April 22: Munakata

This morning we didn't wake up until 7:45 and our breakfast reservation was for 8. Unfortunately the room was a little cool so Luke was up and down all night. For breakfast we had pretty much the exact same menu again as the second morning we stayed at Nansuikaku last time.

Breakfast

The saba teriyaki was well seasoned and had a strong fish flavor that is characteristic of mackerel. The stewed burdock on the side added a pleasant sweetness to cut the fishiness.

Saba Teriyaki

The maguro sashimi was excellent. It was silky smooth and tender and the flavor was not too minerally, but nice and meaty.

Maguro Sashimi

The natto was natto, very slimy and slightly salty. Perfect with rice.

Natto

This time when I ate the nasu shigeyaki I didn't use all of the ginger so I enjoyed it much more. It was very soft with a sweet and smoky flavor to it.

Nasu Shigeyaki

I saved the agedashi tofu for last. It wasn't crispy, but I don't think they intended for it to be. The dashi was packed with umami and the katsuobushi, green onion and daikon oroshi all brought it together nicely.

Agedashi Tofu

After breakfast we drove to Hiro-Ojichan's place to meet up with him and then went to Hi-Obaachan's house to pick some natsumikan and bamboo shoots. The natsumikan are apparently a summer orange so they usually harvest them in late March or early April and let them ripen until summer.

Luke Helping w the Harvest

The bamboo shoots, or takenoko, were pretty fun to harvest. we would walk around and try to spot the shoots that had just broken the ground and the just dig them out with a shovel. We got a pretty decent haul I thought.

Fresh Takenoko

When we finished with harvesting the food I changed in the house and then we headed to Sun Live department store to buy some omiyage. From Sun Live we headed out to lunch. Hiro-Ojichan made a reservation for us at Budounoki, a sushi restaurant in Fukutsu that was right on the beach. We got a omakase and it came out to only about $25 per person!

Our View at Lunch

We started off with okyuto that was dressed with yuzu. I think I personally liked this okyuto better than when it is dressed with just soy sauce.

Okyuto w Yuzu

The first nigiri to come out was suzuki. It had a mixture of chili and I think ume on top that really made it pop.

Suzuki

The yari ika came out next, which is a spear squid. The way they cut it was very elaborate and after they torched it quickly the flesh curled into a beautiful pattern. The flesh was slightly firm with a little crunch to it and it tasted very fresh.

Yari Ika

Kanpachi was the next piece to come out. It had a slightly firmer texture than what I'm used to, which was kind of nice, and the flavor was more mild than most I've had.

Kanpachi

Next was maguro. It was good, but nothing special.

Maguro

A torched sawara came out after the maguro and I think it was my favorite piece of the meal. The sawara was a little bit fatty and by heating the fish some of the fat rendered out and it had an almost fluffy texture to it with some smokiness from the scorched flesh and rice.

Torched Sawara

Next came baby abalone, which was still wriggling as it was presented. I thought it was pretty cool. It had a subtle abalone flavor with a firm crunchiness that, surprisingly, wasn't tough at all.

Baby Abalone

Then came a torched isaki, which is a white fish. This was my first time tasting this fish and it was very good, probably in the top three for the meal. The flavor was more subtle than the sawara and it was less oily of a fish.

Torched Isaki

Uni nigiri was next out and instead of having a couple of large tongues of uni this piece had lots of little tongues of uni. It was very sweet with less of a coppery/minerally flavor than I'm used to. It was most likely more fresh than what I'm used to.

Uni

Next out was chawan mushi. Again it was very good, with generous pieces of seafood buried in the bottom of the bowl.

Chawan Mushi

A big bowl of miso soup came out with a piece of a fish head. I was lucky enough to get a piece with an eye. They said the soup was made with all the leftover carcasses from the sashimi. It had a nice flavor with all the added fish carcasses in it.

Miso Soup

The ikura had a generous scoop of salmon roe on top of the rice and unlike most ikura nigiri it was wrapped with nori. The flavor was less salty than most ikura I've had, which was a nice surprise.

Ikura

Next came a nice piece of torched anago brushed with tare. It had a nice rich flavor that went with the salty-sweetness of the tare.

Anago

An asparagus nigiri with ume and miso was next and I thought it was very creative. The asparagus was cooked perfectly so that it was nice and crunchy yet tender.

Asparagus w Ume & Miso

The last piece of nigiri was tamago of course. The presentation was a little bit different than I'm used to, which was neat, and the flavor was pretty standard I thought, not that that's a bad thing.

Tamago

After lunch we went and visited Hi-Obaachan for a little while. Luke was pretty shy because he had slept through lunch and just woken up as we got there. After visiting with Hi-Obaachan we went to the Fukutsu Aeon mall to browse. We got Luke a late lunch and we had a few treats too.

Donut w Cream, Warabi Mochi & Matcha Glaze, 

After eating we did a little bit of shopping, went and looked at a pet shop and shared a matcha soft serve. Once we finished we went back to Hiro-Ojichan's apartment and hung out for a little while. At around 6:45 we went to Eichan Udon for dinner. I got the tonkatsu udon teishoku. The tonkatsu was nice and crispy and the pork was fairly tender. Overall it wasn't as good as Tonkatsu Wako, but it was excellent for an udon restaurant. The teishoku came with miso soup, chawan mushi, tsukemono, maki tamago, rice, matcha and a dessert and it was only about $10-11! Once we were finished we said goodnight to Hiro-Ojichan and went back to Nansuikaku for the night.

Tonkatsu Udon Teishoku