Italian @ Bosco, Nagano

I almost forgot about our final meal in Nagano before we headed back to Tokyo. After having a great time on our recent Nagano trip, it was time for home. We had an hour before our shinkansen (bullet train) ride, and we had a quick lunch at La Travola nel Bosco, an Italian restaurant located a block away from Nagano train station. It was pretty easy to find, but it is on the second floor in a building with no elevators, so we had to leave the pram downstairs and lug our baggage (15 month old toddler included!) upstairs and then back down after our lunch and rush for our shinkansen (it seems like we're always rushing for planes/trains/buses whenever we're on holiday).

Bosco is quite a nice restaurant, with a classy atmosphere and good service. Prices were quite reasonable, and the food was delicious. Bosco offers a lunch special for couples: a choice of pasta, pizza, two desserts and two drinks, as well as focaccia and salad - all for 3000yen. Since we could only have a quick lunch, the three of us shared the couples' lunch special, which proved to be plenty enough. We liked everything, and the only thing we wished for was more time to savour the food and atmosphere.

The Duck Salad and Frittata was delicious and surprisingly quite substantial (two plates were served); and the Focaccia was fresh and very more-ish:

We enjoyed the Pizza Capricciosa which had Italian sausage and arugula; and the Fettucine Carbonara was rich and creamy:

Dessert was Zuccotta, an ice-cream/cake dessert; and Panna Cotta:

Cute snow monkeys @ Nagano

The main reason of our recent visit to Nagano was to see the snow monkeys at the Jigokudani Monkey Park. We first visited Nagano three years ago, but the purpose of that trip was to snowboard and hence we didn't do much sightseeing. Rob often mentioned that we ought to go back to Nagano to see the snow monkeys, and so here we were, in these snowy parts of Japan, to peep on snow monkeys taking a bath in the onsen (hot springs).

The town that we stayed in for the two days, Yudanaka Onsen, is quite a lovely town. It's a half hour scenic stroll to the nearby Shibu Onsen, which I embarked with toddler in pram while my sister and husband went snowboarding at a nearby ski field (it was Honey's first time, and Rob has wanted to snowboard a lot more than me, so it made sense for me to stay behind with Zak). Not as exciting as snowboarding, but I wasn't going to waste time and mope around the ryokan.

A panoramic shot of the river running through the town (click for larger image):

I love Japanese rivers, regardless of how manmade they are; and a mini stream of hot spring:

Early the following day, we headed out to the Jigokudani Yaen Koen to see the snow monkeys. The name Jigokudani means "Hell's Valley" and the park is so named because of the steam that blows out of small crevices in the ground. During winter, getting to the park involves hiking 1.6km in the snow through the slopes of the forest, making for quite a slippery walk and ropes were kindly provided to tie around our shoes to help with traction in the snow. Having good traction in the snow was especially important for the person carrying the precious 11kg cargo, which was me on the way up, and then Rob took Zak on the way down.

A sign saying that tying ropes on the shoes would help avoid slipping in the snow; and the mountainous snowy terrain on the hike:

Sign of life after walking through the snowy forest for half an hour: a minshuku (a Japanese inn) located next to the Monkey Park; and looking down at this minshuku from above - that's a steam outlet for the hot springs, and there were monkeys roaming all around the area:

Young monkeys play fighting over a ball of snow; and monkeys having a nice hot bath in the onsen:

Bathing with grooming service included:

Eating, Bathing and Sleeping the traditional Japanese way in Nagano

After hanging out in Nagano city for a few hours, we headed north to Yudanaka Onsen in Yamanouchi town, which is about an hour's train ride from the city. The main reason for visiting this town is to see the snow monkeys in the nearby Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park, but Yudanaka is also an onsen (hot springs) area, and we enjoyed our stay in this town the traditional Japanese style. We were initially booked to stay only one night at Ryokan Issa no Komichi Biyu no Yado, see the snow monkeys the next day then head south of Nagano to Matsumoto, but we enjoyed the first night so much that we made a spontaneous decision to scrap our trip to Matsumoto and stay another night in Yudanaka. The ryokan owner (who spoke excellent English) informed us that there was vacancy, and offered us the same rate as our first night.

