Nagano – I'll Make It Myself!

Kabocha Soba Oyaki

The more I learn about cooking and food culture, the more I’ve become fascinated with cultural concepts of portable foods. As I’ve written before, Japan’s main example is onigiri, rice balls, but in the Shinshû/Nagano region, it’s oyaki, the steamed buns often made with savory fillings and soba-flour dough. Combine oyaki with another one of my…

What I Ate in Nagano, Day 3: Matsumoto, Miasa (長野の名産を食べる旅の第三日：松本・美麻)

What I Ate in Nagano, Day 1: On the Road to Yudanaka Onsen (長野の名産を食べる旅：第一日） What I Ate in Nagano, Day 2: Yamanouchi (長野の名産を食べる旅の第二日：山の上) On our last day in Nagano, we went to see Matsumoto Castle and drove through Hakuba and Miasa on the way back to Kanazawa. 長野の旅の最後の日には、松本城に見に行くために松本市へ行って、白馬・美麻経由に金沢の方に戻りました。

What I Ate in Nagano, Day 2: Yamanouchi (長野の名産を食べる旅の第二日：山の上)

Day 1: On the Road to Yudanaka Onsen (長野の名産を食べる旅：第一日) On our second day in Nagano, we headed to Yamanouchi to see the snow monkeys at the Jigokudani Monkey Park. We kind of took the long way around, but eventually we got on the right path. 長野の旅行の第２日には山の上の地獄谷野猿公苑へニホンザルを見に行きました。ちょっと道を迷ってしまいましたけど、やっと見つけて進みました。 The roads from Yudanaka Onsen to the park are…

What I Ate in Nagano, Day 1: On the Road to Yudanaka Onsen (長野の名産を食べる旅：第一日）

Craft beer wasn’t the only delicious thing I had on my trip to Nagano. Let’s recap! 今回日本語でも書いてみようと思って、日本語で読む興味がある方がいらっしゃいますか？スノーモンキービアライブのんために長野へのROAD TRIP、行こう！

Taiyaki Tour

ほかほか (hoka hoka): steaming hot food “So, taiyaki is shaped like the tai, which is considered to be—well, you know how this sentence is going to end. The way all my explanations end.” “’Good luck’?” my mother asks. “And also the other way all my explanations end: filled with bean paste.” There’s nothing like biting…

Will Translate for Jam

Regional and seasonal food in Japan is Serious Business.™ When I go on trips, I try to make a point of eating the regional specialties. Nagano is famous for a lot of delicious things. I bought the most delicious and cheapest of apples I’ve had in Japan at a stand with a cash box outside Zenkôji in Nagano City–4 for 200 yen! I discovered that Nagano actually has apricots, which are scanty and expensive in my region. I tried the regional Kit Kat flavors: shichimi, “seven-spice,” and apple.