Minakami(水上) station in Gunma（群馬） Prefecture. From Ueno station in Tokyo, it is about two and a half hour to three hours by train. There are a few souvenir stores right in front of the station, but other than that, the town is very quiet.

Very nice grilled curry gratin rice in Caffe Restaurant ASIMA near Minakami station.

We stayed in Ousenkaku(汪泉閣) of Takaragawa hotspring(宝川温泉). The hotel sent a bus to pick us up from Minakami station.

Reception room where we were served tea and were introduced to the facilities in the hotel. The Japanese staff spoke really good English and Mandarin(!!). That’s probably why there were quite a lot of foreign visitors. We wanted to save up money, so we stayed in the cheapest room without toilet and bath inside. There is a toilet right outside our room and we took shower before going into the hotspring anyway, so it wasn’t that bad. The whole stay including dinner and breakfast is less than 10,000yen per person(there were two of us). The contents of the meals are exactly the same whichever room you stay in.

View from our room.

You need to cross a bridge to go to the hotspring.

Breath-taking views!

Bears in cages!

Entrance to the hotsprings.

There are 3 konyoku(mixed-gender bathing) hotsprings and 1 female-only hotspring. Females are allowed to go into the mixed hotsprings with bath towels wrapped around their bodies(usually you cannot put a towel into the hotspring water), but we were still too chicken and went straight for the female-only one.

Okay you are not supposed to take pics of the hotsprings…but we were early and there was no one there. ^^;;

The stream is right next to the hotspring.

Dinner time! If you pay more, you can have dinner served in your room. But we just ate in the restaurant.

Some river fish’s sashimi and its roe. Chawanmushi and tempura.

Beef kaminabe(paper hotpot).

Grilled fish, mushroom and root vegetables.

Grilled chicken. Bear soup. I asked the waitress about the bear soup and she reassured me that the bear meat is from Hokkaido and NOT from the bears we saw earlier. ^^;; The food is really tasty. I especially like the beef, and also the bear soup which has many goodies like different kinds of taro, root vegetables and chewy floury things. I was so so so stuffed by the end.

Breakfast. You can choose either Japanese or Western.

A day trip to Karuizawa! One-way ticket is about 5000yen but a friend got us a cheap 6000yen two-way ticket so there we go. It is only about 1hr from Tokyo station so a day trip is totally possible. My friend brought champagne and olives so we started having a party inside the Shinkansen. She even brought ice to keep the champagne chilled, also wine glasses, which apparently were cheapy ones bought in 100yen shop so we just dropped them into the rubbish bin when we arrived at the Karuizawa station! XD!

Hermitage de Tamula (エルミタージュ・ドゥ・タムラ)
Apparently this is THE place to go for a nice lunch in Karuizawa.

サーモンのマリネを新米ともに。
Salmon marinade with rice. There is ikura(salmon roe) and a quail egg underneath.

そばパン。 海の幸と野菜の一皿。
Soba bread. Olive paste is really good.
Seafood and vegetables dish – so pretty! Sauce is beets, tomato and Rucola.

キノコのパイ包み、アンコウ添え。
Mushroom pie, with fried Anko(Monk fish).

金目鯛、春菊のソース。
ドンブ産ウズラ、キャベツのプレゼ包み。
Kinmedai(Alfonsino) in Shungiku(Chrysantemum leaves) sauce.
Quail with cabbage. Under the quail leg is polenta.

My friends’ desserts. The apple soup is the chef’s specialty apparently.

コーヒー風味のモンブラン。
I had the safe coffee Mont blanc. Petit fours.

Right pic is the madam sending off my friends. Lunch is 8400yen. Glass wine is 2100yen so it is better to share bottle wine which we did. Tax is included, service charge is 10%. I like the food alright. With a lovely environment like this, even cup noodles will taste fantastic. XD!! We sat inside in the main dining area but the tables next to the window have a better view of the greens outside. Oh by an amazing coincidence…I bumped into a friend on the way to the toilet!! XD!!

We didn’t actually plan it but somehow we went at the perfect timing – red leaves! It was sunny so we took a long walk after lunch.

Resort houses.

Beautiful pond called Kumobaike(雲場池) which is about half an hour walk from our lunch place.

