This week we went from spring back into winter! From Sendai we headed into the mountains to the ski town Yuzawa, also the home of the Kiyotsu Gorge and splurged a bit on our ryokan. Then we took a few more trains to Nagano where we got to see the snow monkeys enjoying onsens and stayed overnight at one of the more well known temples in Japan. Of course we had to stop in Takayama to try another Wagyu, Hida Beef-Yakiniku style!
Kiyotsu Gorge
We woke up in Sendai and after another lovely breakfast buffet and a few more Shinkasens, we found ourselves in the ski town of Yuzawa. The information desk in the station helped us find the right bus for the gorge, but we had some time before the next one as they only ran every few hours. We managed to find a coin locker for our luggage and some lunch at a restaurant in the station. We just had a bowl of pork over rice, but sometimes the simpler, the better!
The 30 minute bus ride up the mountain through switchbacks to small village that looked like a ghost town. The only cafe and shop were closed, probably because it is off season for visiting the gorge. It was a 2 km walk to the entrance along the river which was very scenic. The spring melt already started so there were plenty of waterfalls, my favorite!
After paying at the entrance, the tunnel and platforms were about another kilometer to the end of the fourth platform. There are art installations at three of the four platforms and colorful sections of tunnels along the way.
Each platform allows you to look out over the gorge, the last one is cantilevered facing down river. The first platform has these bold black and white stripes with small structure in the middle. Any guesses what is in the structure? Bathrooms, with 2-way mirrors that you could see strangers walk by while you are inside. Just what you want in a bathroom.
The second platform was just a simple one with a few benches to sit and listen to the rushing water.
A trippy set of mirrors awaited you at the third platform that almost looked like windows.
The final platform is one I’ve seen many times on Instagram, the one you’ve been waiting for, I am sure.
Somehow we managed to get it to ourselves for about 3 minutes! If you walk along the wall, the water is very shallow and didn’t get inside our shoes at all.
We walked part way back to a bench we saw overlooking a bend in the river to relax a bit and enjoy a snack.
Back at the train station we got some goodies for dinner (including sake) and our bags. It was a 25 minutes walk to our ryokan, with plenty of up. The receptionist was concerned we walked instead of getting a ride but we figured it was good training for April. All checked in, we got a tour of our room a which felt as big as an apartment!
We did splurge to get the private open air onsen but didn’t realize how big of a space we’d have! They had about 5 closets, a hallway to the bathroom, a separate sitting area, futon beds and enough room for the table to be setup along with the beds for breakfast. If you want a full tour I’ll post the video on Instagram and Facebook! Outside we had our own onsen tub that was continuously getting fresh water from the hot spring. The water was lovely after being in the cold mist most of the day! We stayed out through sunset until but it was so cloudy and misty we couldn’t see much. The picture below is from the next morning when it was a little clearer.
We had a quick dip and then decided to break into the snacks and sake. The staff delivered rice balls and a carafe of ice water for a midnight snack. They had different kinds of pork inside and were both delicious.
We finished off the sake and enjoyed a few minutes in the onsen before drifting off to sleep.
To the Monkeys!
After a morning warmup in the onsen, we were ready for breakfast which was delivered promptly at 7:30am. It was a fancy box full of food we mostly had no idea what they were, along with a bowl of miso soup, some rice, and a mini salad with a pickled plum on the side.
The dried fish and poached egg were the only ones we recognized. There was interesting vegetables in some sort of sauce that I really enjoyed. The dried seaweed chips I preferred here because it wasn’t as fishy tasting. They also delivered tea but we had to add our own hot water from a boiler in the room. The only odd thing about the breakfast was that it as all cold except for the rice, soup, and tea.
After breakfast we had a last dip in the onsen, showered, and went to check out. They insisted they drive us to the station, and we were only too happy to take them up on it. Thankfully we managed to find some reserved seats for the trains that day.
We got to Nagano way before we could check into the hotel so we got to use the cutest coin lockers. I spied a bread maker shop that had all sorts of pastries and premade sandwiches. I opted for this multi-pack that was almost like a 4 course meal, ham tomato and lettuce salad; Egg salad with cold shrimp, Pork cutlet, and the dessert, strawberries with whipped cream. We split this 4 cheese foccacia too that was filled with a creamy cheese.
The plan for the day was to see the snow monkeys. Legend has it, people built these onsens for people to bathe in by the natural hot springs. However, when monkeys seemed to find the baths they liked it so much and would just hang out here. They then made it a park so the monkeys would not be disturbed by people and they had their own onsen to themselves.
