November 17, 2025 Breakfast Resort Hotel , Lunch - Udon with egg Dinner - seven course banquet at our hotel.
We woke up and went to breakfast on on the Seventh floor dining room.
I was excited when I saw so many American food items. I ate pancakes with syrup, a croissant with butter and orange marmalade, Japanese omelet, and a sausage.
I then went to basement to the men’s bath room in the basement.
Then at 11:00 we met in the lobby, and were driven to a lovely udon restaurant next to the railroad station for lunch. I had pre-ordered a bowl of Udon with a nicely poached egg and a wonderful fried fish cake roll floating in the bowl with a pile of udon noodles submerged in a pleasant broth.
Suzette ordered a pork cutlet bowl filled with slices of pork cutlet and sautéed onions on top and rice in the bottom. We both drank beers.
It was a pleasant meal. Then we all got back on the bus and drove to the coast to the hot sand Enson. Neither Suzette or I took the sand bath where they cover you with geo thermal warmed sand from the beach. Everyone said it was tingly, but Suzette did a regular water soak and I sat outside and read my book.
Then we drove to a Bonita flake processing plant that produces 75 to 85% of the Bonita processed for dashi in the world. The facility is immense with wharfs were frozen Bonita are unloaded from ships and stored in -50 C degree warehouses until the day of processing. They are then sliced into four sections and thawed and deboned and then smoked and covered with a mold four times over a six month period until they turn solid purple and hard . At that point they will last forever, but our guide said they begin to lose their flavor after two years. There are 20 processing plants in the area that each process 1000 4 lb. Bonita each day.
At the end of the tour we each cranked a Bonita shaver and made miso soup with the shaved flakes in a cup with a bit of miso and rice. We bought flakes at a store and hope to make miso soup for our Christmas party.
We then returned to the hotel and rested until dinner. I am walking about 6000 steps a day regularly, especially since distances to the dining room and enson are so long.
We net in the lobby for dinner at 6:25 nd proceeded to a private dining room set wit trays on wooden platforms. After a bit of shuffling to make sure each person received their designated dinner tray, the 9 course banquet began.
First Course, Appetizers and plum wine. It was a good tasting almost clear plum wine. In a small bowl were a slice of wheat tofu spread with a spinach paste stacked on a piece of freeze dried tofu. Beside that was a persimmon leaf wrapped around a slice of Kirishima salmon sushi with kumquat paste on it. There was a small bowl with a chestnut fritter and two smaller fritters that may have been lilly buds. On a piece of paper was a slice of fried sweet potato, and next to it was a slice of puffer fish with small wasabi ball on it. In another small covered dish was a cube of pork covered with black sesame paste and topped with a goji berry.
Everything had been prepared ahead of time, so was room temperature and not very toothsome.
Second Course - Crab Meatball Soup- the broth was hot and deliciou, but the cranb meat had been mixed with potato flour and was doughy, like a matzo ball. I loved the slice of fresh black wood ear and green seaweed.
Third Course - Sashimi - this was delicious. A raw shrimp, two slices of Blu fin tuna, and three slices of a type of white amber Jack (hamachi) on a shiso leaf with micro greens a thin daikon threads with a small tower of wasabi on a lovely Imari ware square bowl.
Fourth Course - Takiawase Course. Overview
Takiawase is a Japanese dish of simmered ingredients, like vegetables, seafood, or meat, that are cooked separately and then combined in one bowl or on one plate, often with a dashi-based broth. The name means "simmered-together" or "to combine by simmering". It is frequently served as part of a formal meal or a multi-course kaiseki dinner, with the specific ingredients changing seasonally.
This evening the bowl contained a piece of braised pork belly, a sweet potato in the shape of a maple leaf, a slice of cucumber, two sliced of pickled radish and a bundle of fried tofu there was a thick sauce from a reduction of the cooking juices of the pork belly. I loved the tightly wound ball of tofu.
Fifth Course - Grilled Course - This was our least favorite dish. The grilled mackerel was hard to chew, the crab and miso were dried out also and the sweet potato tempura seemed cold to me and there was no dipping sauce. The only thing I liked was the miso wrapped with a perilla leave.
Sixth Dish - Mai Course - Black Pork Hot pot. This was the most fun dish of the meal, a bowl of broth heated by a stereo, with a dish filled with thin slices of local black pork, a bundle of enoki mushrooms, a few oyster mushrooms, two slices of scallion, a pile of bean thread noodles, and a pile of green sprouts. We cooked the ingredients in the boiling broth and ate them as they cooked. The dish was a delight and clearly the main dish.
By this point everyone was satiated and few ate either of the last two courses.
Seventh Course - Vinegared. Dish - Two slices of fresh Bonita in a bowl filled with sliced radish, red onion, and green onion and red fish roe in a light sauce.
I could only eat one slice of Bonita and it was a little tough.
Eight Course - rice and pickled vegetables and miso chicken and potato soup. I may have been the only one who elected to take this dish. The one bite of rice was nice. The miso was thick and filled tith cubes of chicken and potato and tiny cubes of carrot. It was hot and pleasant.
Ninth Course - Dessert - Large Grapes and persimmon slices. We were told that the grapes are bred to increase their size. They were the side of a good sized apricot and the persimmon was creamy and delicious.
Another massive meal that seemed to include recycled leftover items from the breakfast buffet in many cases, with a couple of high points, sashimi, pork hot pot and dessert.
Bon Appetit
