To Kyoto! 京都へ

After having fun in Fukuoka and visiting a hot spring in Yufuin, we took off to Kyoto with the Imakoko team. Imakoko takes the month of February off so they were exited for their vacation especially since we had a lot of great food planed for our trip. Holly loves it when she gets to go and from the night before, we had the carry bag for her ready and whenever she got a chance she would go in and wait there to make sure that she didn’t get left behind because she wasn’t in her bag.
福岡と由布院でしっかり楽しんだ後、今ここ３人組と京都へ向かいました。２月が休みの今ここ３人は京都がすごく楽しみでした。ホリーも一緒に行けるのを前の日から楽しみにしてました。置いて行かれないようにと、前の晩からホリーはバックに入って出発を待ってました。

Matt, as usual, was super excited about riding the bullet trian. To ride the Shinkansen, you have to buy two tickets, one for regular fare to get there and the other super express fare (with additional assigned seat fare when applicable). Matt was feeling bad because he got the idea that his excitement for the Shinkansen has resulted in all of us spending more money to get there the fastest way we could. (Shinkansen goes about 300Km/h) He didn’t have to feel bad after all because Shinkansen is the main way of traveling when you go from Fukuoka to Kyoto because without it will take 7+hours. Here is Matt taking a photo of the Nozomi that we got on and the photo that he took.
マットはいつものように新幹線に乗るのが楽しみでした。乗車券に加えて特急券が必要だと聞いたマットはマットが楽しみだから時速３００kmの新幹線に乗ることに決めたと勘違いをして恐縮してました。でも福岡から京都まで普通電車は７時間以上かかるからあまり乗ったことのある人はいないよと説明をしたらほっとしてました。私たちの乗ったのぞみ号の写真を取るマットとマットの取った写真。

We arrived in Kyoto where Astro boy welcomed us by the Kyoto Tower.
京都駅に着いたらアトムが京都タワーのところで迎えてくれました。

Jyokyu Shouyu 上久醤油

In Downtown Fukuoka, there is a old soy sauce factory, Jyokyu Shouyu. The company history goes back to the 1850's and is still in operation. Nile has been wanting to go on a tour there for a long time because of the olfactory advertisement. Nile thinks the same about Necco (which also started around the same time, in 1847) since they too used to have a big olfactory advertisement campaign all over MIT.
福岡の中心部に古くからある上久醤油という醤油工場があります。１８５０年代に始まった工場で今なお醤油が作られています。私は前から近所にいると香りがいいので見学に行きたいなと思ってました。マサチューセッツ工科大学の近くにあったNecco というお菓子工場 (ここも同じくらいの老舗で１８４７年創業です）も商品を香りで宣伝してました。

Now, Takashi buys his soy sauce from there and asked nicely if we could go. The marketing director gave us a tour that was very interesting. We were first taken to the room where the soy ferments for about a year and an half. As the soy ferments, the color of the soy turns from a golden color to a dark almost black. When we entered the room, we were told not to fall into the big barrels because they cannot rescue us out of it.
今ここの醤油は上久醤油です。だから営業の方にお願いして見学させてもらいました。最初に行った部屋は大豆をねかせる部屋です。大豆から醤油になるにつれて狐色から濃い黒っぽい色に変わります。大きな樽は深いから落ちたら助けられないから落ちないようにと注意されました。

After the soy sauce is created, it is pumped out of the barrels into the press.
醤油ができたらポンプで吸い上げて搾る機械へいきます。

At the press, every last drop is squeezed out. At this point, the soy sauce is still raw. Our tour guide told us that we could try it. It was much less salty than normal soy sauce and much sweeter with a deep after flavor.
絞りの機械で最後の一滴まで搾ります。この時点で醤油は生です。味見をしていいといわれたのでしてみました。とても塩気のやさしい甘く、後味の深いおいしい醤油でした。

Then the soy sauce is pasteurized then packaged. For larger restaurants, they create special blends for them.

この後殺菌処理がされてパッケージされます。大きなレストランへは特別な醤油も作ってます。

Usuki 臼杵

Takashi took us to a restaurant run by monks in Usuki before going to the hot springs at Yufuin. We were given a choice of sitting on tatami on our knees or at the table. Matt wanted to sit at the tatami so we sat at the tatami although both Takashi and Nile wanted to sit at the table.

由布院へ行く前に父が臼杵の精進料理屋さんに連れて行ってくれました。座敷とテーブル席の選びに日本に来たのだからと、マットは座敷を選びました。父と私は心の中でテーブル席を希望してました。

There was an impressive amount of food brought out to us. Because Monks are vegan, the food presented was also vegan. Lots of different kinds of vegetables as well as gluten in different size, shapes, color, texture and preparation. All were amazing.

