Tag: Yoichi

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Tabemono Summer Vacation- Hokkaido/Tohoku 2016 Day 8 – Shakotan – Misaki for the Best Uni Don in Japan

Continued from post here.

After leaving Otaru, we drove along the beautiful coastal highway route leading to Shakotan.  Located in the western peninsula on Hokkaido’s west coast, the water is pristine, cool in temperature, and rich in nutrients due to the water currents.  As a result, the konbu (kelp) here are some of the best in all of Japan, and prized in many kaiseki restaurants.  Rich in umami, it is this kelp that the sea urchins feed off of along Shakotan. As a result, the uni here has a taste that is richer and sweeter than sea urchin caught anywhere else.  In fact, Shakotan uni is known to set the price in fish markets like Tsukiji and throughout Japan.  Unfortunately, the uni fishing season here is very short, only from June to August.

Continue reading “Tabemono Summer Vacation- Hokkaido/Tohoku 2016 Day 8 – Shakotan – Misaki for the Best Uni Don in Japan”

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Tabemono Summer Vacation- Hokkaido/Tohoku 2016 Day 7 – Yoichi Distillery

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”

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Tabemono Vacation – June/July 2016 Trip to Japan, Hokkaido and Tohoku Itinerary

 

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Hokkaido is the northern island of Japan. We flew from Haneda airport near Tokyo to Asahikawa using the ANA foreigner air tickets which is available only if you purchase before arriving to Japan.

Traveling abroad with a family with four young children is not easy, but Japan is one of the safest countries with a wide variety of attractions and  great food.  This combination makes it a popular destination in my household.  The only challenge is that a family of six is hard to accommodate by Japanese standards.  We need to plan out accommodations and what to do and where to eat carefully as Japan tends to be cater to small groups. In fact most hotels accommodate groups up to 3-4 people unless you know what to look for and book as early as possible to secure the few rooms that can accommodate a large family.

In our previous trips we travelled through the Kanto to Kansai regions of Japan, so this time we really wanted to experience other parts of this beautiful country.  Our selection narrowed down to whether we wanted to spend time in Hokkaido or Kyushu and the choice was further easier to make given that we will be taking the kids during their summer break, which meant hot and humid weather in the Honshu and Kyushu islands.  Thus, the vacation was focused on Hokkaido to avoid the muggy, hot heat the rest of Japan faces during the late June and early July months.  In fact, during our stay, the weather for the most part was great in  Hokkaido, outside of rain for a day or two during the first two days.  We even needed jackets  a couple of times in the mountain areas,  but otherwise experienced very enjoyable weather. Continue reading “Tabemono Vacation – June/July 2016 Trip to Japan, Hokkaido and Tohoku Itinerary”

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