Hakone

Today Kuniko’s dad drove us to Hakone to stay at an Onsen (hot spring). On the way we stopped at a gas/service station and he had his oil changed. While we were waiting I used the bathroom- I know you are asking yourself why am I blogging about using a bathroom in a service station.
Every bathroom I have ever used in a gas station, oil change place, service station, etc has always been pretty gnarly. This gas station had a granite floor AND granite floors, a fancy toilet (ie 600 dollar and up toilet seat), and was spotless…amazing.

We went to Odawara and went to the castle there. For 200 yen each (about $1.90) we got dressed up in Samurai (Kuniko dressed like a princess) it was really funny. Odawara is famous for eel (Unagi) and we went to a well known restaurant that is 140 years old to eat it. We started with squid in it’s own intestines (shiokara) which I have never eaten before- it pretty much looks like worms in a slimy sauce. Kuniko loves the stuff and gets it whenever she can when we are out for sushi- until today I haven’t partaken. I pretty much found it to be gross- slimy and pretty fishy- the sauce was pretty good though. Then we had the eel (grilled) on rice…it was SO good- truly amazing.

We stopped in Chinriu to stop at a famous umeboshi store. Umeboshi are preserved salted plums- they are salty and sour and I absolutely love them and for some strange reason have the ability to distinquish between OK ones and very good ones. They are made with an herb called perilla which I also really like. Anyway this store had all things ume and perilla and I was like a kid in a candy shop and spent like 75 bucks on a variety of umeboshi and perilla products to bring back to Boston with me. Kuniko’s sister shares my love of ume and also loves this store.

We drove bit further to Hakone and stopped for a coffee at Fujiya hotel- very beautiful hotel….coffee was like 8 bucks a cup.

We then arrived at our Ryokan/Onsen (traditional Japanese inn/hot spring) which has 14 rooms and is on beautiful grounds with stunning gardens. There is an outdoor hot tub that overlooks the grounds and also in indoor one. The water is supposed to have various healing properties. In a Ryokan you eat dinner in your room- they bring you in course after coarse of food and you sit on the floor and eat it at a small table. The food was ridiculously good. We started with appetizers that included sesame tofu, baby octopus, sea urchin on tofu skin, a strange looking mussel, shrimp and a piece of sushi- fish unknown to me. Next we had clam soup. This was followed by a ridiculous amount of sashimi that was killer. Next came some seawead, bamboo shoots and cod eggs. Next we got some fried fish that was unbelievably good- probably my favorite course. Next came octopus in with a mustard sauce. Then we got smoked fish. At the end came white rice and miso soup. The whole thing was incredible- both in quantity and quality. Ryokan website: http://www.kansuiro.co.jp/eng/