Yofudo Onsen and Attaka Plaza

Good evening.
Thank you very much for visiting this blog.

Today I’d like to report my research trip to find restaurants which serve Nihonshu around Takeda Castle.

This picture above is the chronology of Takeda Castle, and the map of the castle and the castle town from Takeda Castle’s tourist brochure.
Unexpectedly, I spent 3 articles for the report of the castle.
However, today’s story is actually the main topic of this blog.
I think it’s better with this map when you imagine the town I introduce from now.

Contents

Searching restaurants which serve Nihonshu in Takeda’s castle town

In the last blog, I introduced you “Teramachi Dori” Street and temples with fine gates and white walls which I saw after visiting Takeda Castle.
Today is after that.
I went back the way I came, and walked along Prefectural Route 104.

The time was about 10:30. I was planning to have lunch and then leave for Suita City which I was staying the night.
I went back to my car first because I was sopping with sweat after mountain climbing, and wanted to get cleaned and changed at a spa or somewhere.

Where I was walking back to the parking, I looked around the street to find restaurants for lunch and somewhere seemed to have Sake.
However, there were not so many restaurants in the residence area like you see in the photo above.
But I found some restaurants which seemed to serve Sake such as,

“Izakaya Nakaiya”,

“Okonomiyaki and Teppan-yaki Jugemu”.

They didn’t have the menu outside, and I couldn’t find their information on the internet, so I couldn’t know what kind of sake they had.
Well, I could know it if I tried these restaurants and see the menus with my eyes.
But I was sentenced to have a strict diet by my doctor, so I had to be careful of choosing restaurants to enter, otherwise I had to risk my life ^^;

Meanwhile, I found a good place.

A restaurant, “Lunch & Bar Gai”.
This restaurant has their website, and the details including the menu was introduced on it.

Seeing its appearance, this restaurant seemed Italian.
According to the website, the interior is a relaxed atmosphere with brown woody style and white color.
The food is, surprisingly, made with their own grown vegetables and rice, and drinks which goes well with the foods are selected!

Ummmm, I have a good feeling…. I checked the menu.
Yes! They have Nihonshu!!
They had “Kogajo Unkai” from a brewery “Kimura Shuzo”, and “Chikusen Daiginjo” from “Tajime”.

“Kogajo Unkai”

“Koga” is written in Chinese letters to describe “lying tiger”.
“Kogajo” is one of the nicknames of Takeda Castle because the castle’s shape looks like a lying tiger.
“Unkai” (= “cloud sea”) is, of course, Takeda Castle’s common image of “Castle in the Sky”.

One more story about the nickname “Kogajo”. “Kogajo” is originally read “Torafusu Jo” (another way of reading the Chinese letters), but the name of sake is “Kogajo” (Now “Kogajo” is a usable way of reading the castle’s nickname).

The sake brewery of “Kogajo”, “Kimura Shuzo”, is in the town of Takeda.
Please remember the building of the information center which I mentioned in the second blog of Takeda Castle.

This used to be a shop of Kimura Shuzo.
The restaurant has a good local sake to taste in this town.

“Chikusen Daiginjo”

This sake is made by a brewery in Asago City, which has this town of Takeda, and its Chinese letters “田治米” are read “Tajime”.
“Lunch & Bar Gai” is really a “local” restaurant where you can enjoy vegetables and rice grown by them with the local Nihonshu.
It is so pity that I couldn’t visit such a good restaurant.

I turned left at the information center, and crossed Maruyama River which makes fog of the cloud sea of “Castle in the Sky”,

And went back to the parking area.

Yofudo Onsen

I headed a spa following signboards along the road.
The spa is here.

“Yofudo Onsen”.
It was about 10 minutes to the east along Prefectural Route 277.
It appeared alone in rice fields in the mountain area.

It was not really a big spa, but they had Rotenburo (outdoor spa) in Japanese traditional garden in woods.
It was a lunch time on a weekday and there weren’t many other visitors, so I could take my time freely in the Rotenburo to heal my body after mountain climbing from early morning.

