Japanese tea time at Saryo Itoen

The other day, I heard that many tourists from abroad have difficulty finding a café where they can drink Japanese tea. I had never thought of that before as Shizuoka Prefecture is a big production area of tea and we daily drink our tea, especially middle-grade green tea, at home and working places. It may be difficult to find Japanese tea on the menu of an ordinary western-style café, however, there are also Japanese style cafés where you can eat traditional sweets with Japanese tea. They are called “amamidokoro” or “kanmidokoro” (there are two ways to read Chinese characters 甘味処). I can’t remember if there are any such cafés in the downtown, but there is a convenient place to drink tea near JR Hamamatsu Station. It is Saryo Itoen in the basement of the main building of Entetsu Department Store.

Itoen is a shop selling tea leaves, and Saryo Itoen is its eating area. They have a variety of tea, soft-serve ice cream and some Japanese sweets in their menu. The food samples looked delicious!

Among the sweets, there are two vegan options: Shiratama Zenzai and Matcha Shiratama Zentzai. Shiratama Zenzai is adzuki bean soup with rice flour dumplings. When I went there today, I chose the one with matcha or powdered green tea. It didn’t take long before it was served.

In fact, I was disappointed to see this because it looked very different from the food sample. After stirring it with the spoon, however, I found many adzuki beans hidden under the surface.

The adzuki bean soup is hot and the dumplings melted in my mouth. As it was very sweet, I couldn’t feel the taste of tea very well. However, I thought it very good to have when you are tired or on a cold day. When I ate it up, I felt slight bitterness of powdered green tea. It was surely different from ordinary adzuki soup.

As zenzai was so sweet, I felt like drinking tea additionally. I went to the counter again and ordered hot hojicha or roasted green tea. As for tea, you can choose hot or cold tea. When it was served, I felt the excellent aroma of the tea immediately. This is one of the reasons why I like roasted green tea.

It had a mild flavor. I noticed that it wasn’t too hot and easy to drink. Maybe they control its temperature carefully to extract its flavor well. I was very impressed by that. By using this tea, they provide a seasonal menu item Hojicha Shiruko or adzuki bean soup with roasted green tea. Both hojicha and adzuki beans have an effect to warm up you body. I think I’ll come back on a cold day in December.

Now is the season of autumn leaves, and Itoen has other seasonal products such as green tea flavored with yuzu, a citrus fruit that also warm up your body. There were also chocolate flavored three kinds of tea and wasanbon or Japanese refined sugar.

Regardless the season, deep-steamed green tea in Shizuoka Prefecture is a popular product, I guess.

In addition to Itoen, there are some other places in the department store and the train station where local tea leaves are sold. Some shops let you taste tea.

This is the 200th article of this blog. At first, I didn’t intend to continue so long, but I found it interesting to introduce our local products and traditional food and enjoyed writing. Now, I’ll take a rest for a while. I’m not sure if I'll restart writing or not. I’d like to thank you all and hope you will enjoy your stay in Hamamatsu if you live in/have a chance to come to Hamamatsu.

Nostalgy in Hamamatsu Diorama Factory

In the article on November 12, I introduced some diorama works in Saigagake Museum in which historical scenes were realistically created with figures. They were made by Takuji Yamada, a modeler from Hamamatsu. In Zaza West in the downtown, there is Hamamatsu Diorama Factory where you can see his other works as well as those made by other people.

As the museum is in a shopping center, the museum is open until 20:00. It is on the 2nd floor of the building, beyond a candy store selling old style sweets for children. As it is prohibited to take pictures in this store, I can’t show you how it looks. However, I I’m sure its nostalgic atmosphere attracts many people. When I went there this evening, there were some groups of high school students selecting sweets.

After I paid the admission fee at the counter of the candy store, the salesclerk guided me to the museum. Fortunately, you can take pictures of the entrance and inside of the museum.

This is the family of the modeler Takuji Yamada. On his desk, there is another diorama work that looks like this one!