To get there, you board the Snow Monkey express from Nagano station that takes about 45 minutes to Yudanaka station. We intended to catch a bus but it was over an hour to the next so we decided to walk the whole way. It took an hour, it was about 6 km, and mostly uphill.
Towards the end of the walk just before you get to the stairways to the park entrance, we started to see Monkeys running around. There was a hotel that Mr. Wander did look into booking but it was full. They had people onsens that apparently you might sometimes share with monkeys.
The monkeys in the onsens liked drinking the water. Most outside the water were in pairs helping to clean each other. My favorite was watching the little ones chase each other around.
It was a rainy 3 km walk back to the train station, but at least it was downhill the whole way. We only had about 10-15 minutes before the train left so we timed it just right as it was over an hour to the next one. Finally back in Nagano we checked in and found a local soba shop. Mr. Wander got a traditional soba set meal and I got soba noodles in curry. Soba noodles are popular in this area because buckwheat is easier to grow in this mountainous region and that is the main flour used for the noodles.
By watching another couple at a table nearby we figured out that you dip the noodles in the sauce as you eat it, after flavoring it with wasabi, onions, etc. from the one little bowl. After you finish your noodles the servers deliver hot water that you are to add to the sauce and then drink as a warm broth at the end. His set came with tempura veggies and shrimp that were oishi, delicious!
I had my soba noodles in a Japanese curry that is very rich and not very spicy, which is perfect for me.
Touring Nagano
The next morning we slept in a bit and decided to go back to the same spot for some breakfast. The day before I had spied plenty of tasty looking croissants, rolls, and of course, melon pan. It’s become a favorite of mine.
We hung around the station and found some bubble tea until it was time to meet up with our tour guide for the afternoon. It was a private tour with a main focus on the Zenkoji Temple. We started with a walk to a smaller temple along the main street that I would have passed by without even noticing!
It was nice to be able to ask more questions about the different statues and aspects at a Temple or shrine. We learned about the pair of guardians positioned either side of the path or gates. One always has its mouth open, representing life, the other the mouth closed representing death and the hope to die at peace.
After leaving this first temple we came up on a covered shopping area we walked down, which seemed partially abandoned. Our guide said they used to be really popular but most of the shops were empty. We found this in several areas in Japan, sometimes they were very busy, such as near Asakusa, but the one here and especially in Imabari were almost creepy with how empty they were.
The next stop was to get traditional oyaki, which is a rice dumpling of sorts filled with either soybean, pickled vegetables, or red bean paste. The soybean was our favorite, and is the seasonal variety so they don’t always have that one. It was fun watching them make and cook over a fire in the shop. You paid per oyaki and they gave you green tea for free.
I especially loved this cute diorama of the farming, making, and cooking of Oyaki.
We had a quick stop at a spice shop along the way where our tour included 1 container each of a special pepper mix we could choose, often found at ramen restaurants. It was difficult to choose but we grabbed the traditional one called “Shichimi” and another that goes well with pickles, grilled meat and pasta called “Baisen Ichimi”. Although now it has to ride in our bags for a few more months before we’d have a kitchen to use it in or we send it home!
We had just enough time to drop off bags at our accommodation, purchase our Zenkoji temple tickets and get to the fire ceremony. We took off our shoes and they gave us each 3 pieces of wood where we wrote our name and a wish, or prayer on them. Some examples are for prosperity and health for self or family in the coming year. Then we sat on the tatami mats on knees or cross legged while a monk explained what would happen and gave a blessing with our guide translating. Then we got up, walked to the fire, and put each piece in one by one. Next, we bowed to the altar in the back, and received 3 tokens for luck that you are to keep in a safe space or give to close friends or family.
The Zenkoji Temple was first built in 642, although the main buildings and gate you see today are considerably newer. It houses the first Buddha image but has been hidden since 654, and no one is allowed to see it. After touring us around and sharing more stories and history, she gave us an hour to wander ourselves. First we went into the main temple to the passage underground where you walk along in the complete darkness and try to find the “key to paradise”. Keeping your right hand along the wall to help guide you, you wander in total darkness through a few corners. I used my left hand to judge whether the person in front of me had moved. I was thankful he had a backpack so I didn’t repeatedly run into him. Towards the end just before the last corner we found the key along the wall, which felt like a vertical door handle.
One of the places she recommended we visit is to try an apple hand pie, because the area is well known for their apples. It was pretty good, and I especially liked that it had custard inside as well.
