Local Japanese Food Tour in Tochigi Japan | Feast at Japanese Farmer's Hosue
hey guys welcome back to another video and greetings from tochigi prefecture today we're going to be visiting a 1200 year old temple to participate in sudo japanese calligraphy have buddhist monks pray with us for world peace and harmony visit a farm to harvest our own carrots learn how to make one of tochigi's regional dishes at a farmer's house where we will be enjoying some local dishes today's destination is oyamachi in utsunomiya city tsunami city is located in tochigi prefecture oyamachi is located west side of utznomiya city about 30 minutes from the city center by bus before we get started i want to thank oya green tourism for inviting us to enjoy these unique experiences in tochigi to learn more about everything we're going to be doing on this video click the link in the description below this video finally don't forget to like and subscribe for more videos like this one now let's get started here is target this is a temple located in kochigi prefecture right it's one of the oldest temples it has a history of over 1 200 years and the reason why we're here is because we are here to experience something called shakyo or shodo which translates to japanese calligraphy and this is something that i've never done before so i'm really looking forward to it shodo is one of the oldest traditional art forms in japan developed and appreciated since the 5th century [Music] its main focuses are simplicity beauty and most importantly a mind-body connection [Music] today we learned that we need to focus on the meaning of the word we're writing satoshi chose the word wa which means peace [Music] i decided on i which means love [Music] becoming one with the moment and what you are writing is the core philosophy of shadow we were told that it doesn't have to be perfect connecting with the word and being in the moment is what's important i think we did a pretty good job [Music] so you want to come here first before you go into the main building of the temple so we're going to write our wish which is world peace and harmony for all humankind so we written it down we're gonna go inside the main building and i'm gonna go pray [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so we just came down from the temple we walked for about five minutes and we're going to be having lunch here it is so let's go inside they serve local specialties we ordered a couple of things this uh me but set has arrived these are local specialty snacks this is the imogushi that's dango and this is miso oden homemade japanese pickles and a cup of tea this is a mountain yam or sato imo with some miso and that's uh that's a pretty thick miso but it's very sweet and savory at the same time umami punch that a mountain yam is nicely grilled so outside it's char grill but the inside is super soft just gonna have a little bite of the cabbage [Music] i feel so good right now look at this look at the beautiful gardener behind me it's such a beautiful place okay i'm gonna try the dango here so it looks like it's a combination of white dango and yomogi which is mugwort and it's covered with some freshly made anko which is sweet and azuki bean paste nice mugwort flavor i love yomogi and the mochi you can tell it's fresh because it's very soft miso odem is a bouncy texture this miso sauce is really good it's sweet and combined with kinako forever i love this so my main meal of this lunch is ramen smells nice because on top of this ramen there is a ground sesame seeds i don't have so much experience to eat ground sesame seeds on top of ramen soup it's authentic japanese soy sauce flavored ramen good and comfortable sweet flavor this noodle is a little bit thick than i imagined most friendly ramen noodles take a shower it's a little bit bouncy does this thickness and this carbine fit with my mouth so nicely very strange expression for describing ramen but this noodle is like that very comfortable so we got another thing this is soba because this uh shop is very famous for their soba noodles and they've served it with some sunshine which are mountain vegetables so i'm gonna put some green onions in my soup we've got some wasabi here it tastes super super fresh and clean i've never had such a clean tasting swell by my life i'll take one more bite you see the color of the soba that's buckwheat try it without the wasabi this time nice texture not soggy at all whatsoever so this is called city here super super crispy you got the slight bitterness of the mountain vegetable which i love and it is the perfect time to eat this this is a spring vegetable so after lunch you can take a stro through the garden right next to the restaurant and you can also sit outside if you want like we did for the local specialties next place on the agenda is the oya history museum this is where you can check out the stone corn culture in oya at one time there used to be 250 quarries in oya most of them are underground and some are even 100 meters below the surface quarrying of oyaston as building material dates back to the edo period that's 1603 to around 1868 and even on the drive here we saw a lot of the stone be used for houses uh walls etc so guys we are inside the former stone quarry of oya and i gotta say it is beyond impressive the ceilings are so high it means that they dug you know all the way from up there all the way to where we're standing right now they've turned it into a beautiful museum they actually hold concerts here i heard and right now they also have like little art exhibits you know sculptures here and there who knew that this existed in tochigi prefecture oh that's amazing i'm beyond impressed yeah i'm impressed it's beautiful it was like an art gallery that's right yeah like a historical art gallery so right outside there's a souvenir shop slash cafe called the rockside market we're gonna go check it out right now wow look at this check it out first thing that caught my attention are these oya stone implants look at this this is the actual oya stones being used as planters i love that you see all the holes there and on this side over here you have a whole bunch of like edible goodies here they have some original case cut pinance plain and chocolate flavor vanilla caramel nut [Music] they got some cookies here as well here you have some artisan jams and jellies coffee satoshi you might like that oya stone aged coffee interesting this is actually a really nice store and it actually has a two floors two floors of stuff that you can check out there's also a nice cafe as well as a restaurant