Japan Eating Trip Vol III

Welcome back to my Japan Eating Trip. Breakfast today was buffet at the hotel again but I decided to try out the famous Japanese fermented soy beans or Natto! I remembered my friend used to love it. I did not enjoy it though, the smell was too strong for me.

Natto aka smelly beans :)
It was so sticky and slimy! Definitely not my type of food!

After our fulfilling breakfast, we headed off to the train station to try out the Shinkansen or the Japanese Bullet Train.

Shinkansen!

The journey on the Shinkansen was more stable than I'd expected given its speed! We traveled during the peak hour so the whole train was packed! The train itself was really clean and the seat seemed really comfortable as most of its Japanese passengers were pretty much asleep.

I spotted a Beard Papa shop at the train station. I wanted to try it out to compare it to the ones I've had in Bangkok and Melbourne, but unfortunately it was closed. I was still craving for something sweet so I decided to try out the custard in the shop opposite from Beard Papa.

The beautifully packaged custard with its accompanying caramel sauce

This custard was very very creamy. The texture was soft and smooth, almost like eating heavy cream. It did not taste like there was any stabilizing agent such as gelatin at all.

After our short trip on the Shinkansen, we had a long bus ride to Oshino Hakai which had supposedly the best view for the Fuji Mountain. However, it was pretty foggy that day, so we were only able to spot the Fuji Mountain for a very brief time. I was told that we were considered pretty lucky as some tourists never get the chance to see the Fuji Mountain despite visiting several times as a result of the unpredictable weather.

I thought lunch was pretty interesting at first as I was told we were having BBQ on blocks of hot stone (or was it hot iron-cast plate). However, my excitement did not last long as I started getting pins and needles after around 15 min on the traditional Japanese seats.

The meat and vegetables ready for some BBQing action

After lunch, we went to a village which sells souvenirs and traditional Japanese food.

Grilled fish

Pre-grilled red bean mochi

Grilled Red Bean Mochi

Matarashi Dango

Japanese dumpling made out of rice flour, grilled and served with sauce made out of sugar, soy sauce, and starch. This was one of my favorite as the dango was crispy on the outside with a slight charred taste, but it appeared that I was the only one who enjoyed it in my family.

We spotted more soft serve ice cream with different flavors!

I decided to add 50 yen and tried one with different flavors. The one I had was vanilla, peach, and grape. I was very satisfied with the soft cream here as it's one of the better ones I've had!

After some snacks shopping, we proceeded to Gogeon rest house to enjoy more of the scenery.

A famous snack at Mt. Fuji

It's basically a green colored bun baked into little Fuji Mountain shape decorated with cocoa powder and icing sugar. It came fresh and warm out of the oven which was perfect for the cool weather at the Fuji Mountain.

We finally checked in at our hotel which was a Japanese spa resort with Onsen. The rooms were the traditional Japanese type with the Tatami flooring and the sliding door. We were also provided Yukata to wear around the hotel which I was pretty excited about.

For dinner, we had the Taraba Crab Buffet, which tasted even better as our tour guide also brought some Thai seafood sauce. I know it's not exactly traditional Japanese, but it doesn't hurt to spice up the meal, does it? :)

Taraba Crab legs!

We are finally at the end of my Japan Eating Trip Vol III, I will try to get the next one up as soon as possible! Hope you guys enjoy reading about my Japan Eating Trip so far.