Red leaves red leaves everywhere.

It was more than half an hour walk from the pond to “Old Karuizawa”. It turned dark very quickly and got quite cold…but I couldn’t resist getting the famous “soft cream” while walking around “Karuizawa Ginza” shopping area. Also bought pudding and cheesecake from Paomu as souvenir.

Kawakamian (川上庵)
Before we took the train back to Tokyo, we went to a popular soba shop, which looks more like a trendy dining restaurant than a soba place! Luckily we booked in advance cos the queue was really long.

牡蠣天ぷら。 鴨南蛮そば（大）。
Oyster tempura and duck nanban soba(large size).

イノダコーヒー本店(INODA COFFEE)
ビーフカツサンド＋プレミアムコーヒー、￥２２２６。
Breakfast. A massive queue outside the shop! Most of them carrying Kyoto guidebooks….just like me. ^^;;; Beef cutlet sandwich and Premium coffee. Very good but…quite expensive!!!!

北野天満宮(Kitano Tenmangu)
My camera was breaking down so some of the photos are from my friend’s camera, like this one. So pretty.

出町ふたば(Futaba)
豆餅。 桜餅。
Famous “mame-mochi”, same as daifuku studded with whole beans. Also got sakura-mochi.

八坂の塔・法観寺(Yasaka Pagoda – Houkanji Temple)
Not sure if the two maiko are the real thing, since nowadays “maiko taiken” or “maiko henshin” is popular.

二年坂・三年坂(Ninenzaka – Sannenzaka)

修伯(Shuuhaku)
Lunch course 5250yen.

わさび菜・飯だこの酢みそあえ・ふきのとうのてんぷら・いんげん
小鯛と京都大原の朝どり竹の子の吸い物
Wasabi leaf, iidako(octupus) with vinegar and miso, fukinoto tempura, kidney beans.
Bream and bamboo shoot suimono(clear soup).

お造り

鯛・ひらめ
あおりいか・ブリ
Bream, flatfish.
Squid, yellowtail.

鯖棒寿司・づけまぐろ寿司
角煮入り海老芋まんじゅう
Mackerel sushi, maguro sushi.
Ebiimo manju with kakuni inside.

ブリの味噌漬け・揚げジャガイモと揚げ白板昆布
ふきごはん・香の物
Grilled yellowtail with miso, fried potato and fried konbu.
Rice cooked with fuki. Pickles.

イチゴヨーグルトパフェ
くるみのミルフィーユ
For dessert, you can order as many as you want.
Strawberry yogurt parfait. Has yogurt ice-cream, strawberry, coconut pudding, jelly and rice(!) in it. Very good.
Walnut mille-feuille.

はったい粉の大福
抹茶白玉入り汁粉
Daifuku made with hattaiko(flour of roasted barley).
Shiruko with green tea shiratama.

抹茶アイス
Matcha ice-cream.
Overall the food is very good. The saba(mackerel) sushi is absolutely amazing. Though the main dish(grilled fish) is a bit dry…There were two types of fish for you to choose as the main. I chose the one that is normally more fatty and my friend picked the other. Turned out that my friend’s choice was fish cheek, which we weren’t told – the cheek of a skinny fish will be more juicy than the body part of a fat fish. ^^;;;; Anyway, the main chef only appeared from time to time. Most of the stuff was cooked by the two young apprentices…

Got a Mackerel sushi to eat on the shinkansen. Unfortunately I bought from the WRONG shop!! My friend recommended this shop. Argh next time! ^^;;

Very short but a great trip~

Le Petit Mec(ル・プチメック)
Breakfast in a cute bakery cafe.

Right pic is mine…a sandwich and two tarts. ^^;;

大原三千院(Ohara Sanzenin)
Ohara is a bit far and we went there by car.

Creepy but I just love it!!

So cute~~

宝泉院(Hosenin)
Also in Ohara.

You can hear some “ding ding” water sound from the holes on the wood.

京・上賀茂　萬川(Mankawa)
Menu here.
京野菜味わいセット、￥１８９０。
1890yen lunch course.

桜花酒。おばんざい盛り合わせ。
Sakura sake. Obanzai(Kyoto daily family dishes).

