Japanese culinary adventure in both Japan and USA.
Continued from post here.
After our uni-don lunch at Misaki, it was time to walk off all the food. Our next destination was Cape Kamui, which is a beautiful headland area that extends into the Sea Of Japan along the Shakotan Peninsula. It has an amazing maze of trails that weaves along the ridge of the hillside with stunning views of the coastline. Continue reading “Tabemono Summer Vacation- Hokkaido/Tohoku 2016 Day 8 – Shakotan – Cape Kamui”
Continued from post here.
After the Curb Market, it was time for something I really wanted to do, and that was to visit the Yoichi Distillery. This was a real treat for me as I am a big fan of Japanese Whisky. I have in my collection bottles from the popular Suntory (makers of Yamazaki, Hakushu, and Hibiki), Nikka (Yoichi and Miyagakyo), and Ichiro’s Malt (including a bottle of Hanyu). So visiting a distillery for the first time was a major treat of our vacation.
According to Stefan Van Eycken, author of “Whisky Risking”, Yoichi was founded by Masataka Taketsuru, who many recognize as one of the founders of what is Japanese Whisky today. If your are interested in the book, you can purchase it at amazon, which I linked here. It is claimed that Taketsuru felt that Yoichi is the perfect place to set up a whisky distillery as the climate and terrain is similar to Scotland. Taketsuru based this on the fact that earlier in his career he worked in a Scotland and even married Rita (Jessie Roberta Cowan) who is from Scotland. Rita is also notable in that she is recognized as the “mother of Japanese whisky” as there is a recent daily soap opera featuring Rita’s life that was won a large following in Japan. I’m sure this soap opera also helped to popularize the branding of Yoichi’s whisky, as a bottle of Yoichi 20 year costed about $220US back in 2014, but now cost about 4-5x as much due to both it’s popularity and it being discontinued. Continue reading “Tabemono Summer Vacation- Hokkaido/Tohoku 2016 Day 7 – Yoichi Distillery”
Continued from post here and you can view the start of the journey at this link.
The next morning, it was time to check out of Chalet Furuyi and wrap up our adventures in Furano. The weather was perfect. It was sunny and warm but not humid, nothing like the summers we experienced in Tokyo and Kyoto. It was pretty much like our summer weather in California. Being our last day in Furano, we really wanted to take advantage of the some of the remaining attractions it has to offer. Our first visit was the Furano Cheese Factory. Continue reading “Tabemono Summer Vacation- Hokkaido/Tohoku 2016 Day 6 – Furano and Biei Part 3 – Cheese Factory, Furano Marche, Soup Curry, Making Ice Cream”
Continued from post here and you can read of the start of the journey here.
From the Trick Art Museum to Biei, it was a 20 minute drive north. Biei has many scenic attractions that are highlighted in the short summer months. Two of which, the Patchwork Road and Panorama Road, we previously driven through on our Day 4 drive from Asahikawa to Furano. Both areas have impressive scenic rural landscapes with vast pastures of green fields and solitary trees that proudly stood out in the vast landscape. Additionally the long stretches of road and flower fields were a joy to witness and drive through. However, due to the rain, we decided to skip going back as it is probably more enjoyable of an experience by bicycle and foot, and a good reason to come back in the future. Instead we focused on some of the other attractions of Biei, such as the Blue Pond and Shiragure Falls to wrap up the day. Continue reading “Tabemono Summer Vacation- Hokkaido/Tohoku 2016 Day 5 – Furano and Biei Part 2 – Blue Pond, Shirahige Waterfall, and Fukuzushi”
