Miyagi Trip 2017 - Day 3

Today is another beautiful day. After wake up and admiring the nice garden view outside, I took a nice bath before going to the same restaurant we had dinner the night before, where we have a buffet-style breakfast.

There is a good range of food, mainly of Japanese style, and I was impressed by the amount of different pickles available. The pickled vegetable are good, but what I like most is definitely the miso soup. It was made from the white miso of Sendai and adding a lot of small clams. As a result the soup is very sweet and umami in taste.

After check-out we drove a long way, about 2.5 hours, to Kesennuma. This city is badly hit by the tsunami in 2011, and when we were near the fish market we can still see a lot of the damages, with some buildings broken and abandoned. But at the same time a lot of places are under construction. The roads are also newly paved. Lots of re-building effort are evidenced, and the citizens deserve all the encouragement. Ganbatte!

Arriving at the fish market, we went to the newly built Umi no Ichi, which is a two-storeyed building having fresh fish market, stalls selling local produce and goods, restaurants, as well as a shark museum. Sadly there is not that many people around, but the seafood is certainly fresh and nice. But the place didn't have the facilities to cook for customers to enjoy on-site.

We then went to Ichiban Sushi, located on the second floor of the market. This is the first time i have a sushi-go-round in Japan, and each table has got a notepad for customers to order apart from taking sushi from the belt. Once you ordered your sushi is also delivered to you on the belt, and I wonder whether there are chance others may take your ordered sushi?

One special sushi you probably would not get elsewhere is the shark's fin sushi. The texture is the same as what you would expect, but the shark's fin is marinated and cooked so actually it is quite tasty.

My wife ordered the premium sushi set which has ten pieces of sushi, a salad, steamed egg and miso soup. Apparently the quality of the food is great as well just by looking at them. We were very contented with this meal and I am sure with more time the city would be back to its prosperity.

Then it was another long drive, this time about two hours, to Matsushima. It is renown as one of the top three Japanese sightseeing spots. After parking our car, we walked to Zuiganji, which is a Buddhist temple established in 828AD by the priest Jikaku Daishi, who spread the religion in the northern Japan.

The temple was subsequently rebuilt by Date Masamune in 1609, serving as his family temple. Since the temple is built in the era of a long period of civil wars, there are features normally only seen in castles. He also spared no expenses in doing that, and now the restored temple certainly gave you the sense how glamorous it was.

Inside the temple we could not take photos, but the carvings on the panel wall, which has vivid details of peacock and other creatures, are simply gorgeous. This is a national treasure and I can understand why. Interestingly in the main room there is a monk 'band' playing musical instruments like guitar and violin while singing the hymns. That is innovative and also good. I wonder whether they do that regularly?

We then walked back to Godaido, which is the symbol of Matsushima. Originally founded in 807AD and reconstructed in 1604, it is the oldest Momoyama-style building in northern Japan. Connecting to the building we have to walk on old bridges which are quite fun as there are only two strips of wood to walk on. For those who afraid of heights may be a bit intimidating.

It's about time we went to the ryokan, and tonight we booked Matsushima Sakan Shoan. Upon arrival our landlady is already waiting and came out to greet us, helping to take our luggage inside. She then prepared the green tea and snacks for us, and seeing the meticulous details she put in making and serving the tea we were all amazed.

Completed our registration we toured around the room. We had booked the only room with outdoor bath in the ryokan, but because of that sacrificing the view. The room is large, with a large living room, a sitting room with small pantry, a make-up room leading to a shower room which got both Japanese and western shower, and then further leading to the outdoor onsen bath.

Before dinner I took a bath and the spring water is very different than those in Naruko, with the Matsushima Onsen bascially colorless, with no sulfur smell at all, and quite smooth to the skin. It was not at too high a temperature too. Taking in the green trees and view while bathing is certainly one way to relax and cleanse your mind.

Getting hungry, our landlady came sharp at 6pm and took us to the restaurant. We had our private room and this turned out to be one of the best kaiseki meal I had so far. Everything is served in nice setting, and the quality of the food is amazing. Starting with an aperitif of sake, the appetizers are a pumpkin tofu with sea urchin which are great in taste, and the delicate small bites, which I particularly like the spiral shellfish which is rich in flavors.

The soup is so delicate, with the fish ball soft in texture but full of flavors. The matsutake is so intense in its highly aromatic note that our whole mouth was coated with the fragrance. And the piece of rice cake has some crab meat mixed into it, having an interesting chewy texture and rich in taste too. Another wonderful dish.

When the next dish came, both of us could not stop to give a big wow. The sashimi assortment is the most impressive I have ever seen, and I could not believe it is for the two of us. I could not remember all the different seafood we had, but trying to look at the photo again we had a kinki, shrimp, tuna, octopus, scallops, white fish (I don't know which type), big clam and red clam. Frankly we nearly could not finish the whole assortment, and they were all so fresh and sweet.

When the next one was served we were a bit puzzled. But the landlady explained that it was a free dish from the chef, which is another set of sashimi! Equally tasty but just a bit too much...

The next dish is the grilled meat, which included two pieces of nicely grilled Sendai beef, juicy and tender, so flavorful. There are some fresh greens accompanying, prepared in western style, along with some cooked ones in Japanese way, to go along with the grilled fish. Most restaurants would just have either one but this ryokan is offering both meat. And all of them equally great!!

To cleanse our palate there is a fig wine jelly which on its own is already a great dessert but having this really highlighted the attention of the chef and the integration of French cuisine elements into the kaiseki. We both like it very much.

Then the hotpot is served, which has abalone and wild chicken cooked in a broth with mushroom, leek and some other vegetable. The chicken meat has a firm texture but not tough, and the abalone is not rubbery at all. Both are tasty and again showcased the original flavors which I found the chef is very good at. A true tribute to that as I am also a strong believer of the importance of the original flavors of food.

At last it came to the rice, and by now we would expect it comes at a large portion. So we are not surprised to see the big pot, and the rice is cooked with eel. When the landlady opened the lid the aromas basically assaulted us. Even I was so full already I could not resist to have two full bowls, and the pickles and miso soup are good complements too.

For dessert there is the fresh fruit and a sesame ice-cream. It is a good wrap up of the great dinner we have, and honestly this meal is one of the best I have in Japan. We can't wait to see what our breakfast would bring tomorrow. Good night Matsushima!