“A Police and A Thief” is comical and his one of the most famous work.

This is “A Dinner In Autumn 1965.”

I think this work is more vivid. All the family members are in kotatsu or a Japanese foot warmer and watching TV.

Kotatsu can be used as a working table. I remember how I envied my cousins who used to build plastic models when we were little. I wanted to have plastic models instead of dolls, but I didn’t dare to ask my parents to buy them.

I think parents should present various options of toys so that children can choose freely whatever they like regardless of their sex. This is “Christmas Eve.”

There were also other kinds of works such as Gandum,

and 20000 Leagues Under The Sea.

If you love diorama and models, this spot may be a must to visit. On the first floor of Zaza West, there are some other works exhibited free of charge.

Hamamatsu Diorama Factory
Address: ZAZA West 2F, 15 Kaji-machi, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel. 053-489-3725
Open hours: 10:00-20:00 (last entry 19:30)
Access: 8-minute walk from JR Hamamatsu Station

Chestnut rice with Tianjin sweet roasted chestnut

Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts (天津甘栗 (tenshin-amaguri)) or sweet chestnuts (甘栗(amaguri)) are one of popular snacks in Japan. They are available in any supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores, etc. all year round. I thought for a long time that they were called so because the chestnuts were cultivated in Tianjin, China, but I was wrong. In fact, it is because the chestnuts were shipped from the port in Tianjin. They have been cultivated in Yan mountains in Hebei Province, which is known as a production area of good chestnuts.

The other day, I found a reasonable pack of Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts, which contained 4 bags of 100g chestnuts.

They were organically cultivated and had a cut on the shells so that they could be removed easily. There are also sweet chestnuts sold without shells.

As I have introduced before, chestnut rice is a popular dish in autumn. It takes a long time to make it as it is difficult to remove the shells and skins of ordinary chestnuts. However, it is very easy by using Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts. I made it with 360 ml of rice, one bag of Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts (80g after the shells and skins were removed), a pinch of salt, and a little say sauce. I don’t know how much water was required, because I used a pot and added water later as necessary. But if you use a rice cooker, 400 ml of water may be enough. To add a flavor, you can also use sake.

As the name implies, chestnuts are sweet. They are good as they are but also suitable to use for chestnut rice. As they were moderately sweet, I thought it would be ok to add some other ingredients such as shimeji mushroom and tofu skin. As I have still three bags, I can do some experiment.

Tojikuri - Traditional sweet from Misakubo

Hamamatsu is the second largest city in Japan in surface area (about 1,558 km2). In Soramo, a space between the two buildings of Entetsu Department Store, an outdoor market is held sometimes, in which you can buy some traditional food from mountainous area that is several tens kilometers away from the downtown. Today I found Tojikuri from Misakubo, the northern most area in Hamamatsu that is adjacent to Nagano Prefecture. I bought one pack with six pieces.

They were gray as they contained buckwheat flour. Other ingredients were rice, beans, sugar, and salt. I wondered why Tojikuri contained rice as Misakubo is a mountainous area that has no rice field. In addition, what kind of beans are they? According to some websites, Tojikuri is a traditional sweet in Misakubo and Sakuma in the northern part of Hamamatsu. It was originally made for Buddha’s birthday only, and its shape is made to resemble the head of Buddha.

In fact, I ate three pieces at a time because they were so good. They contained roasted soybeans, which gave an accent to the mild sweetness of the buckwheat dumplings. I think Tojikuri was a real find in the outdoor market where you can find many other vegan products as well.

Historic battlefield Saigagake

In autumn, JR Central holds their walking event every weekend. Last Sunday, it was Hamamatsu Station that was specified as the starting point of the day. Unlike other occasions, I went there on foot, not by a train. Sawayaka Walking (さわやかウォーキング) is an event in which you can participate without any charge or reservation. You can just come to the staff standing near orange flags and signboards like these and get a map from them to start walking.

