salty and the meat very tender.

We caught the rail to the pier. Since the tour would be three hours, we grabbed lunch at Nagasakiko.

Satoshi tried their Ji-ge-don. An assortment of seafood caught locally. I should've tried that too as my maguro-zuke don was kinda frozen in places...

Before joining the tour, you have to sign a waiver and promise to follow all sorts of rules, mainly to stay within the boundaries and to follow the guides directions.

It takes about 30 minutes to get out to the island. From afar, it really does look like a battleship.

The island was used to mine coal undersea. It was also for the coal miners and their families to live on. The island had everything: movie theatre, barber shop, school, gymnasium, swimming pool, shops. They even planted gardens on the rooftop of the school.

The only thing the island didn't have was a cemetery and crematory. Whenever someone passed they were brought to a nearby island to be cremated and buried.

It was amazing to see how much damage weather can do.

The 7-story building (dark grey) is over 90 years old and was one of the first cement buildings in Japan. It was amazing to see that it was still standing.

After the tour, they circle the island twice, once for the people on the left side of the boat and once for the people on the right side of the boat.

We then headed to check out the one-legged arch at Sanno Shrine.

There were apparently 4 arches at this shrine but when the nuclear bomb hit, this was what was left...wow!

Even this huge kusunoki (camphora) was split in half by the blast. The entrance to the shrine passes in between the split tree.

Another eye-opening sight!

By now, the sun was setting but we still wanted to check out a few more places...Sofukuji.

Built in 1629, this temple is a national treasure and holds many cultural artifacts.

We actually arrived here after closing. There is actually an admission fee but since the gates were still open and no one at the gates, we just walked in and took a look around.

We hopped back onto the light rail and headed towards Glover Garden. They normally close at 18:00 but we lucked out because they were having a holiday light up.

On the property are 9 historical western-style houses included the former residence of Thomas B. Glover, a major contributor to the modernization of Japan.

Very beautiful grounds.

We were also able to see Oura Catholic Church lit up too.

Starving, we decided to look for some Nagasaki champon at Kyokaen. Champon is a dish inspired from Chinese cuisine. It is similar to ramen but uses only one pot to make.

Lots of veggies.

I was in love with the kakuni (shoyu pork) in Nagasaki. This was super tender.

Satoshi always orders gyoza whenever we go to a Chinese restaurant, but he said these were...meh!

I always like ordering jin dui, puffs of mochi filled with sweet bean paste. We "had" to order two because that was the only way you could put an order in for them there....sigh! I'm glad that these didn't disappoint.

To end they gave us these frozen lychee. Love lychee!

Bellies full, we walked to the Dejima area, even though our feet were crying.

When Japan was in its period of isolation, this area was the only window to overseas trade for over 200 years.

Another great day, we were happy the weather turned out to be as good as it was and that we got to use that all-day light rail pass to the max!

Tomorrow: Nagasaki-Isahaya-Shimabara

Pan no Ie (UPDATE:2021 out of business)
2-13 Motoshikkui-machi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.895.8011
Closed Sundays
Hours: 12:00-3:00 (Monday-Thursday), 12:00-4:00 (Friday, Saturday)

Enokijunseido
13-21 Hashiguchi-machi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.844.0155

JAL Nagasaki City Hotel
13-10 Shinchi-machi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.825.2580

Iwasaki Honpo
Nishi-Hamamachi Store
3-17 Doza-machi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.818.7075
Hours: 9:30-21:00

Nagasakiko
Nagasaki Dejima Wharf Shop 1F
1-1 Dejima-machi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.811.1677
Hours: 11:00-23:00

Kyokaen
9-7 Shinchi-machi
Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
Phone: 095.821.1507
Lunch: 11:00-15:30, Dinner: 17:30-20:30