京水菜のサラダ。白味噌仕立ての豆乳。
Mizuna salad. White miso soybean milk.

筍の田楽。ハーブ豚の角煮と旬の京野菜のあんかけ。
Bamboo shoot dengaku(spread with miso and grilled).
Simmered herb pork and Kyoto vegetables in ankake(starchy sauce).

十五穀米の湯葉あんかけとお漬物。
15-grain rice with yuba ankake.
For a lunch less than 2000yen, the standard is very high. Kyoto food with a modern touch. Very handy if you are short of cash….

一乗寺中谷(Ichijouji Nakatani)
Menu: 1, 2, 3.

本日のパフェ、￥８３０。
Today’s parfait. Ice-cream is sakura flavour, so nice!!

中谷パフェ、￥９５０。
絹ごし緑茶てぃらみす。
Nakatani parfait. Green tea tiramisu.

京都花灯路(Kyoto Hanatouro)
“Light-up” event in March. Pretty nice but not as big-scale as I had expected. It was raining but still very crowded~.

余志屋（Yoshiya)
Dinner. Menu: 1, 2.
飯だこ煮。
Simmered Iidako(octopus). Very soft!

焼き茄子のゴマだれ。 野菜あんかけ。
Grilled aubergine in sesame sauce. Vegetables in ankake(starchy sauce). The Japanese starchy sauce is not oily and completely drinkable, unlike the chinese kind. Apparently it is very common Kyoto cooking style in winter because the thick starch sauce keeps the food warm.

鴨まんじゅう。
Duck manju.

釜めし：えび、とり、竹の子、他。
This place is famous for its kamameshi(From Wikipedia: a traditional Japanese rice dish cooked in an iron pot with various kinds of meat, seafood, and vegetables). This one has prawn, chicken, bamboo shoot and other stuff.

釜めし：穴子。
Kamameshi with anago.
All the food are very good. Traditional Kyoto winter food that really warms you up. We only had tea and no alcohol with the meal and it was 10,000yen for 3 people.

草喰 なかひがし(Soujiki Nakahigashi)
Soujiki literally means “eating glass”. The owner chef spends 2,3 hours every morning picking wild grass and turnｓ them into wonderful cuisine. My friend told me this is the kind of food that Japanese eat in the past. Somehow I have two serious friends who carried a wild grass dictionary with them and studied it while they ate….Reservation is nearly impossible. My friend’s mom helped to call one month in advance, on the first day of the month starting from 8am…and apparently she kept phoning non-stop for 30 mins until finally she got through the line. It is that crazy.

【前菜】
赤かぶと干柿ときんかんの椿仕立て
いざさ（びわ湖で取れたもの）の炊いたん
さといもとそら豆の白玉
ブロッコリー
甘草
天仁
鹿肉ののり巻き
はまぐりのおこわ
“Camellia” made from red turnip, dried persimmon, kinkan(orange), venison seaweed roll. Close-up of the clam rice.

【口取り】
ふきのとうの白和え、芽の出たつくしを添えて
【お椀】
海老芋と田ぜりの白味噌汁
Fukinoto shiraae(tofu dressing).
Ebiimo and parsley miso soup.

【焼き物】
岩魚塩焼き、のびる酢添え
【刺身】
こいのおつくりと皮
にんじんのわかめ巻き
辛味大根のすりおろし、たんぽぽ、菜の花
おらんだがらし、わさび菜、こいのあらいの煮こごり
Grilled Iwana fish.
Koi(carp) sashimi and skin.
Carrot rolled in wakame.
Radish, dandelion, nanohana.
Watercress, wasabi leaf, koi nikogori(gelatin from cooked fish).

【炊き合わせ】
めかじ、たけの子、ゆば、かに
はたけ菜の煮びたし
Bamboo shoot, yuba, crab etc.
Hatakena.

【おつけもの】
大根、赤かぶ、黄人参、菜の花、昆布
【ご飯】
おくどさんで炊いたご飯
堀川ごぼうのひげ根と人参のごま和え
ねぎみそ
めざしの丸干し
Pickles. Rice.
Burdock root and carrot with sesame.
Leek and miso.
Mezashi(salted dried sardine).

【水菓子】
上賀茂の朝どりいちご
ぶんたん
きなこアイス
Fresh picked strawberry, buntan, and soybean flour.