In this article, I’ll just introduce some historical spots among several spots we visited. One of the highlights of the course was Hamamatsu Castle that is located about 20-minute walk from the station. You can go inside the castle, however, I visited there in September. So, I just took a picture of a comic foreground of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Ii Naotora, and Ii Naomasa. Tokugawa Ieyasu is a person who lived in the castle for 17 years and established Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603. Ii Naotora was a female landlord in Iinoya in the north of Lake Hamana, whose adopted son Ii Naomasa became one of the four great generals of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

When Tokugawa Ieyasu lived in Hamamatsu, he had the Battle of Mikatagahara (a plateau stretching North of Hamamatsu) with Taketa Shingen, the lord of Kai (Yamanashi Prefecture) in 1573. Ieyasu was defeated and barely escaped with his life. During that night, however, he returned a blow by attacking Takeda Shingen’s camping site, which was about 1 km from Hamamatsu Castle. The battle site called Saigagake and looks like this now.

It is a scarp with a height of 13 m. According to a legend, the Ieyasu’s army spread cloth over it to deceive the enemies. As it was night, soldiers of Shingen’s army mistook the cloth for a bridge and fell beneath the scarp. Even now, there is an area called “Nunohahi (cloth bridge)” near Saigagake.
Near the scarp, there is Saigagake Museum where you can see historical scenes with diorama.

This is the Battle of Mikatagahara. According to a volunteer guide in the museum, it was snowing on that day.

Ieyasu was defeated and escaped to the castle, with his soldiers protecting him from the enemy.

During the night, they attacked Shingen’s army. Many of Shingen’s soldiers fell beneath the scarp in darkness and died.

After that, people in this area heard groans of ghosts and suffered from a plague. Ieyasu thought that it was a curse of the deceased and held a memorial service with a prayer to Buddha. It became an annual event called “Enshu-Dainenbutsu” that has been practiced in Hamamatsu and surrounding areas. This museum was once a hall dedicated to the deceased in the battle.

During Bon Festival in July or August, groups of Enshu-Dainenbutsu in the traditional costume visit families that have the first bon festival following the death of a family member. They play musical instruments such as the drum, flute, and gong, dance, and sing. It is very interesting to see. Every year, Saigagake Museum holds Enshu-Dainenbutsu in front of the building on July 15.

Since this museum is located along a major road called Himekaido (Princess Highway), you can take bus #40 or some other buses from the bus terminal to get off at Saigagake. But it doesn’t take much time to walk from Hamamatsu Castle. If you go westward along the road between the castle and Hotel Concord, you will come to this tunnel.

It is Kameyama Tunnel made originally for a railway Okuyama Line (1914-1964). You can how it was from the pictures displayed near the tunnel.

When you go through the mysterious tunnel, you will see greenery along the road.

This comfortable pathway continues up to Hamamatsu Kita High School, and Saigagake Museum is just a few minutes walk from there.

Saigagake Museum
Address: 25-10 Shikatani-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Open hours: 9:00 – 17:00
Closed: Monday (if a national holiday falls on Monday, it is closed the next day instead), December 29 - January 3

Dumpling Festival in Hattasan

Hattasan Soneiji (usually called Hattasan) is a temple famous for its dumplings. At the beginning of this year, I visited there and wrote an article about it. In November, they have a dumpling festival where you can taste various dumplings from different areas in Japan. Last Sunday, I took a train to Aino, the nearest station to Hattasan. The station is located in Fukuroi and took about 20 minutes to get there. Near the south exit, there was a free shuttle bus to the temple.

However, I couldn’t take it this time because I participated in Sawayaka Walking, a walking event organized by JR Central. The distance to the temple was about 3 km. We passed by Ecopa Stadium where some games of the 2019 Rugby World Cup took place. On my way back from Hattasan, it looked fine against the blue sky.

Hattasan is a popular temple for the first temple visit of the year. To my surprise, I found their premises were as crowded as on the New Year’s holidays. I thought of buying their special “tea dumplings” that are not available on the New Year but soon found it impossible. There was already a long queue with countless people. However, there were still more than twenty kinds of dumplings to choose from according to the brochure.