We happened upon this rotating scriptorium, where a large rotating structure contains many scripts about Buddhism. It is said that if you can push it for one rotation, you get as much benefit as reading the entire script. Very efficient.
Saving the best for last, our tour guide took us to a sake tasting at a nearby brewery. Back in the day a moss ball was hung outside to let people know it was a Sake brewery. In the spring when it blossomed, patrons would know last season’s harvest was ready to enjoy.
Our guide taught us about the process of making sake. Unlike wine making, there isn’t sugar directly available for fermentation. First, the starch on the inner part of the rice is converted to sugar via saccharification. Then the sugar can be turned to alcohol through a normal fermentation process. To expose the starch, the rice is milled to remove the outer husk. The amount of rice remaining is referred to as polishing ratio; brown rice’s ratio would be 100% and white rice is 90%. Most rice used for sake has a polishing ratio around 40-70%, we tried 35%, 40%, and 50% with 40 being our favorite. The brewery still produced some sake made with a traditional hand pressing method but I can’t remember noticing the difference in flavor as much as with the polishing ratio. We also were given a few pickles as a palette cleanser, some plum wine, and a non filtered sake that was milky instead of clear.
Sleeping at the Zenkoji Temple
We headed back to our lodging and our guide helped give a tour of the building, show us our room, and acted as translator. After saying farewell to our tour guide, we settled in to warm up by the heater and made some tea. I think we were the only people staying in this lodge, as it isn’t where monks stay full time, but those travelling from other temples would be housed here. Promptly at 6:30pm, dinner was served to our room and as we were given the same meal as monks would receive, it was entirely vegetarian, and quite the spread. Plenty of tofu, beans, a soybean patty with a sweet soy marinade, warm miso and soba noodles and a variety of other things I had no idea. I do remember that spotted tofu cake by the pea pod being very tasty in the top right.
After a cozy night’s sleep, we woke up early since we opted for the morning prayer, we were picked up outside the entrance at 6:30am by a different tour guide, we think he was the husband of the woman who had been running the lodge. On the way he showed us a few places that we had seen with the tour guide the night before and he gave us incense to light and place at one of the side temples to cleanse us before the prayers.
Then we waited by this one building next to where we had the fire ceremony and were told to kneel with our head bowed as the president monk (perhaps lost in translation) was escorted past us. On every head bowed he slapped these beads he was holding, I believe as a blessing, but I was not expecting that to happen so it was a bit of a surprise. Then we followed the monks to the main temple and watched him do the same to others lining the walkway. Some of the other tourists looked just as confused so I imagine they had not been warned either.
After entering and removing our shoes (putting them in plastic bags we carried with us) we sat down on the mats with a larger tour group. We couldn’t take any photos or videos but I really enjoyed listening to the chanting. There were various drums sometimes keeping time and sometimes initiating changes in the chanting where they’d all change key together. I don’t think they said many words, it sounded more like various hums. The closest thing I can think of is the scene in the first Hobbit movie where the dwarves start to sing “Misty Mountains”.
We hurried to the under passage, getting to go through a second time this time with our guide telling us where the turns were and the key to paradise. Then we put our shoes back on and hurried outside to be able to kneel for the president one last time as he came out of the temple. Our guide took us to a few other structures around the grounds before delivering us back to our lodging to find our table ready with breakfast. She delivered hot tea, rice and miso just after we returned.
There was tomato juice, marinated tofu and tofu with beans, pickled vegetables, and dried seaweed. We ate quickly and then had to head out quickly to make sure we could make our train with a 20 minute walk. Our guide told us the night before we didn’t have to check out or say goodbye we could just “peace out”, and they knew we had to catch an early train.
Going Retro in Takayama
To get to Takayama, we had a few trains and one of which had only 5 minutes to transfer, thankfully the platform was just one over and just required a few flights of quick stairs down and back up again. Also, Japan trains are almost always on time, to the point one had actually apologized for leaving 20 seconds earlier than it was supposed to, so we knew it wasn’t silly to book it.
We had some gorgeous views along the way, with such a defined snow line, so pretty!
Just after we arrived we got lunch at a traditional place where you sit on cushions at low tables and for some orders you can cook at the table, but instead we ordered some beef skewers, or kushiyaki, that were already grilled or deep fried.
They were both so good I liked whichever I was eating at the time the best. Both were perfectly done medium and were made with high quality wagyu beef, so of course we ordered a second round. We had time to kill before check-in so we dropped our bigger bags for storage at the hotel and wandered to a nearby museum of what used to be a central government building, and required you to remove your shoes to explore.