Lunch course is 5000yen. All the veggy and the grass and the flowers have a kind of natural bitterness, but it is not unpleasant. In fact the bitterness is the good part.

銀閣寺(Ginkaku-ji)

南禅寺(Nanzen-ji Zen Temple)

祇園小石(Gion Koishi)
Famous Kyoto candy shop.

抹茶クリームあんみつ、￥８１０。
Matcha cream anmitsu. Matcha ice-cream is very nice~

黒糖シフォンパフェ、￥９５０。
あめやさんのキャラメルあんみつ、￥８４０
Kokutou(black sugar) chiffon parfait. Kokutou is this shop’s specialty.
Caramel anmitsu.
As souvenir I got this. The kokutou one is super yummy.

瓢亭MARU(Hyoutei Maru)
This is a casual branch of an expensive washoku restaurant.
Part of the menu(J): 1, 2.

暖かキノコと京菜のサラダ。
牛の梅しそ焼。
Warm mushroom and kyona(mizuna) salad. This is good.
Grilled beef with ume and shiso.

カンパチかま塩焼き。
まる鍋（すっぽん）。
Grilled yellowtail(kanpachi) cheek. Fatty and juicy.
Maru-nabe(Turtle hotpot). The soup is nice.

竹の子ご飯。
ぐじ（甘鯛）塩焼き。
Bamboo shoot rice.
Grilled amadai(bream). This one is expensive but a bit normal.
All these food plus 3 drinks, 7700yen. The food is quite izakaya feel. Slightly expensive perhaps.

Patisserie au Grenier D’or (パティスリー　オ・グルニエ・ドール)
The cafe space is very cute but too bad we didn’t have time to eat-in. We bought two cakes and ate in the hotel room. Both are very good!

なごやか亭　発寒店
友人オススメの回転寿司店。
さんま、ウニ、いくら。

活ほっき。キンキ。

炙りサーモン。炙りさんま。

しめサバ。サーモンちゃんちゃん焼き。全部で２０７９円。

北のグルメ亭（中央卸売市場）
うに・いくら・毛蟹の３色丼、２６００円。

花畑牧場（千歳空港）
夕張メロンミルク、３００円。

The first sushi shop is really cheap and good, though it is slightly far from the city center. Seared salmon is very good! I ate 8 dishes and it was only 2000yen. Before going to the airport, one last meal in a bigger fish market which is on my way back from the sushi place. It is much better than the small market I went on the second day, but still it is a bit touristy – had to wait for half an hour to get a seat – and the price is stiff. They claimed to have “no.1 ikura in Japan”…well the ikura was certainly the best in this trip, can’t say I haven’t had better though. The melon ice-cream in the airport was good too!

カリー・サボイ(Curry Savoy)
サボイカリー（キチン）に舞茸となすをトッピング。チャイがついて、１５００円ぐらい。

円山茶寮
いちごぜんざい、白玉入り。フレンチミックス。

ホワイトコージ　よつ葉
パフェ・オ・カフェ（６８２円）。お酒とコーヒーゼリー入り。
This day I was alone, also the next day. Soup curry originated in Hokkaido so of course I had to try! It has a huge piece of chicken and more chunks of potato, aubergine, mushroom in it, I was sooooooooo stuffed afterwards, that I even couldn’t eat dinner!! But what bugged me a lot was the 3 big flies that hovered around my seat. I sat at the counter so the chefs were right in front of me and one of them saw me dodging the flies and apologised….rather than apologies I wish he would just do some cleaning…One of the fly landed on the rice that was to be delivered to other customers who sat on the tables away from the kitchen, I thought I was going to say something but I knew it was useless cos the shop people knew the flies were there but just ignored them! I just couldn’t enjoy eating it when I had to dodge and chew and fend and chew, one of the flies landed on my chai tea…oh well. Though I was really full from the rather late lunch, I followed my sweet-loving friend’s recommendation and went to this old Japanese-styled cafe, which was so atmospheric, lots of loner customers reading and having the same strawberry sauce and read-bean with ice-cream. It is this day that I had nothing to do and went to see Charlie and Sin City. The coffee jelly parfait was the 1 hour break between the two movies. ^^;;