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn typically offers their guests a Japanese room with tatami mats, communal baths and gorgeous Japanese kaiseki cuisine. Ryokan Biyu is a fairly modern Japanese inn, offering both Japanese and western style rooms, a private bathroom in each room, and features both indoor and outdoor public onsen baths. And the food was delicious! Service was impeccable, and the ryokan staff were very accommodating to our 14 month old toddler. We had a very comfortable stay and enjoyed a relaxing soak in the hot spring bath each day.

Given tea service upon reception at Ryokan Biyu; and our 14-tatami room, with complimentary Japanese cake on the table:

For dinner on Day 1, we enjoyed a traditional Japanese meal that included a mini beef nabe, soba, seaweed and sashimi with apple wine. Fish and tempura were served freshly prepared. The highlight of the dinner was harvesting our very own mushrooms for the grill!

Fish and vegetable tempura were served freshly cooked and piping hot:

Light soup and a refreshing dessert of fuji apple and caramel pudding with a fruity jelly topping.. The caramel was delicious and not too sweet like most caramel-flavoured stuff often are!

After dinner we returned to our room to find that the futons had been rolled out, ready for us to sleep in:

On the second day, we rolled out of futon, and went to the dining room for our breakfast. We enjoyed a traditional Japanese breakfast that included udon noodles, onsen tamago (hot springs egg), salmon, miso soup, rice, pickles, simmered eggplant and salad with apple juice.

Dinner that night was Shabu-shabu, which is a winter hot pot dish of vegetables and thin slices of beef. The condiments for shabu-shabu were ponzu (citrusy soy sauce) and goma-dare (sesame sauce), and we enjoyed a sweet cassis wine with dinner. Like the previous night, two additional dishes (beef and seafood) were served freshly prepared.

The necessary ingredients for shabu-shabu: a pot of boiling water, vegetables and thin slices of beef; and the ponzu and goma-dare, cassis wine and sashimi to go with the shabu-shabu:

Rich eggy buttery bread with a rich beef broth; and the hotpot with all the vegetables inside - to eat shabu-shabu, we take individual slices of beef, swish it around in the boiling broth briefly to cook, dip in the condiments and then eat. We eat the vegetables in the same manner too :

Fresh seafood, steamed in a bamboo cylinder; and delicious fried fish:

Refreshing grape sorbet:

Breakfast on day 3 - there were udon noodles, miso soup, rice and pickles, the same as the day before, but we also enjoyed omelette, fried unagi (eel), ham and yamaimo (Japanese yam):

As you can see, we enjoyed a lot of good food. If you're ever in Japan, I definitely recommend staying a night or two in a ryokan. Photos of cute snow monkeys to follow, so stay tuned!

Nagano Trip '09: Zenkoji and Soba

The day after Christmas, we hopped on the shinkansen (bullet train) and headed towards Nagano. Our trip destination was to Yudanaka Onsen which is about an hour's train ride to the north of Nagano city, but we decided to spend a couple of hours in the city before heading out. We walked almost 2 km from the Nagano train station to the city's main attraction, Zenkoji, a Buddhist temple known for housing a hibutsu, a hidden Buddha statue. Apparently, this particular statue was the first Buddha statue to be brought to Japan, and the temple prohibits anyone from seeing it, including the chief priest of the temple. A replica of the statue is displayed to the public every six or seven years. I didn't even see the main hall of Zenko-ji because I volunteered to stay outside the gate with the baby pram.

Niomon Gate, featuring two guardians (with flowery nipples); and approaching the Sanmon Gate:

A water feature just outside the Sanmon Gate; and the Sanmon Gate from where I was seated with the baby pram:

One of the things that Nagano is famous for is its soba (buckwheat noodles), and there was no shortage of omiyage (souvenir) shops selling soba-related products such as oyaki, a dumpling made from buckwheat dough and stuffed with a variety of fillings. We tried a mushroom and vegetable oyaki, which was pretty nice. We couldn't go past a miso-flavour soft serve ice cream, which tasted quite good. The miso flavour was mild, but you could taste it in the ice cream.

