Miyagi Trip 2017 - Day 5

After a good sleep on tatami, we woke up to a cool morning and I made a quick dip in the onsen bath to freshen up before the landlady came to prepare our breakfast. Like the dinner on the previous night, the breakfast is also very good with all the different elements tasty.

Before check-out we went for a short walk around the ryokan, to the visitor centre where there were some good information for the area, the different ryokan in Akiu Onsen.

Then we drove to Shiogama to visit one of the most famous sake brewery in Miyagi - Urakasumi. But on the way we stopped at the Akiu Village which is a modern market selling local produce, snacks and having a few restaurants. The fruit and vegetable are very fresh and tempting, and we bought a large bag of grapes at only 250 yen!

After half a hour we arrived at Shiogama. The city is used to produce a lot of salt and hence got its name. Soon we were at Urakasumi Brewery but looks like apart from a shop the brewery is not accepting visitors. I decided to try my luck and ask the staff whether they would allow me to have a quick look, and after the staff consulted with a senior (I guess he is the current owner) an English-speaking staff came to greet us and showed us around. How lucky!

We went to look at the old temple entrance that the brewery had saved from destruction many years ago and now putting in front of their main building, to a glimpse of the brewery from the outside, seeing the stainless steel tanks that had replaced the enamel ones after the last earthquake. She also showed us some photos of how the tsunami had hit them and how deep the water was and I could not believe it. After seeing the damages in Kesennuma I was shocked that even for Shiogama and so far away from the seaside it still got affected.

Buying a sake to take home (this is the sixth bottle for this trip) we walked to a sushi restaurant nearby for lunch. Sushi Tetsu is popular in the city, with the restaurant virtually full when we arrived, and it was not yet noon. The premium set I ordered had 12 pieces, fresh and very tasty. I also like the soup which is prepared using the head of shrimp.

We further walked around the town and had a cup of coffee at the cafe near the train station, but frankly there is nothing to see. Returning to the car we planned to visit the Shiogama Shrine but then it started to rain. Deciding to skip that, we drove to the hotel we would stay for the night, Yuzukushi Salon Ichinobo.

The hotel is located in Yuzukushi Onsen, adjacent to Akiu Onsen. This hotel is the sort of big facility that caters for large groups, and arriving early, it was not yet busy. Our room is Room 507, spacious with Japanese setting, and having an indoor onsen.

General speaking the room is not kept in the spotless manner that I am now expecting, which is a bit disappointing. Thinking that it might be due to the large number of rooms the staff need to look after, I think it might be better next time to skip all such hotels.

Believing that the public bath would be very crowded and would not excite me, we just enjoyed the onsen in the room. And the buffet dinner is served in the big restaurant. Our package including a half bottle of Asti. Honestly the quality of the food is not bad at all, and many of the food in fact gave me a pleasant surprise, of good taste and are made on order. This dinner really helped to bring back a lot of the lost ground in my opinion.