Not wanting to miss any more plum tree blossoms I called the tourist association this morning and asked about the castle's plum grove. They told me it was at 80%. (That's how they talk about areas of flowering trees or flowers - the predicted date of the first bloom and full bloom, and the % of blooms in between.) So next weekend might be full bloom, but if it rains or is very windy the blooms might fall. When I made my decision to go it looked like a beautiful sunny day that was supposed to go up to 60F. By the time I did the wash and was ready to go it was overcast and not that warm. Don't think it went above 50 but that's not bad for this time of year.
I decided to stop at a snack shop near the castle first - in hopes that the sun would come out later. The owner is a man who seems to love his work and takes great pride in his food. They serve different types of mochi and a few other sweets, 1 kind of udon (thick noodles in broth), and in the summer kakigori (shaved ice with homemade syrup). And as it turns out amazake.
"Amazake (甘酒?, [amazake]) is a traditional sweet, low- or non-alcohol (depending on recipes) Japanese drink made from fermentedrice. Amazake dates from the Kofun period, and it is mentioned in the Nihon Shoki. It is part of the family of traditional Japanese foods made using koji and the koji mold Aspergillus oryzae (麹 kōji?) that includes miso, soy sauce, and sake.[1][2]
There are several recipes for amazake that have been used for hundreds of years. By a popular recipe, kōji is added to cooled whole grain rice causing enzymes to break down the carbohydrates into simpler unrefined sugars. As the mixture incubates, sweetness develops naturally.[3] By another popular recipe, sake kasu is simply mixed with water, but usually sugar is added. In recipe, amazake becomes low-alcohol. " Wikipedia
I had talked to him a number of months ago about writing a description in English for udon. But whenever I've passed the shop lately (on the way to or from the station) it's been too early, too late or there have been too many people there.
But today seemed like the right time so I went in and he fed me (so I could write a proper description). I had udon, a steamed sweet made with sweet bean paste and a thin dough that was flavored with sake. Then he had me taste his homemade, non-alcoholic amazake. I tried it once from the supermarket - yuc - way too sweet and too thick. This was really good. Sweet but not too sweet, hard to believe there's no sugar in it but there isn't.
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| Udon with sweetened fried tofu, a soft boiled egg and fish cake. The sake flavored sweet, and some very good roasted green tea. |
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| Amazake which comes with a soy sauce dango - nochi balls on a stick (which I ate before taking this) and tea. The dango wasn't my favorite, the soy sauce gets bitter when grilled but that's the point actually because then it goes well with the sweet amazake. I had actually packed a pb&j sandwich for a picnic but I'll use that for a snack tomorrow. |
It didn't get any sunnier but I decided to go over to the castle's orchard anyway. Unfortunately you can't by a ticket just for the orchard so afterwards I walked up to, but didn't go through, the castle.
It was nice but nothing spectacular.
These trees were planted in 1950 in celebration of Hikone Castle being named a cultural treasure. The grounds used to be the receiving area for rice payments (payments of rice).
With regular, as opposed to weeping, plums/apricots it's really the branches and limbs that are so interesting. Of course the fragrance is wonderful and the blossoms pretty too, but look at the branches and truncks.
These are up at the castle.
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| Looking out towards my apartment. |
In about 3 weeks you will not recognize this wall. It will be awash in cherry blossoms - I can't wait!!
