Wednesday, August 03, 2016

July, 2016

北海道

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Ugh, even with some heavy editing these iPhone photos look terrible.

Hey, everyone! The bulk of July was spent in Hokkaido, where the trade-off for less Pokestops is the fine weather and amazing food.

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Like zangi, Hokkaido's version of fried chicken. The meat is seasoned before breading and frying, though most good shops nationwide do that anyways.

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Anyways, I drove north for a few days, taking the coastal roads through the tsunami-damaged cities of Tohoku. Ishinomaki in particular was more or less wiped out back in 2011, but now any sign of damage is gone. As a result, the coast is a sea of cement, ready for more cement buildings to be placed upon it. It is pretty ugly, but in general modern Japanese "normal" architecture is all pre-fab and unemotional.

The ocean is still breathtaking,

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so long as you go past the concrete tetrapods that make up 80% of Japan's coast.

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From there it was up to Aomori.

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The peak of Otake (大岳) is looking pretty clear in this shot. I could have summited it at this time, around 4 in the afternoon, and made it back down as the sun was setting. Instead, I camped and did the hike early the next day. In a brutal, horizontal rainstorm. I posted a video on my Instagram if you are curious. Well, checked another off the famous 100 mountains of Japan at least.

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No ferries left for the day meant a night in Aomori.

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Hokkaido, if it is down in Hakodate, always starts with the most famous restaurant in town.

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Lucky Pierrot. Never heard of it? Now you have.

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Ahhhh, Hokkaido.

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A place with ice cream and fresh milk on every street, and history everywhere you look.

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And uni. Summer means that the bafun uni in the region, considered the best in the world, is at its peak.

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So get your grub on!

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Love this shot.

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Love this shot.

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I ate a lot of melon.

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Even though Furano is a bit touristy for me, it ended up becoming a base-camp of sorts. There are a few of the famous mountains nearby, plenty of fast roads, and a rider's hotel that is 500 yen a night. That charge comes with a free melon, by the way.

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The top of Mt. Asahidake (旭岳). I brought a bottle of my friend's wine from France, drank it on the top, and ran back down the mountain drunk. Kind of the perfect day.

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Spent a considerable amount of time searching for some premium cheese, as Hokkaido is famous for dairy. Many hours and many kilometers later, I had a nice aged cheddar and a fantastic smoked Camembert. Why aren't they in the shot? I left the in the fridge at the hotel.

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What you can't see are the thousands of Chinese tourists. Seriously, Hokkaido has become a huge destination for mainland China lately. Funny thing was that none of them were at the good ramen shops I went to, they were all the head shops of shops that have branches in China. I went to both, cause ramen.

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Dude was up in Hokkaido with a surfboard strapped to his 80cc bike. His starting point was a little island in Okinawa. Live life, people!

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Mt. Tokachidake (十勝岳) was amazing. Sure, the skies weren't clear, but hiking up this simmering mountain felt so good. It is rated at 8 to 9 hours. I did it in less than 4, and could have been at 3:15 if I had started the hike at the correct parking area.

I look down at the surgery scars on my leg and remember, just a few years ago, a doctor telling me I may never walk properly again. I was prepared for the worst, or maybe just life with a limp, but I stayed positive, kept exercising, and now I'm running up and down 3000 meter peaks.

I wasn't drunk this time.

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Lake Toya. Beautiful campground. And with the money I saved, I went to Michelin 3-star Michel Bras Toya, at the nearby Windsor Hotel.

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The signature Gargouillou, a vegetable dish with 40 to 60 local ingredients.

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The signature coulant. Michel Bras invented the "chocolate lava cake" essentially. The version here was filled with chocolate and raspberry. Decadent.

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More uni. I made it a point to eat a ton of uni this trip. What I discovered was that I don't care for massive amounts of it. A little goes a long way, and a single piece, served with perfect sushi rice and a light seasoning is way beyond a massive bowl of the stuff, even if it is considered the best in the country.

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Hakodate. Uni and ramen. Check.

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With my time coming to a close in the northern island, I visited 3-star Sushi Tanabe in Sapporo, only to be told that a new no-photo policy was in place. Shame, as some of the pieces were quite nice.

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Back in Tokyo, at an elaborate invite-only sake pairing dinner.

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The craziest part of the meal was probably the mushrooms bathed in whale fat. Or maybe the deer with avocado. Or the goat cheese with caviar.

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I won't review much of it here, but I'm starting to learn how different classes of people define gourmet cuisine. The old image was that the ultra-rich had better taste, and that may hold water when you consider that they have more of a sample to go off of. But times have changed, and time and effort play a bigger role in accessibility to good food. Someone with a weekend job can visit all the hot spots during the week, and then watch as VIPs with private cars swirl their $15-a-bottle sake in expensive glasses, acting like it's their jam.

I shouldn't say anything negative, I like being invited to 1% foodie affairs.

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I also like that I roll into the Osaka branch of one of the best ramen shops in Japan, and they immediately give me their VIP sticker.

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