Evening at Chikatsuyu village and excellent tofu nabe served at Minshuku Chikatsuyu

15 November 2016

 

After checking into Minshuku Chikatsuyu, we changed into yukatas and went for a soak at the onsen. The shared indoor onsen was housed in a small building next to the minshuku and it was also opened to non-guests of the minshuku. Guests of the minshuku may use this onsen for free while non-guests would have to pay a fee to use it.

I was not alone in the onsen. There was a Japanese man already soaking in the hot spring water. He tried to make conversation but I don’t speak the language.  After a couple of head nods and smiles, we gave up trying to talk and just sat in silence, enjoying the hot water. He soon left and I was alone for a quite some time before another 2 young men came in. By then, I had soaked enough and left the onsen to get some cold water from the minshuku. That was when I saw the same Aussie couple we met on Day 1 again.

Instead of hiking Takahara to Chikatsuyu, the ladies had a longer hike to the next village of Tsugizakura-oji. There is no onsen in that village and they actually came by van from Tsugizakura to use the onsen here. I invited  them to join me to sit by the river but they had to go. 

It was relaxing to sit by the river. The patch of trees with nice autumn leaves were just directly across the river from where we sat.

There was some time before dinner was served at 6 PM. We decided to take an evening stroll to explore the Chikatsuyu village and more importantly, to recce the location of the bus stop where we were to catch a bus from the next morning. Our plan was to take the 9.05 AM Meiko Bus from Nakahechi art museum to Hongu Taisha-mae. This is an express bus and does not stop at the Chikatsuyu-oji bus stop but at the Nakahechi art museum.  The Nakahechi art museum is just south from the Chikatsuyu-oji at the entrance to the large public parking lot. 

We found the bus stop and there were actually two! One for the express Meiko Bus to Hongu located in a parking lot (bus stop with shelter) and one for the Ryujin Bus to Hongu located by the road (bus stop with no shelter). A check on the schedule posted on the bus stops confirmed which was the correct one.

This is the correct bus stop for the express bus.

Not the bus stop for us – this is for the Ryujin local bus.

 

It was a good thing we went to recce the location of the correct bus stop and also gauge the time it took for us to walk there from the minshuku.

There was instructions in English (for tourists) on how to ride the Japanese buses. Cool!

 

Mission accomplished, we walked around Chikatsuyu Village to soak in the atmosphere and shoot some photos.

Farmhouse and rice paddy at Chikatsuyu Village.

Man walking this dog at Chikatsuyu Village.

Gathering of dogs and their owners at Chikatsuyu Village.

Yellow leaves of a gingko tree with its peak autumn colours at Chikatsuyu.

Persimmon tree next to the gingko tree.

I was surprised to see the ajisai or hydrangea still in bloom at this time of year.

Kumano Kodo signage at main road running through Chikatsuyu Village.

Scarecrow and haystack.

The dinner at Minshuku Chikatsuyu was one of the best I had along the Kumano Kodo. We were seated in a small room with two tables. There was another couple in the room with us. The gentleman who served us spoke a little English and he did a good job to explain the details of the food served.

We were served a glass of special home made yumeshu (plum wine) at the start of the dinner. Then the host prepared the tofu nabe or hotpot while we ate the appetisers and sashimi.

Ingredients for the tofu nabe (hotpot).

To cook the tofu nabe, the above ingredients were placed into a claypot with some special soy bean stock, heated below by a portable gas stove and cooked slowly on our table.

Everything in the pot was cooked into a thick white liquid mess. The thick tofu soup was scooped into a small bowl by the host and he added some chopped spring onions and some ponzu sauce before inviting us to try it. 

I had hotpots before but this was the first time I had tasted tofu nabe and it was super delicious.  If I were to do Kumano Kodo again, I would travel all the way here to this minshuku, just to eat this again.

Grilled eggplant and grated radish and chopped spring onions on top.

Ayu that was grilled with salt.

This is a course of Ayu that was grilled with salt. The Ayu is a river fish from the local river. The fish is crispy and we were told that we could eat everything, including head and tail. We did.

There was also baked rice with local root vegetable. The dinner ended with a serving of lemon sorbet.  Thereafter, the host came to each table to chat with the guests and shared information about the next leg of our Kumano Kodo journey.

Nice people, nice food, nice lodging and nice village after a nice day of hiking Kumano.