I had never thought about it before, but back then the taxes that were paid were in sacks of rice, they had several stacks to show as an example. The rest of the store rooms held exhibits of outfits and many haikus by former head officials, as well as signed scrolls, and examples for traditional meal. In the main building they had a full kitchen with displays of dishware, and a separate room dedicated for making tea. The head official’s office was beautiful and overlooked the garden. The building also had traditional courtrooms and places to hold and interrogate prisoners. Next we headed to where we found most of the tourists, a few walking streets with traditional buildings full of food stalls, sake tastings, souvenir style grocery stores and gift shops. We had an interesting sandwich where the bread was like the cake cones you get with ice cream, filled with mochi, strawberries, red bean paste, and whipped cream. It was delicious and messy. We also found a few interesting cookies to try.
As the cool weather turned to rain we headed for the retro museum to get warm. Apparently you are able to order food and eat in an older style classroom, which smelled much better than any school food I’ve eaten. They had so many things that looked like 60s or 70s, but plenty that was right out of my childhood, such as tamagotchis and Mario on the Super NES. The upper floor was designed to look like a kids play room with many older TVs with various games, although one screen had Mario Kart on the Switch. There were too many people there so I wasn’t able to play any of the games, bummer.
As it was still raining we decided to go back to the hotel to check in and warm up. We opted to have a cheap and easy 7-eleven dinner so we picked up goodies near the hotel and enjoyed being out of the cold and rain.
Walking a Course of Temples
After fueling up with a lovely hotel breakfast we started walking through the old town to find the Higashiyama Walking Course, but along the way we found a museum that was free so we stopped for a few minutes. Takayama is apparently known for giant parade floats with marionettes, they had a few scale models in the museum. There were also scale models and a digital model of the old castle you could explore with a video game controller.
We then joined up with the walking course, which takes you between several temples and shrines and ends at the castle ruins. We didn’t start at the beginning as it would have required back tracking, but where we started we just about had the places to ourselves.
One of the temples had several paths and stairs that lead over the hill where we found so many tombs! The walking course took you through many residential areas until it went up hill, then we met up with other paths around the old castle grounds and finally we made it up to the top and were rewarded with some pretty views through the trees. The castle itself only had a few stones and one set of steps marking the foundation.
We made it down the hill and back to our hotel to rest while looking up details of the restaurant we planned to visit that night. It was one we had heard about, and many of the comments mentioned that if you didn’t get reservations in advance, you needed to wait in line before they open, especially on weekends, to get a QR code which held your spot in line. The restaurant opened at 5pm but they start giving out the QR codes at 4:30 and people were already in line when we got there a little after 4pm.
After getting our spot we had 30 minutes to kill so we walked to the train station to reserve more seats on future legs and came back just before they started seating the first groups. They called your number in Japanese so I just watched for other people’s numbers as they walked by and held mine out when it was close so they would see it. We saw a few people coming in trying to get spots after 5pm but they were all taken for the evening.
Our table was in a room with two other tables sitting end to end with partial walls in between, so you almost feel as if you are in your own room. It looks at first like a traditional setup on tatami mats, where you have to take your shoes off before entering the room and the tables are only about a foot off the ground. However, they had a space under the table so you sat like in a normal chair, which made my knees very happy.
Once we ordered the food came very fast since everything is raw, except the edamame of course, and then it was time to cook! We ordered a set including a few cuts and veggies, and also an upgraded cut in a larger portion. The Wagyu in this region is called Hida, which is the name of the town next to Takayama, and on one list we found is listed at #6 of the top Wagyu in Japan. Sendai beef that we had the previous time was #7, and Kobe is #2, but that experience is yet to come (spoilers!).
They gave us a plate with several sauces although our favorite was just straight salt. While cooking, you heard the sizzle of the fat dripping, and I usually flipped them after a minute to get it about medium and to not lose too much of the flavor! The fat on these Wagyu cuts will melt just by touching with your finger, it is wild. This ended up being our favorite way to eat steak, we enjoyed cooking it ourselves and just feeling like we are left to our own devices – perfect for introverts!
I hope you enjoyed the temples, monkeys and beef! It’s amazing how much we saw and did in just 5 days! Have you ever tried cooking your own food at the table like this? Let me know in the comments! Next week we’ll share our journey to Kanazawa where we learned about castle restoration and pork cutlets, and then to Kyoto, where we had amazing gyoza! I keep trying to convince Mr. Wander this isn’t really a food blog but he doesn’t believe me. Sayonara!