We decided to take a road trip out of Tokyo to the famous
Nikko. While driving in we were not too sure if in fact we were heading into the French Alps. It was such a nice drive to see such lovely snowy peaks. A bit of a change from the You Yangs. A while back, I had a group of friends visit me in Melbourne, from Japan. As we drove to Geelong I pointed out the mountains on the right. They said, where?.... I pointed again, again they asked where?...well, it was the You Yangs I was trying to show them...but I guess they were more accustomed to the skyline above so it is hard to make the comparison.....anyways.....Nikko is much more beautiful than I thought. Is is very quiet, organised, peaceful with clean air and very cold, clean river water. There are lots of small tea houses and food places and a most impressive shrine and temple area. Like most places in Japan, there is a special kind of food associated with any given place. In the town I used to live in it was small, sweet river fish, for this town, Nikko, it is a style of food called
Yuba. It is the skin from tofu and also other parts of the tofu making process. You really need to like tofu to eat this kind of ood. Luckily I love it.
This is yuba sashimi. The green stuff is fresh wasabi with yuzu (a type of citrus fruit). So the taste is hot and citrus, dipped in soy with the slippery texture of tofu skin is very nice.
This is the lunch tray with (top left) rolled tofu skin with veges in a broth, (top right) fish balls, vege and miso sauce, (bottom left) azuki bean rice, (bottom right) chauwan mushi - steamed egg custard with tofu. There are also pickles and sweet beans in the small bowls. It was a real combination of warm/cold, sweet/salty, soft/crunchy, someone has thought a lot about this dish. It came with a dessert just like cream caramel but made from tofu or basically soy milk. It was so nice I forgot to take a picture before I ate it...oops. And guess what, we only found out afterwards that you are supposed to eat this kind of food in Nikko. We just stopped in because we found a carpark nearby and thought the old guy looking out the window was going to tell us to move because we were not eating at his restaurant!! Bonus....
Nikko is about 2 hours drive from Tokyo. A nice easy and uncongested expressway will take you there. The mooch has been so good lately, I'm sure you remember my troubles with him in the past months. Now he can last about 1.5 hours until he gets grizzly in the back seat. Did I mention this place is 2 hours from Tokyo....OK, so I had to spend the last 1/2 hr in the back seat entertaining him, but he is so sweet and fun and look at this face. He is finally free to stretch his little legs...awww....
This is the main drag. Up from here is the area where you go to see the temples. We just did part of it as it is actually very large and I think its better to stay overnight as with most places, if you get there in the afternoon it is very crowded and noisy. So we might come back and do some more looking at temples.
This very beautiful bridge and amazingly clear water also runs through the main drag. We will definantly go back to Nikko. It was an easy day trip from Tokyo, with a car of course. Mooch was OK on the way back. I cannot thank sultanas enough. They are my ongoing silver bullet!!
We decided to take a road trip out of Tokyo to the famous Nikko. While driving in we were not too sure if in fact we were heading into the French Alps. It was such a nice drive to see such lovely snowy peaks. A bit of a change from the You Yangs. A while back, I had a group of friends visit me in Melbourne, from Japan. As we drove to Geelong I pointed out the mountains on the right. They said, where?.... I pointed again, again they asked where?...well, it was the You Yangs I was trying to show them...but I guess they were more accustomed to the skyline above so it is hard to make the comparison.....anyways.....Nikko is much more beautiful than I thought. Is is very quiet, organised, peaceful with clean air and very cold, clean river water. There are lots of small tea houses and food places and a most impressive shrine and temple area. Like most places in Japan, there is a special kind of food associated with any given place. In the town I used to live in it was small, sweet river fish, for this town, Nikko, it is a style of food called Yuba. It is the skin from tofu and also other parts of the tofu making process. You really need to like tofu to eat this kind of ood. Luckily I love it.
This is yuba sashimi. The green stuff is fresh wasabi with yuzu (a type of citrus fruit). So the taste is hot and citrus, dipped in soy with the slippery texture of tofu skin is very nice.
This is the lunch tray with (top left) rolled tofu skin with veges in a broth, (top right) fish balls, vege and miso sauce, (bottom left) azuki bean rice, (bottom right) chauwan mushi - steamed egg custard with tofu. There are also pickles and sweet beans in the small bowls. It was a real combination of warm/cold, sweet/salty, soft/crunchy, someone has thought a lot about this dish. It came with a dessert just like cream caramel but made from tofu or basically soy milk. It was so nice I forgot to take a picture before I ate it...oops. And guess what, we only found out afterwards that you are supposed to eat this kind of food in Nikko. We just stopped in because we found a carpark nearby and thought the old guy looking out the window was going to tell us to move because we were not eating at his restaurant!! Bonus....
Nikko is about 2 hours drive from Tokyo. A nice easy and uncongested expressway will take you there. The mooch has been so good lately, I'm sure you remember my troubles with him in the past months. Now he can last about 1.5 hours until he gets grizzly in the back seat. Did I mention this place is 2 hours from Tokyo....OK, so I had to spend the last 1/2 hr in the back seat entertaining him, but he is so sweet and fun and look at this face. He is finally free to stretch his little legs...awww....
This is the main drag. Up from here is the area where you go to see the temples. We just did part of it as it is actually very large and I think its better to stay overnight as with most places, if you get there in the afternoon it is very crowded and noisy. So we might come back and do some more looking at temples.
This very beautiful bridge and amazingly clear water also runs through the main drag. We will definantly go back to Nikko. It was an easy day trip from Tokyo, with a car of course. Mooch was OK on the way back. I cannot thank sultanas enough. They are my ongoing silver bullet!!
No comments:
Post a Comment