Food! Glorious Food!

As my brother-in-law said, "I can't remember ever having a bad meal in Japan".

Our first Ekiben from Abashiri Station. It was about Y840, and I got an onigiri for another Y100.











In the bento was rice, and spicy yaki soba (almost like mee goreng! It seemed to be spiced with curry spices). There was a whole assortment of food. There was a thick slice of omelette, a slice of fried fish, a prawn tempura, a fried spring roll, a siew mai, squid or octopus, and an assortment of pickles, including the pink ginger. In the middle of the rice was a pickled plum or something really really sour. Nice!








I had mentioned the Izakaya dinner we had in another post. So I won't repeat myself. Just adding a picture of the Yaki Onigiri with the yellow takuan pickles. In the middle of the onigiri was plum paste if I recall.

Yakitori

Spicy gyoza!

Our next Ekiben was from Asahikawa. PL got the ZooBen which was like a sampler of 9 different dishes.













My ekiben was a simple beef or pork with half a hard boiled egg. I think it was some kinda stew or braised pork. 

At Sapporo PL got the "Spring" Ekiben, while I got the Furano Beef Ekiben.

The Spring Ekiben was again a riot of little samplers. Different types of rice roll like sushi maki, pickles, and jelly, I think.

The Furano beef was tender. Loved the pumpkin and green pepper.

The second night at Hakodate, we explored the town on tram and ended up having dinner at this shabu shabu place (Wai Wai Tei)... And overdosed on beef! Nice beef, but just too much!

On our way from Hakodate to Kwaguchiko, we stopped at Shinjuku to transfer trains, and decided to buy our ekiben there. This was one of the last two boxes of what I called the "Dragon" ekiben. Rice in little mouth size pieces (like sushi rolls), siew mai, eggs, prawns, pickles. The box was made from real soft wood. Natural, but not durable enough to re-use.

Boiled Crab

Crab Tempura (and veggies)

Crab Gratin

The Queen Crab Keiseki we had in Kyoto had crab in every course. I like the crab gratin best, though it was probably not very traditional.

Ekiben from Kyoto on the way to Tokyo. A pork cutlet, breaded with rice.

Private single dining booth converted from barrels.

 At Shinjuku, we found this dark foreboding restaurant with HUGE barrels converted into dining booths. And in the lift we saw this ghastly silhouette. 

The food was quite nice though! PL ordered the chicken or pork set, and I tried to order some yakitori... and got pork fat! Among other things. The others were chicken and pork. I think. (Hope!) Finished everything, except the pork fat.

Mapo Tofu Set. Y500 only.

At Ginza, we looked for a place to eat, but it was the downtown office area and all the eateries were full of "salarymen" trying to get fed during their lunch hour, and I was feeling a little intrusive to be occupying their precious lunch space. But we found a restaurant with a short and disappearing queue and join in at the back.

Unfortunately, the lady did not speak English, the menu was all in Japanese... but we could understand that the special of the day was "mapo tofu", so we got two sets. It came with a bowl of rice drowned in mapo tofu, pickles, and a bowl of miso soup.

The total cost: Y1000 for 2 sets, making it the cheapest full meal we had in Japan!

The Black Cat - Travelling light in Japan

[Updated on 16 June 2012, originally posted 10 April 2012]
 
One service in Japan that is quite unique is the luggage delivery service or Takuhaibin (a.k.a. Tak-Q-Bin) of which the most extensive is the Yamato Transport Company, whose logo is a black cat or Kuroneko.

Our plan was to "leapfrog" our main luggage and travel light. So when we arrived at our hotel in Narita, we repacked our "day pack" for 3 days, and forwarded our bulky luggage to the hotel in Asahikawa by Tak-Q-Bin. Then we lived out of our day pack for our day in Abashiri.

We spent two nights in Abashiri and before heading to Asahikawa by train, and were reunited with our main luggage.

At Loisir Hotel, Asahikawa, we repacked our day packs with fresh clothes and send the luggage to our hotel in Hakodate. We also had the opportunity to use the coin laundry at Loisir to wash our clothes. Would have been nice to stay at Loisir a little later in our trip when we would have more to wash.

At both International Garden Hotel Narita and Loisir Hotel Asahikawa, the Bell desk arranged for the Ta-Q-bin. The Narita Hotel was better in that they did accept credit cards. The Loisir Hotel required cash payment. From Loisir, we sent our luggage to Hotel Ekimae, Hakodate.

At Hotel Ekimae, which is a very small hotel, the staff who spoke good English explained that they would send the luggage COD to Shinjuku Prince Hotel. And we would pay when we collected our luggage at Shinjuku. Apparently, they were less of an agent and more of a facilitator. The charges were a little more for this COD arrangement. The pay in advance were both about Y3400 (Y1700 for each piece). the COD arrangement was Y4000 or more.

So generally, the hotels should be able to arrange for Ta-Q-Bin (You may wish to learn how to say "Nimotsu no tehai" which means to make arrangements for the luggage. "Nimotsu" is luggage. Or you could just say "Nimotsu" and "Ta-Q-bin" and they should be able to figure out what you mean). I guess the problem might be if both sending and receiving hotels are like Hotel Ekimae and do not collect the charges on behalf of Ta-Q-Bin. Not sure how that would work out.

One thing I liked about booking hotels with Agoda.com is that the hotel vouchers they send has the name of the hotel and address in Japanese characters. That really helps with the nimotsu no tehai when the staff helps you fill in the Ta-Q-bin delivery order form.

One inexplicable but not within the control of the Ta-Q-Bin is that by some strange coincidence, all the hotels we picked to send our luggage to were hotels with the smallest rooms! So with our bulky luggage, we were really squeezed for space.

Whereas when we got big rooms, we had no large luggage.

Murphy's Law at work.

Mt Fuji Pictorial

Click on photos for larger views.

The Fuji Tozen Densha tourist train serving Otsuki to Kawaguchiko stations

An elegant train.

With Tour Guide (selling sourvenirs)

As the train rolled along, we could see Mt Fuji...

Mt Fuji is shy... cloaking itself with clouds.

You have to wonder...

...what its like to live in the shadow of Mt Fuji?

To wake each day to see that serene majesty just there...

When others have to travel long and far to see...

... what you see everyday.

High winds tug at Mt Fuji's cloak of clouds.

Lake Kawaguchi at the foot of Mt Fuji.

Mt Kachi Kachi Ropeway (cable car).

Option to see Mt Fuji from a better vantage point.

Mt Fuji at 5.00 AM, uncovered.

The view from our hotel room

This was the view that greeted us...

While we were having tea (not really).

on the morning after we arrived.

Leaving the room and walking about 5 minutes we got this better view. But clouds were rolling in...

With the clouds rolling in...

... this time at a lower level, exposing the summit of Fuji-san

I zoomed in...

... even as the clouds rose up...

Our view was soon obstructed.

Mt Fuji covers up.

We walked along the lake.

There were wild flowers colouring the banks of the lake.

And after a while...

... Mt Fuji reappeared.

With just a hint of mist.

My Favourite shot of Mt Fuji

The Kawaguchi Bridge

Reflections of Mt Fuji