gosou

Satoshi and I checked out Gosou the other day for lunch.

They make their condiments from scratch and stay away from preservatives.

Satoshi had their weekly lunch which was a sweet sour buri (amberjack)...1000 yen. I didn't catch all the different side dishes that his meal came with, but he said he enjoyed this.

I ordered their 20 spice yakuzen (herbal) curry...900 yen.

Dunno what type of spices/herbs were in this but there was a nasty bitter aftertaste, making it very hard to finish.

Still, there are other items on their menu that we want to try, so we'll be back.

Gosou
1-10-8 Asahigaoka
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.752.4555
Closed Mondays
Hours: 11:00-15:00 (lunch), 17:00-21:00 (dinner)

takaminoen meyer lemon juice

My host brother's wife recently gave me this bottle of meyer lemon juice.

I remember many years back when my blog friend Rona asked me to look around online for meyer lemons for her...it is exciting to see food items slowly making their way into our markets here.

This happens to be from Mie Prefecture.

So far, I've used it on sautéed shrimp.

This doesn't have preservatives, so I'll have to use it up quickly.

Thank you, K!

cafe minatuki

Satoshi's German class finished its semester the other week, so he's on break until March or so...

Saturday, we checked out Cafe Minatuki.

I had been here with my friend, Hiromi.

This was my first time trying their lunch.

Unfortunately, they don't have many choices on the weekend, just their plate lunch...870 yen (tax included).

A salad, cake salé (savory type), quiche and a creamy spinach soup.

This was perfect for me but too little for Satoshi.

After lunch, we checked out their gallery on the 2nd floor.

I hope to check out their lunch again during the weekdays.

salon du chocolat, valentine's and other stuff

In the past, Salon du Chocolat was staggered from Tokyo, moving on to Kyoto and then to other regions of Japan.

This year it was held all at one time and Salon du Chocolat in Osaka was held in the Lucua Hall area...super teeny!

By the time I went to check it out, a couple of days after it had started, most of the French chocolatiers had sold out...

I did manage to pick up a 70% dark chocolate bar by Marou. They grow their cacao in Vietnam. The cacao for this bar was grown in Tien Giang. It was quite fruity.

Fijiana Cacao, I found at Sony Plaza. They use cacao grown in Fiji. This particular bar had Christmas Island Sea Salt and nibs. This was a dark milk chocolate and also very fruity.

Chocolaterie de Marlieu was another bar I found at Salon du Chocolat, they have been in business since 1906. This tablette was filled with orange peel, raisins and freeze dried raspberries. It wasn't noted, but I think this was a dark chocolate.

Overall though, I think the place that had the best assortment of chocolates was Hankyu Department store.

They not only had a whole area for chocolate bars, but they also had areas for soft serve.

We tried Le Chocolat de H's ecuador soft serve...delicious with the nibs sprinkled on top.

Pierre Marcolini's Blanc Matcha was a bit too soft almost soupy.

The matcha was intense though.

For Valentine's I gave Satoshi these Pocky. They came out with 10 different sayings.

This particular Pocky was super thin and I gave him one that said "thanky"

Hope you had a nice Valentine's.

mount fuji (day 2)

Day 2 started "super" early, like before sunrise...

we wanted to catch "beni-fuji", this is when the rising sun casts a light pink (beni) color onto Mount Fuji.

It apparently happens 10 minutes or so before the sun rises.

Once the sun rises the lighting changes, so you only have a few minutes to snap some pictures.

Here's the photo I had posted on Instagram.

After sunrise, we had some breakfast, checked out and were ready for our tour...

Oshino-Hakkai, is an area made up of 8 fresh water ponds that receives its water from Mount Fuji.

Many of the buildings in this area have thatched roof tops.

We paid 300 yen admission per person to get into this museum area, it is perfect for taking some photos and definitely worth it.

Then we were off to Lake Kawaguchi.

We stopped at Oishi Park. They have a little shop as well as great views.

