Monday 2 April 2012

Japan Day 4 -Kyoto / Hikone

We went to Hikone for a day trip from Kyoto with our friends.  
We just went to a restaurant that's recommended by the local tourist guide.  

The eel was grilled then steamed.  It tasted quite average.

On the other hand, their tempura udon was really nice. The dipping soya sauce has a smokey flavour.

Hikone castle is one of the very few castle left that's with its original keep.

If you plan to go inside, make sure you are in comfortable walking shoes..
To get up to the top, you have to go up these stairs that are MEGA steep!!!


There was quite a bit of walking to get up to the castle :p but it was worth it. 
It was surrounded by a very pretty Japanese garden




Plum blossom garden :)

went for Japanese tea afterwards :)


red bean with jelly and mochi ball with dark sugar sauce

mochi ball in red bean soup (cold version)

here's the hot version where the mochi was grilled
They are served with salty seaweed to balance out the sweet flavour from the red bean soup

Macha with sakura japanese sweet.


these grilled mochi is really yum!
they put these mochi ball into this shaking grill :p
the shaking motion moves the mochi ball around to brown the whole surface such that it gives you a crunch when you bite onto it :)

Hikone is around an hour train from Kyoto. 
At the kyoto station, there's this Ramen street on the 11th (or 10th?) floor.
There are around 8 ramen shops selling Ramen from different region.
We tried out two of them :)

want to try the black soup ramen - where the stock was made by little black fish
but sold out :(
so went for another one which was so so :(


They have the option of thin/thick noodles.
we went for thick ones this time to try it out :p

It's pork bone stock this time and it was veryyyyy nice :)






3 comments:

  1. Hi, May I know the location of the grilled eel?

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    Replies
    1. Sorry.. I can't remember where it is exactly.
      It was at Hikone. We took a local tourist guide from the train station and this restaurant was recommended.
      It was quite a walk from the station and it wasn't easy to find.

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