where you can have some food here you know they actually have a lot of things that i like here i like how they got creative with this particular stone [Music] so i could not resist i had to get a gelato so i got just a single gelato because after this you gotta go eat dinner um but yeah like i said they have a nice cafe here super nice shop and of course gelato so i got the muscat alexandria grape oh perfect weather for gelato it's very very fruity it's not that sweet and it actually tastes like real fruit and one thing i want to point out is look look at this look the the benches and the tables here this is made of oya ishii the oya pumice stone i actually like this stone a lot i really do and look at all the oil issues all around us wow such a beautiful strawberry seeds are already red and this green pot is doing like this like this like this this is fresh [Music] it's strawberry is it strawberry it's so sweet incredible is the strawberry sauce eating like it's like eating with sugar wow i have never seen such a perfect strawberry in my entire life not this perfect for those of you who like strawberries you know that they are the best eaten at the source they grow them right over here dakimas oh my god my hand is literally shaking right now because it's so sweet look at that it's so juicy so juicy and has so much strawberry flavor i'm so happy that we came to tochigi i'm so happy so next thing is harvesting carrots yeah once again something i have never done in my entire life because as everyone in the world knows i am a city boy i get i get teased about that all the time but i've never harvested carrots or i've never harvested anything period you haven't you ever entered the farm no i don't think so so we are here at onoguchi farm and right now you can harvest carrots so that's what we're gonna be doing right now are you ready yes of course let me show you how to do that let's go inside the farm okay now you do have to be careful because it's an electrical wire fence to keep out um um what wild boar right so this is scary here we go fortunately i'm a little bit flexible are you ready i sure am okay here i already see some carrots look look i see carrot here oh i see a bug there's a carrot there oh right that i think this this is one right here right here i'm gonna pull this one out they were like spiders all over the place oh oh the size is so big wait a minute i can't do it you gave up um okay again oh my gosh wow wow oh my gosh check that out this is huge that is a hum wow that's a humongous carrot you did my first time ever harvesting for a carrot how organic so i learned this is not good because the the carrot face is here right it's out of the the surface so so not so good this one is okay all of minjing all of the carrots are underground still underground but it is difficult to dig how you doing is it hard is it difficult yeah a little bit difficult demo i i think i can oh okay oh that's cute well for all that effort you got a really small carrot it's cute though it's cute cute good job okay this one right here let's let's take this one oh look at that here's another one right here i wonder like i'm trying to look for like that perfect shaped carrot that you see at the supermarket look at that i wonder what i'm gonna do with this should i make carrot salad should i make carrot salad should i make a stew should i make a soup here okay that was easy it's easy okay so next okay oh i got used to yeah and this one has a child he has a child yeah because once you get used to what it's easy once you get the hang of it oh it's easy [Music] this one too wow oh my god it's like a nose it looks like a nose yeah or like one hand there we go kawaii yeah that's a cute one about this one here oh look at that this one is thick yep okay so put that to the side how about this one right here whoops oh no oh oh you broke fail total fail this one right here yeah oh nice oh it's a perfect one look at that like a supermarket carrot we're actually going to take this home no no it is not so difficult to do harvest right you know next time i want to come back to harvest potatoes potato is good yeah also today's carrot we will cook them after this that's right we're actually gonna go to a farmer's house to prepare dinner yay tonight we are staying over at a place called no haku kato we're staying over a farmer's house and this is part of the the farming experience and i'm really looking forward to it i think we're gonna use the carrots that we just harvested yes for cooking something right like a local dish they're very interesting never heard of that i've never eaten it yeah oh my gosh i'm so excited so looks like they have a small little shop outside uh they're selling some food here like some street food of course they're selling some statues made of the the local stone there's some local veggies here that they're selling that's uh this is kabu we got some local shiitake mushrooms look at this all of this for 250 yen that's such a bargain so let's go inside let's go inside i'm very looking forward to to stay here me too we can eat freshly harvested carrot i know i can't wait uh we are allowed to use uh these three rooms that we're going to be showing you from now uh first of all you see the bedroom and they've already laid out our futon for the night that's our mattress and here is the dining room i love how homey this place is it reminds me a little bit of my grandmother's old home in the countryside this i think is the kitchen there's a sink over there and then you got like a place where you can wash your face brush your teeth and there's the toilet quite nice and this is the bathroom where you can take a bath after a long day of harvesting vegetables and you can actually see the cliffs you know the the the stone mountain behind this house so right now dinner is being prepared in this room but say if you were a family of four two people would sleep over here and the other two would be sleeping over here and they'll move this table and chair into that room over there behind satoshi yeah part of the experience is that you can cook along with the lady of the house so this is part of the whole uh farm experience and i think it's very unique and also really special [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so we're just about to have dinner and check out this spread i can't believe it i can't believe how many dishes are coming out in front of us i love that most of these things are local ingredients of course in the soup you have the carrots that we just harvested today we have a seafood nabe in front of us which is