Delicious Japanese dinner at Ryokan: Yatsusankan
Today I would like to talk to you about this incredible Ryokan we stayed in during our trip around the Japanese Alps. I already published an entry describing the trip around this wonderful region in Where to eat in Japan: the Japanese Alps, but this experience deserved a separate entry of its own. We discovered this hotel thanks to Ichiban Japan, a helpful French site where we found lots of tips for out trip to Japan. In the site, he mentions this Ryokan as one of the best in Japan, so we had to go and look for ourselves, since we were passing very close by.
Ryokans are a type of traditional accomodation with tatami-matted floors, futons and rooms decorated in Japanese style. They are more expensive than the other type of traditional accomodation, minshuku (Japanese guest house), because they often have hot-spring pools, they serve Kaiseki food (traditional Japanese cuisine), the architecture and furniture is refined and beautiful, and service is generally impeccable. Yatsusankan has all this things: both an interior and an open-air hot spring pool, sourrounded by a lovely and calm Japanese garden; as well as delicious and fine Kaiseki food. Despite the high price, we did not regret to spend a night in such a magical place and to enjoy the incredible gastronomic experience.
The hotel has an ancient part which, the owners told us, was more than 200 years old! The architecture of the main room with its wooden structures and the Irori fireplace (traditional Japanese sunken hearth fired with charcoal) was ashtonishing. When walking through the corridors, with the old and refined furniture illuminated with smooth lights, dressed in your Yukatas, you feel like you travelled back in time. When you arrive, the service takes your luggage to the room while they serve you a comforting matcha tea and a sweet treat. After the entire day walking through Takayama, we really appreciated this detail. Here are some of the photos:
Once installed in our beatiful room, we could profit from the views to the Honkoji buddhist temple. We had a walk through the lovely historic centre of Hida-Furukawa to enjoy the sunset, and we came back to the hotel excited to try the open-air hot spring pool. It is really relaxing to take a hot bath while enjoying the views of the small garden at night, I could really get used to this ritual as my everyday routine!
Dinner Time
Finally the expected moment came. We had heard that the food at this Ryokan was very good, so we were excited to try it. First of all, the incredible atmophere is created by the fact that you arrive to a slightly illuminated corridor with a single door open. When you get inside, you find the lovely dinner display that is served in a privatized room. Each guest has its own dinning room, with beatiful views towards the inner garden. The appetizers are already waiting on top of the table.
Cold Appetizers
We started with a delicate Pacific saury with sansyo pepper (a spicy Japanese pepper plant with a citrus flavor that we discover during the trip), followed by Uruka: the ovary of Ayu fish served with cheese. The flavor of this last one was quite interesting. Then we continued with prawn dressed with fine grated kelp.
After this we had pumpkin cake with mukago (Japanese yam bulb): I love the taste of Japanese pumpkin, which is sweeter than the European version. There was also pressed sushi of mackerel and duck confit with onion oil, both delicious. Some seasonal sweet potato gave a nice final touch to the dish.
Surprising ‘Soup’
The texture of the ‘soup’ was thick, almost gellatinous. Inside the soup there was a steamed bun stuffed with chestnut, mushroom, cowpea, shimeji musroom, goji berry and yuzu. The sauce was made of kudzu starch, made from the root of the kudzu plant, also called Japanese arrowroot. As you may know from our description, chestnut drive me crazy, so I enjoyed this curious dish.
Fresh Sashimi
Sashimi in Japan really has a different taste: the freshness of the ingredients and the grated wasabi are just excellent. So it was this dish with tiger puffer fish, tuna, pink shrimp and finally, wood ear mushroom.
Grilled Ayu
The Ayu is the prefectural fish of Gunma and Gifu Prefectures, although widely found in other regions of Japan. Ayu is a small fish that only lives in extremely clean waters, with a sweet taste. You can usually find it served grilled as in the photo around the villages of Gifu. Despite their menacing look, the taste is delicious.
It was served with Satoimo, or Japanese taro, a starchy root vegetable that is commonly used in Japanese cuisine, and egoma (wild sesame seeds)-miso.
Hida Beef
In the main post Where to eat in Japan: the Japanese Alps I talked about this incredible type of meat that is raised in Hida. If Hida beef has this distinction only when being of exellent quality, the flavor of the one we ate at Yatsusankan was incredible.
The mythical blowfish
The next dish was a vinegar marinade of blow fish with grated radish, salmon roe, spinach and edible chrysanthemum. We were exited to eat the famous blowfish, specially if you are a fan of The Simpsons like me, and you watched the mythical episode when Homer eats this fish a houndred times.
You will have to take the risk yourselves and come to try the fish at Yatsusankan if you want to know how it tastes ;)
Fruity Dessert
As dessert we could enjoy seasonal persimmons, which is a typical automn fruit that is widely harvested in Gifu prefecture, as well as Japanese lanterns. Finally, a delicious milk pudding with chestnut, which I enjoyed very much: of course, there are chetnuts inside! I find that Japanese cuisine masters the texture of such kind of desserts, and so did the chef at Yatsusankan.
Morning Breakfast
When we woke up the next morning, the first thing we did was to go bath to the outdoor hot spring pool. It was worth going back with the morning light and enjoying a relaxing moment before going back to the intense rythmn of the trip. Specially since the pool was completely empty of other guests!
After the bath, we dressed up in our Yukatas and went downstairs to our private eating room. The view from the window towards the inner garden was just lovely. The cold part of the breakfast was already prepared on the table.
Cold Starters
I thought it would be difficult for me to adapt to the Japanese cold & salty breakfast when used to the French breakfast, specially since I am not a huge fan of European pickle food. Nevertheless, I found the breakfast quite refreshing and it settled my stomach for the entire morning.
The first part of this breakfast consisted in Japanese rolled omelette, a small salad, boiled spinach with sesame paste and fermented vegetables and fruits, such as radish, plum and spinach. Still, the fermented food is not for everybody! Although the rest was delicious.
The great Houba-yaki
I already talked about Houba-yaki in the entry about Local Japanese Dinner at Magome Chaya. As you could read in this entry, this was one of my favorites from the trip: grilled miso paste on top of a Magnolia leaf and accompanied with different vegetables or mushrooms. A typical dish that you will find when eating at traditional places around Gifu prefecture.
It was warm and full of flavour from the miso and the seasonal mushrooms they served it with. One difference, with respect to other places we had tried, was the miso which was of excellent quality and had a balanced taste.
Of course, as in any other traditional Japanese breakfast, there was freshly cooked rice prepared the moment we arrived to the breakfast room. Hida is known for the quality of the rice, which you can notice when eating at Yatsusankan, where the rice served has a delicate taste and a fluffy texture. A salty pudding was also served after the Houba-yaki, with delicious mushrooms inside. We ended this incredible breakfast with a miso soup that had an outstanding flavor compared to other soups we ate during the trip.
I really recommend the experience of staying in such a magical place, even taking into account the high price of the room. It will be an unforgettable memory from the trip to Japan. If you enjoyed the post and you are planning to travel to this incredible region, do not hesitate to consult our entry Where to eat in Japan: the Japanese Alps. You will find many other gastronomic and turist recommendations for your trip.
Written by Marta - The Cherry Pickers
