Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

My name is Logan Lary, a rising second-year student studying computer science and business! Today, I get the pleasure of retelling our journey from Kurobe to Fukui and the excursions we embarked on once we arrived. I woke up bright and early at 6:00am to pack up my duffle, eat breakfast, and get ready for another day of traveling.  

By 8:05am, we were all piled onto a local Kurobe bus with the Shinkansen station as our first destination of the day. The bus ride was full of anticipation for the day ahead (and rapid exchanging of coins so everyone would have enough money to pay the fare).  

Compared to regular traveling, Dialogue of Civilizations are so unique because we are balancing taking classes, exploring a brand-new country, and resting. Therefore, every time we have a break, all of us pull out of laptops to grind out some assignments. For an hour before the train left, I worked on a biology assignment (which was very out of my wheelhouse). Some of our group members explored the Kurobe Museum in the train station and even bought some souvenirs.  

Two train rides later and we arrived at the Fukui train station, all of us ready to explore the new city. With a free day ahead of us, I had to make the difficult decision of what site to visit: a temple, ocean cliffs, or the dinosaur museum, each one more than an hour commute away. I chose to visit Tojinbo, a town of mystical cliffs overlooking crystal clear water. I was accompanied by Gillian Garcia and Dr. Young.  

We embarked to Tojinbo by taking a local train for an hour and then transferring to a bus that took us directly to the quaint town. The views from the train were miles and miles of rice patties and mountains, such a stark difference from Tokyo. When we got off the train, we were greeted by a giant, plastic king crab, a foreshadowing of the day to come.  

Stomachs grumbling after our long journey, we stopped at a local restaurant in search of crab like the one we just saw. The restaurant was small but packed with families looking for a good meal. I ordered a meal set that came with grilled fish, crab legs, a snail marinated in soy sauce, kelp salad, miso soup, corn, and rice. The grilled fish was flaky and when pierced with my chopsticks, fell right of the bones. The fish was salty and fresh, tasting like it jumped from the nearby ocean onto my plate. The crab was so sweet and fishy that it became addictive; I worked with my crab fork and chopsticks to eat every piece of meat I could get my hands on making sure nothing got left behind. The snail was inside of its shell and was soaking in a soy sauce marinade; I appreciated the delicate flavor of the snail, but the texture was slightly unpleasant. Listening to the advice of our waitress, I combined the kelp salad with my bowl of rice, elevating the bowl to a new dimension with the kelp’s saltiness. The corn was grilled in front of the restaurant and was sprinkled with sea salt, the perfect combination of sweet and salty.  

In the moment, it was hard to imagine that anything could be better than the meal we just enjoyed but I was wrong. We slowly made our way towards the cliffs, briefly stopping in gift shops fully themed around crabs.

As I was writing this post, I tried to follow my previous sentence with a description of the cliffs that would encompass the amazing natural beauty but that proved impossible. Instead, here is a collection of pictures of the cliffs and the mountains surrounding them. As we walked along the rocks, Dr. Young informed us of all the marine creatures around us such as crabs, periwinkles, fish, and sea anemones.

When we finished our hike, the three of us scavenged for some shaved ice. I mined through a mountain of peach flavored ice while Gillian and Dr. Young enjoyed shaved ice with condensed milk (Gillian’s was matcha flavored, Dr. Young’s was strawberry flavored). Just when I expected that my day could not get any better, we decided to visit a temple in the hour remaining before our bus arrived. The temple emerged from the surrounding bamboo forest like a magical beacon of light. 

Unfortunately, we had to leave this place at some point. The long commute back to Fukui was gorgeous, the sky painted in various shades of pink and orange.  

I would also like to add that while I chose to visit the cliffs, a group of my classmates decided to visit a dinosaur museum. They provided me with some photos to share the experience! 

This day was my favorite of the trip so far!