Oyaki; and miso-flavoured soft serve:

There is a traditional soba restaurant located near the entrance to Zenkoji, featuring a large window where you can watch a soba chef work his magic to produce handmade soba noodles. It was around 2pm when we left the temple, and although we were still full from lunch and all the snacks we'd eaten along the way, we decided to give this place a try. We shared a Zaru-soba with Tempura, cold noodles served on a bamboo basket with a tempura prawn. I love soba and often use the dried version to cook a quick lunch, but I could happily eat freshly made noodles all the time if it was readily available to me. These fresh handmade noodles were so good that I could enjoy it on its own without using any of the condiments and sauce. We also shared a glass of Soba Sake which I can only assume is made from buckwheat. It was pretty strong, but I liked its smoothness.

A soba chef working it: rolling out the dough, and then cutting into thin slices:

Delicious handmade soba with soba sake:

We then enjoyed the walk back to the station, and took a 45-minute train ride to Yudanaka where we spent the rest of our holiday time. This is only part of day one of our 3-day trip to Nagano, so stay tuned for more!

Gravity Worx, Hakuba (Nagano-ken)

At the end of our snowboarding lesson on Day 2 of our Nagano trip, we were starving. Especially since we'd skipped out on lunch break in favour of having a longer lesson time. When we asked around for recommendations on where to eat in Hakuba, several people mentioned Gravity Worx. This place is also recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide, so we just had to try out this restaurant. It is located near the Hakuba eki (train station) so it's quite convenient to get to.

Gravity Worx serves pizza and pasta, made with organically grown ingredients. It is such a lovely and cosy place, which was very welcoming compared to the cold snowy evening outside. We noticed that the interior was somewhat Aussie-like, with didgeridoos, Australian cooking magazines and books on display. Apparently the chefs that work at the restaurant are Australians. It certainly seems like Hakuba is a popular place for Aussies! The hostess was friendly and spoke English really well. The food was excellently prepared, and was delicious.

The back of the restaurant where the bar and the door to the kitchen were; and huge organic tomatoes:


Our group chillaxing; and my cup and pot of mint tea, which was quite potent and delicious:


Starters

Herb bread and garlic bread - toasty warm and tasted oh-so-good:


Mains

I ordered spaghetti with "fresh tomato sauce with tuna and ovengrilled veges". Tuna flakes, grilled onions, pumpkin and carrots were a good combination in this pasta dish:


Rob went for a pizza made with "sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon". The pizza crust was deliciously thin and crispy:


Kim ordered penne with "basil cream sauce with chicken and mushroom" - it looked good, and was tasty too (although being cream-based, I wouldn't be able to have a whole plate myself):


Richie's order was a "fresh tomato, basil pesto, garlic, bacon and black olive pizza" which was as yummy as Rob's pizza:


Dessert

Of course, we had to have some dessert to finish the meal. Rather than having a dessert each, we decided to order three to share.

Orange-nut cake with yoghurt and ice-cream - the citrus frangrance from the orange rind complemented the nuttiness of the cake. The plain yoghurt and vanilla ice-cream were a nice finish to this dessert:


Belgian Chocolate Cake (actually, on the menu board, it read "Bergin Choc Cake", and it took us awhile to figure out what 'bergin' actually was). So rich, moist and chocolatey. There is an option to have this cake with ice-cream as well, but I think having the ice-cream would have made it OTT:


Apple pie with ice cream - made with puff pastry rather than the usual crusty rustic pastry. Add three scoops of vanilla ice cream, and you have a wonderful plate of dessert:



This was the perfect place to chillout and relax after a hard day of snowboarding in the freezing cold and enjoy good gaijin tucker.