I couldn’t take photos of the bath, so please refer to Yofudo Onsen’s website for the details.
I had a luxury time of resting myself in a hot spa recalling the memory of Takeda Castle.

This spa has a restaurant as well as other usual spa facilities.

The menu on the board said that they had Nihonshu.
As I came by my car and couldn’t taste the sake, I asked the restaurant’s staff which sake they had.
She said something like that the labels of the bottles on shelfs were available.
A shelf? I couldn’t find it and looked for it for about 10 minutes.

The shelf was in the souvenir shop.
She said that what were sold at the shop were also available at the restaurant.
The labels were;

“Kasumitsuru Yamahai Jikomi Tajima no Jishin”
“Kasumitsuru Yamahai Jikomi Tajima no Hokori”
“Tokusen Honjozo Tenku no Shiro Takedajo-ato”
“Hojun Karakuchi Junmaishu Chikusen Junkara”

All of them are made by the local breweries.

“Kasumitsuru Yamahai Jikomi Tajima no Jishin” was the one which I had in Fukuchiyama on the day before.
I, a citizen of Kanto region (the eastern Japan), am not sure, but I thought that this sake, “Kasumitsuru Yamahai Jikomi Tajima no Jishin”, was major in Kansai (the western Japan, including the area I’m visiting in this blog)…?
To tell the truth, I also saw this sake at restaurants which I visited in Osaka on the next day.
It seems to be like “Hakkaisan”, which I often see restaurants in Kanto.

Attaka Plaza

After learning Nihonshu of this area a little and healing my body, I went back to Takeda’s castle town again for lunch.
I had found a good place on the way to the parking area.
This is the one.

I took this photo from the opposite side of the prefectural road.
The name is “Attaka Plaza”.

This sign explained that physically/mentally handicapped people were working as the hall staffs.

I knew about such restaurant as handicapped people were working, but I’d never been there, so I came to try it.
It didn’t look like they had sake, but I chose here because they had lunch menu of the local brand beef “Tajimagyu”.
The inside of the restaurant was like this.

There were some old signboards of hospitals which made me think that the building was remodeled from a hospital.
In addition, somehow there was a set of old armors at the back.

This is the menu below.

As my estimation, they didn’t have Nihonshu. Too bad.
Well, checking whether the restaurant has Nihonshu or not is a part of the research, so never mind.

Because it was a good opportunity, I was going to order Tajimagyu even though it was a bit expensive.
Sukiyaki (Japanese beef hot pot) or BBQ ……. I ordered BBQ lunch after considering a little.
And then, it arrived.

The staff told me that it was the good timing to eat when the sand in the glass finished twice.
That’s an interesting way.

The staff was a bit clumsy in speaking, but it was no problem.
While the sand was dropping down, other plates of the lunch came.

The rice of the day was chestnuts rice. Ooh, how gorgeous!
I tried the Tajimagyu first.

Japanese BBQ sauce to dip.

It was basically soft, but it also had a little nice chewy texture. The flavor of the meat came out as I chewed it. I liked it a lot!
I couldn’t see which part of the meat it was, but it wasn’t like fatty sparerib, but red parts which the beef’s flavor is thick.

I liked the parts with fat more when I was younger.
As I get older, fat makes my stomach too heavy, so it was perfect for me.
Grilled meat must go with rice. I had the chestnuts rice next.

It had slight salty taste, and it matched the sweetness of chestnuts.
It was enjoyable enough itself.

And I finished the meal. The volume was just right.

Conclusion

I finished the payment, and went out of the restaurant.
In the front, there was,

A chestnut tree.
Did the nuts of the rice come from here??
I wondered the origin of the chestnuts, and went back to my car.

As I heard that handicapped people were working as the hall staffs there, I expected to see something special in the restaurant.
However, I thought that the service was just normal.
I indeed felt that the staff looked like he wasn’t used to the job yet, but that was all.
Or, it could be because the time I visited was not so crowded with only 2 groups while I was staying.
I wouldn’t be able to tell that handicapped people were working as long as someone told me so.

I hope you take my impression and opinion in positive way.
I left this “Attaka Plaza” hoping that such restaurants will stand naturally, not be treated as “special thing”.