 I entered the venue of Dumpling Festival with full of expectation.

I was surprised again to see how crowded it was in the main venue. I saw some people standing here and there with a placard with a number, showing the end of the queue for each dumpling.

I wanted to have walnut dumplings because I had never eaten them before. The queue was long, but I could get one pack. I was relieved because I had heard that many popular dumplings would be sold out before noon though Dumpling Festival would be held until 15:30.

As there were so many kinds of dumpling, I felt like obtaining one more. I was interested in one of the dumplings from Kyoto, but the queue was too long. I got out of the main venue and found some other dumplings sold outside. One of them was mitsufuku (three lucks) dumpling grilled with charcoal fire, a specialty from Mt. Takao in Tokyo.

Don’t they look delicious?

I had to stand in a queue again, but I enjoyed seeing how they prepared dumplings.

I chose miso with walnuts for the sauce though they had also soy sauce. I think miso with walnuts can be found in many mountainous areas in Japan as I had seen similar sauce in Aichi Prefecture as well. The newly grilled dumplings tasted very good with this sweet-and-salty sauce.

In another stand, I bought yuzu tea. I drank it for the first time. Though yuzu is a citrus fruit and sour, the tea was sweeter than I expected.

In addition to dumplings, there was a market of local farm products in the temple. One of the stands sold traditional snacks such as puffed rice and rice brittles. I bought one bag of puffed raw rice, which was recommended to be eaten with yogurt. I thought of soymilk yogurt sold in some supermarkets in Hamamatsu.

When I left Hattasan, there were still many people entering the gate. I suppose this temple will become one of the major spots to see autumn leaves at the end of this month.

When I came home, I ate the walnut dumplings from Kasuriya in Yamagata Prefecture.

The dumplings were made from rice flour like common dumplings. But the paste was a unique mixture of white kidney beans and walnuts, containing also sugar, white soy source, starch syrup, salt, and enzyme. I think it’s a good idea to add walnuts (or some other kinds of nuts) to bean paste as they add a rich flavor. This paste was as sweet as ordinary white kidney bean paste, but it had something different.

Sawayaka Walking in Iwata (3) - Shrine dedicated to hero dog Shippeitaro

As I wrote in the previous article, there is a famous shrine in Mitsuke, Iwata. It is called Mitsuke Tenjin, implying that the shrine is dedicated to Michizane Sugawara, the god of learning (he was a scholar in the 9th century). But its official name is Yanahime Shrine as it is also dedicated to Yanahime-no-Mikoto who is a goddess for easy delivery, good children, nurturing, etc.

Beside the bright red gateway of Mitsuke Tenjin, there is a statue of Shippitaro, a hero dog that appears in the legend of the shrine. Long ago, a monster demanded a village maiden as a human sacrifice in the festival of Mitsuke Tenjin every year. A traveling monk found that the monster was afraid of “Shippeitaro” in Shinano (present Nagano Prefecture), which turned out to be a dog. The monk went to Shinano and borrowed Shippeitaro to take him to Mitsuke. In the next festival of the shrine, Shippeitaro fought with the monster and exterminated it. It turned out to be a big old monkey. When I was taking pictures of this dog with a firm body, someone said that he looked like a wolf. I agreed with him.

This is the main building of the shrine.

In front of the building, there were statues of an ox and a cow for making a prayer. We touched them while wishing something.

Behind Mitsuke Tenjin, there is a park with Reiken Shrine, the only shrine in Japan that is dedicated to a dog (Shippeitaro).

I heard this shrine is popular among people who have pets.

I returned to Mitsuke Tenjin and looked for Shippei, which is a mascot character of Iwata and used for various souvenirs. Wolf-like Shippietaro has been changed into a plump white dog like this.

In this picture, Shippei has a straw-skirt like two men behind him. This is the costume for the annual naked festival that is specified as one of important intangible folk-cultural properties in Japan.