a dish made with vegetables and tofu we got some pickled vegetables made with local vegetables pork wrapped asparagus using local pork and asparagus in fact the pork is called miyabiton pork quite famous around here supposed tastes really good and we have a local regional soup dish made with egg and kampio kompio is squash gourd shavings it's one of my favorite food and tochigi prefecture is famous for their kambio we also have chirashi sushi i can't even remember the last time we had chirashi sushi but it's beautiful look at this it's like a it's like a celebration once again this soup is made of the kampyo which is squash gourd shavings egg and mitsuba [Music] nice this is a very nostalgic taste for me really good dashy flavor i'm going to try the kambio this is the squash gourd shavings wow the texture reminds me a little bit of like meat it's like daikon and meat combine together that's the texture you have it doesn't have like a strong flavor so it basically soaks up the flavor of the soup i love chili sushi chilashi sushi in english is translated into scattered sushi as you can see all these different ingredients are scattered on top of the sushi rice now even the sushi rice itself has a lot of ingredients in here [Music] i love it because there's so many flavors and textures hmm this always reminds me of like a special day because my mom used to make chirashizashi on special occasions i'm gonna eat shimot skalet using the freshly harvested we harvested today yes it's very fresh just one hour ago there is a harmony of ingredients daikon radish carrots beans head of salmon sake it's really tasty good i'm gonna try this pork wrapped asparagus yes and this one has a really porky pork flavor good means very good pork forever good stimulate is also famous for gyoza yes they are and so she made us some gyoza but she made it very special she actually made a sauce to go with it the sauce is made with a bell peppers some bamboo shoots and some pork meat i believe hey here we go [Music] hello hello girl zom i've never had yoga like this before the sauce is like sweet and sour and it goes really really well with the gyoza dumplings i gotta say and the surface of the gills of the bottom part is crispy inside is super juicy meat is very flavorful and once again the sauce all the textures in the sauce from the bamboo shoots the green peppers smells good too so let me take a bite of the shimotsuka this is very rustic tasting but that's a very good thing because it tastes very natural you only get natural flavors really in this dish i love that there are all these ingredients and textures in here and this is the seafood nabe which looks amazing there are so many ingredients in here i'm just going to start off with this um i think this is a fish cake of some kind um delicious delicious i think there are like pieces of shrimp in his swine i feel like just fish is a combination of fish and shrimp this is a special negi the local negi [Music] the natural sweetness of the local nikki is amazing once again super fresh vegetables got a piece of salmon in here so much umami but very light at the same time and all the seafood and vegetables that's been cooking the broth it's come out into the broth so it's flavor with all those ingredients perfect dish so we are at the garden of farmer's house we are having cheating time yes look at this you know there are the the rocks behind us the oya rocks and the dinner was so nice i enjoyed everything about it the dinner cooking with the lady and getting to know her really really satisfied yes yes we ate healthy she used so much low-carb ingredients and variety so many ingredients ah yeah so you know this is a great place to stay i think it's a very special place to stay you know in tochigi prefecture and tochigi prefecture is really not far from tokyo it's less than an hour by shinkansen and to get to here from utsunomiya station only about like half an hour right i think so yeah so you know um definitely if this is something that's interesting to you you might want to check this place out yeah anyway we're both tired and we got some editing to do yeah we brought work with us so we're gonna edit we're gonna go to sleep early and we'll see you guys tomorrow morning good morning ah had such a nice sleep so comfortable in here it was nice and warm in the room and very quiet very quiet compared to our apartment in tokyo so we had a lot of food last night and so we decided we wanted something really light for breakfast and so the lady of the house decided to serve us what we had yesterday the the dish called shimotsuka she said actually tastes a lot better the next day and i also got a cup of green tea hot green tea tacos that certainly wakes me up okay so let's try that she once got it the local food she with all the various ingredients in here the flavors have sort of intensified compared to what we had yesterday you can taste more of the the fish you can taste more of the the radish as well everything is just stronger in flavor and it's such a well-balanced breakfast so many ingredients in here and now it's coffee time for me coffee is necessary in the morning mmm home video coffee it's good i always made it at home it's like that shimmer scallop now i understand i heard second days shimotsuka is better than first today yes i understand so that every ingredient's flavor comes together and mix nicely and also sake flavor blend into other ingredients so no sake sake flavor here so it's very comfortable now tasty very tasty [Music] thank you [Music] so we had such a great time here we really really did and uh so many things and trying to remember everything we did yesterday we went to the temple and we we got to chat with the monk there he was really cool guy i got to say he was a cool monk and you know we did the calligraphy never done that before and of course the whole ceremony they did for us when we were praying for world peace and harmony and then you know first time harvesting carrots and of course we got to meet this wonderful lady uh at our accommodations i want to come again and have more relaxing time here me too me too yeah this is so great so we have another fun filled day prepared for us today so that is coming our next video so stay tuned thank you so much guys for watching this video and thank you to everyone that we met today uh in tochigi and yesterday as always let us know your thoughts in the comments down below and if you're new to our channel and you enjoy videos like this one subscribe thank you for watching see you next delicious adventure bye [Music]
2022-05-29 10:59
