April 20: Okinawa to Fukuoka

Luke slept in a little bit this morning waking up at almost 7. Once he woke up we headed straight down for breakfast so that we would beat the line. Once we finished breakfast we packed up all our things, checked out and caught the bus to the airport. After checking in for our flight we met up with Uncle Kiyohito and Yukiko Obaachan and hung out with them for a bit. We went to one of the snack bars and got some soft serve to share.

Okinawan Black Sugar Soft Serve

As it got closer to our departure time we said our goodbyes and headed to the gate. When we were boarding Ojiichan noticed that the plane next to ours looked funny and it happened to be the C-3PO ANA plane. I had been hoping that we would see at least one of them on our trip since I saw an advertisement in the magazine on the flight to Japan.

It's C-3PO!

Our flight went smoothly even though we were delayed about an hour. Hiro-Ojichan picked us up at the airport and we went and visited Hi-Obaachan. Luke had literally just woken up from his nap when we got out of the car so at first he was avoiding Hi-Obaachan, but as he became more and more alert he started to interact with her a little bit.

Waving Goodbye to Hi-Obaachan

After hanging out with Hi-Obaachan for a while we dropped Hiro-Ojichan off at his home and then Ojiichan drove us up to our hotel Nansuikaku. We had stayed there last October and it is a traditional ryokan. After we checked in we headed to dinner and it was just as good as last time. We started with a hassun that included sazae, pickled sansai, stewed octopus, tamago, a sweet, vinegary sweet potato puree and silken tofu with radish and daikon. They were all really good, but the sazae had been cooked in a slightly sweet dashi that went well with the bitterness of the innards and the sweet potato puree was a completely unexpected bite that had me wanting more.

Hassun

The sashimi course consisted of sawara, tai and maguro with fresh wasabi and a seaweed jelly. The sawara had a very savory flavor to it that was not too fishy. The tai had a clean, crisp flavor with a slightly crunchy texture that makes it one of my favorites. The maguro was buttery soft and rich.

Sawara, Tai & Maguro Sashimi

Our next course was a soup that was heated at the table and had silken tofu, fried tofu, sansai and fresh sardine fish balls. The dashi was light colored and crystal clear, but had a surprising depth of flavor. Both of the tofus contrasted with each other nicely. The vegetables were very flavorful and the fish balls were much softer than I was expecting and the oiliness of the sardines added a nice richness to the soup.

Tofu, Sansai & Sardine Ball Soup

The next dish was a young bamboo shoot and sansai omelet with young daikon, crab and burdock, tsukushi shoots and sansho in a light dashi. Again the dashi was crystal clear, but this time almost colorless, and it still had lots of flavor. the bamboo shoots were very mild tasting and extremely tender and all the vegetables with it were very refreshing. The sansho added a citrusy punch to round it all out.

Bamboo Shoot & Sansai Omelet w Daikon, Crab, Burdock, Tsukushi Shoots, Sansho & Dashi

Then we had stewed anago with fish cake, satoimo, celery and goji berries. The anago had a nice mild flavor and was very tender. The fish cake was very soft and pleasantly chewy and went well with the slight sliminess of the satoimo.

Stewed Anago w Fish Cake, Satoimo, Celery & Goji Berries

They brought out a dish of grilled bamboo shoot, sansai wrapped with sawara and a kani ball. The bamboo was very tender and mild tasting. The grilled sawara had a milder flavor than the sashimi, but it also could have been tempered by the sansai. The crab ball had a crispy coating on the outside and was very flavorful.

Grilled Sawara stuffed w Sansai, Grilled Bamboo Shoot & Kani Ball

The tempura course had a fish cake with vegetables mixed in, two types of sansai (one young shoot and one fiddlehead fern), a shrimp and a fried noodle for garnish. There was no sauce, but there was a salt to dip the tempura in. Each piece had a nice thin coating of the batter and was very crispy. The shrimp had a nice sweet flavor and a soft, silky texture. The vegetables had a slight bitterness and sweetness to them and they were very good.

Tempura

The meat course was a Munakata beef roll stuffed with negi and sansai and wrapped in some kind of leaf with kabocha, tomato and a brussel sprout on the side. The beef had a very good flavor, but was slightly tough and the vegetables on the inside and outside of the roll went perfectly with it.

Munakata Beef Roll stuffed w Negi & Sansai

Our last savory course was takikomi gohan with tsukemono and miso soup. The miso soup I think was made with red miso because it had a much darker color and richer flavor than most miso soups.

Miso Soup

The takikomi gohan was made with fresh bamboo shoots and jako. The bamboo shoots were extremely tender and added a wonderful aroma to the rice and the jako had a very mild flavor.

Bamboo Shoot & Jako Takikomi Gohan

The tsukemono had a green leafy vegetable, carrot and daikon. The daikon had an orange color to it that made it look a lot like the carrot and it was pretty sweet. The green vegetable had a saltier flavor to it and the carrots were more vinegary.

Tsukemono

For dessert we had fruit with a sweet jelly and sakura mochi. The fruit was good, but the real standout was the sakura mochi. The texture was chewy and soft and it had a very pleasant floral aroma with a sweet flavor. It was a great end to a wonderful meal.

Fruit & Sakura Mochi

Once we finished eating Christal, Luke and I went to the private family onsen to bathe and relax a little. When we were done with that Christal put Luke down for bed and I worked on journaling some more.

Our Room