The view of Mount Fuji from the Music Box Museum wasn't too spectacular, but this is where we got to see an amazing "sand art" show, I found a video of a similar performance, here.

This is where we also had lunch.

A nice hot bowl of houtou, a regional dish of Yamanashi prefecture. The original version is flat noodles (like fettuccine) cooked with vegetables in a soup of miso.

The version I got for lunch was a pumpkin potage. Satoshi had a tan-tan men version...both were different but hit the spot on such a cool day.

I have been seeing Cremia on various social media sites and even though it was too cold for soft serve, Satoshi and I shared this one (Can you see Mount Fuji in the background?!).

This soft serve uses 25% cream and has 12.5% milk fat...super rich!

Love the langue de chat cone!(literally tongue of cat, similar to YokuMoku cookies)

After lunch, we drove along the lake to Lake Sai and Lake Shoji (part of the 5 lakes of Mount Fuji).

We also stopped at Lake Motosu. This is the same lake that is apparently printed on the backside of the 1000 yen bill.

Then it was back on the bus as we continued to make our way around Mount Fuji...

A view from the Asagirikogen Rest Area.

And then we hiked down (there were steps all the way down) to see Shiraito Falls.

The water is apparently from Mount Fuji.

To actually see Mount Fuji with the falls, hike up 90 more meters (295 feet) to the lookout point.

Satoshi got this shot.

And then it was a bento for dinner on the train ride back to Osaka.

Super short trip and we were blessed with good weather.

I'm glad we were able to do this again and this time around we were thankful that we got to see Mount Fuji.

Hope you enjoyed this trip as much as we did.

mount fuji (day 1)

Our tour started at 7:00, we all met at the Shin-Osaka station (where the Shinkansen (bullet train) runs).

The tour guide mentioned that there were 43 of us, almost making a full bus load (which I think is 50), I think this tour was popular because there was a holiday the next day.

For two days, we would all seek out Mount Fuji...

From Osaka we travelled to Shizuoka, which took about 3 hours because we took the slowest Shinkansen (Kodama).

Our first stop was Nihondaira, a plateau from which you can see Mount Fuji, the Pacific Ocean as well as another sightseeing spot, Miho no Matsubara, an 8 kilometer (4.9 mile) stretch of beach that is lined with pine trees.

It was a spectacular view.

Lunch was at Umi, a small sushi shop inside the S-pulse Dream Plaza, a tiny shopping mall, located at the Shimizu Port.

I had the local fish sushi (the sushi chef rattled off the names of the different fish, but it was too quick for me to understand)...still, this was delicious and just the right amount for me...1600 yen (tax not included).

Satoshi had the edo-mae sushi 1800 yen (tax not included).

After lunch, we walked over to the ferry terminal to take in a view of Mount Fuji.

Our next stop was Miho no Matsubara located on the coast of the Miho Peninsula, which is part of Suruga Bay.

If this beach area looks familiar to some, it is apparently where the opening of Abarenbo Shogun was filmed.

Not only was the view of Mount Fuji beautiful, these pine trees on the walk to the beach were too.

I have to tell you that not all 16 spots were those we were able to stop at and get off the bus to take a picture, some spots were seen as we passed by.

Our last stop of the day was at Lake Yamanaka.

By then, the sun was starting to set (that is Mount Fuji in the glare).

I had posted this picture of the sunset on Instagram, as seen from our hotel's garden.

It was a great day, the weather super sunny, and we got our fill of Mount Fuji, for the first day...

we're back

Just wanted to tell you that "revenge" was a success...

We were blessed with great weather (Thanks Grandma, Mom & FIL and everyone that was rooting for us!).

Have lots of photos to go through.

But will try to post something tomorrow.

This photo is what the locals call "beni-fuji" just a tad before sunrise when there is a light pink (beni) coloring on Mount Fuji.

It was fahreezing -6C(21F) but so worth waiting to see it happen.

Talk to you again soon.

Oyasuminasai (Good night!)