とってもたくさんの食べ物が月から次へと出てきました。すべての食べ物はもちろんビーゲンです。たくさんの野菜に加えていろいろな大きさ、形、色、食感、調理法のふがでてきました。全部おいしかったです。

　

In traditional Japanese cuisine, there is always rice and soup at the end of the meal.

もちろん最後はご飯と汁物。

After the rice and soup, Takashi and Nile convinced Matt to move to a counter to sit at a chair for dessert. We asked if we could please sit at the table because the garden was so pretty, which it was but we didn't mention that our legs were killings us.

父と私はやっとの事でデザートのときに庭の見えるカウンター席に席替えをすることをマットに説得させました。お店の人にはもちろんきれいな庭を見たいですとお願いをし、足がしびれたことに関しては何もいいませんでした。

　　

The street to back to the town was almost too narrow for Takashi's car (not an oversized car, a Prius).

臼杵の町までの道はすごく細かったです。

After our amazing meal, we expored the town of Usuki, walking around as well as getting a tour of a sake factory.

ご飯の後、臼杵を散歩して、酒屋さんの中を見せてもらいました。

2 Steps二歩

Holly, Takashi's dog, is a princess. Much more so than Elmo is. Holly won't go for walks unless Yoshie is taking her. We have this family joke that she only walks three steps because the word for walk in Japanese is a homonym for "three steps". When we take her out, it is as if she only walks two steps.
Takashi and Yoshie live by a park that is adjacent to the zoo. You can see some animals from the park. We try to go at least once when we visit. This is what happened on the walk.
父の犬、ホリーはお姫様です。エルモよりももっとお姫様です。善枝ちゃんと一緒じゃないと散歩へ行きません。あまりに歩かないからみんなでホリーは散歩じゃなくて二歩だねって言って笑ってます。
実家に帰ったら必ず家の裏の南公園へ動物を見に行きます。今回マットといったときの話です。

After taking two steps, Holly didn't want to walk anymore so Matt picked her up.
いつもの様に二歩歩いた後でホリーが歩くのをやめたのでマットが抱っこしました。

Nile told him that Takashi, Yoshie and Natsumi have been making fun of Matt for carrying Holly around so much so he tried to get her to walk. It didn't work.
いつもホリーを抱っこしているマットを皆で笑ってるよってマットに伝えたら歩かせようとしたけど歩きませんでした。

We said hello! to Gertrude, the Giraffe, and the gang of monkeys.
キリンのガーチャルードとサルたちに挨拶をしました。

On the way home, Holly was much happier and finally walked.
帰りになってやっとホリーは喜んで歩き始めました。

Imakoko Dinner

As is becoming tradition, Takashi and the Imakoko staff treated Matt to dinner after Nile worked so hard with them.

Tonight's menu. All Matt can make out is the first three character's which say "today's".

The first couse was "hanabira (flower petal) mochi" something that is often served at the bigining of the year at tea ceremonies. The traditional hanabira mochi is sweet but this is made with dashi, kintoki carrots, gobo, renkon (lotus roots) and katsuona with a deep fried fuki-no-tou on it.

The second course was broiled purple califlour with scalops; along with octopus with a tomato based sauce, and smoked octopus in an oil based sauce.

The third course was a kobujime tai which is a white fish (tai) sandwitched between two pices of konbu to add aroma. Kikurage, brussle sprouts, and wakame accomponied the fish.

Traditionally in Japan, you have osechi, an elaborate boxed meal. To continue celebrating the new year, Imakoko had a highlight of the osechi for the fourth course. Clockwise from top left of the first image, anago, sazae, goma saba, kumoko. Clockwise from the top left of the second image, matsukaze, namako, nanohana, kuromame with toramame, and sardines.

Kumoko, shown above, is a part of the sperm sack of a fish. It is named kumoko because it looks like "kumo" or cloud. It is a Japanese delicacy that Matt is trying for the first time here. Matt thinks it is an aquired taste which he has not yet aquired.

The fifth course is an heirloom carrot soup. Matt was very impressed with the bicolored soup.

The sixth course is miazaki buta (a type of pork) marinated in miso with green beans grown by Yoshie's mother in Miyakojima.



The main dish was nabe. Buri daikon is a traditional winter dish. Traditionally buri daikon is a particular fish (buri) cooked with daikon radish in a soy sauce based broth. Here it is a shabu shabu where the daikon is placed in a kombu (seaweed) broth with yuzu at the table. Each piece of the fish is briefly blanched in the soup before being dipped in a soy sauce based sauce and consumed with the yuzu and daikon.

Because we had been fed extra pieces in course four, and Matt was jet lagged, we were not able to make it to course eight (rice).

We forgot to take a picture of the dessert (course nine). Below is the dessert from a different night that was very similar.

Lavender marshmallow, pink peppercorn brittle, strawberries, hojicha (tea) brittle, and mexican hot chocolate marshmallow.