Staying at 100 Year-Old Japanese Mansion

hey guys i hope you are having a great day wherever you are today we're going to be staying in a boutique hotel with over 200 years of history we'll be trying out some of the local specialties and explore the town of nakagawa machi located in tochigi prefecture [Music] all right guys we've arrived at our destination our journey today began at ueno station we took a 40-minute shinkansen ride from ueno to then we transferred to the tohoku line to ujiya station finally we took the local bus to minamimachi bus stop it took us approximately two and a half hours to get here today we're going to be staying at this boutique hotel with over 200 years of history i'm just really excited to be spending a couple nights here and just relax okay here it's just 30 seconds from a bus stop and it's so beautiful so this is the main entrance tozo this is insane look at this it's a mansion guys this entire area is ours for the night yeah this is the hontaku room which is the main building yep there are six rooms in all in total for this boutique hotel look at this amazing japanese garden you got a nice seating area you have like a little water thing there in that warehouse there are two rooms well it's a warehouse it's an old warehouse so so these are very old buildings with over 200 year history used to belong to the izuka family and now it's been renovated into a boutique hotel so this is our room look this what shall i say is stone these stones takes you to our living room over there this is our sitting area maybe we can breakfast tomorrow morning here that's good wouldn't that be nice breakfast you're so chiller really by the way that's the main street right outside these fences here yeah and this is where we checked in we checked into that building there and this is the sliding doors into our living room okay ready to go inside yep hi check those out let's go so it says hon [ __ ] walking through the corridor our bedroom's on this side to the right wow got it look at this this is like so i don't know i feel so spoiled being in this room look at this you can see this garden from our room i love this me too this is me just sit here we can sit here with some tea and just look out here you know here is a living room the living room the living room i love this line people this design and look at this lamp i love it love love love the italian design italian design really nice big sofa it's a bed it's like a bed there's a little desk here here is the dining room and kitchen so nice look at this oh here we have some sweets from the morikawaya sweet shop ayu monaka it's like my dream kitchen can we check out the kitchen really quickly so there is a itch cooking heater you can cook everything right it's cooking tools right here's silverware you got like frying pan you got bowls aluminum foil wrap measuring cup strainer you even got like condiments here look you got like soy sauce pepper salt tonkatsu sauce spatula the rice powder rice butter wild generic chopsticks okay right and you got a uh dishwasher here so you don't have to wash by yourself right oh teacup yeah coffee cups teacups beautiful this one is called the koisagoyaki the original the local uh ceramic yeah i definitely want to go to the store to check these out i mean here we have plates and bowls and glasses you can just live here really yeah you got a sink so this is tea green tea this is coffee this is all local tea and local coffee this is a japanese style cocha japanese style black tea your coffee maker you got your tea you got your kettle and you have a rice rice cooker yeah rice good water nice rice cooker wow yeah like you have a nice microwave i've been here whoa what is that plate welcome vegetable plate hey look there's a little thing here welcome to nakagawa ah it tells you what all the vegetables are where they come from what farm they come from soda milk local milk milk farmer milk and orange juice 100 and this one is spring water spring water from the spring which i think we're going to visit um after this room tour here's the bathroom very modern i love the gold walls i really do and then you got your your you know all your buttons you even have a washing machine this is a washing machine is this also a dryer yeah it is washing and drying okay yeah very convenient for like longer stays and then you got your sink with all your amenities you got your toothbrush brush um everything here you really don't need anything oh your bath towels hand towels you got your hair dryer you and this is your what is this it's a detergent detergent for your clothes very nice and then finally not finally this is the bathroom what a very beautiful modern bathroom i love this bathtub you have a little window here that looks out into like an inner garden that's momiji out there it's pretty okay finally the bedroom that's so beautiful what do you guys think don't you think this room is just amazing so this is a japanese style bedroom i have to say this is very traditional yet modern modern style it's traditional slash modern i love it and that was the room tour of the hontaku room of izukate it's stunning i am blown away by this room i really am this one is called ayumonaka it's welcome snack japanese confectionary just shaped like ayu are you a kind of fish inside is uncle there's more uncle in the tale me too have it with some tea so we're just sitting here relaxing enjoying the atmosphere the tea and the ayu monaka and we're gonna be served dinner at seven o'clock in our room i'm gonna be served some local specialties really looking forward to it hi everyone i'm natalie i'm the concierge here at izapate izukate is the residence of the izuka family well they were in this area for 200 years or more they were the village headmen of the area so very rich family very important they opened up a bank here and mayor of the town and they also had a construction company so the construction of their house was really strong so it's still remaining now the buildings now belong to nakagawa mati they have been registered as a tangible cultural heritage property which is really great for the town and for japan to keep this kind of place still alive and preserve it for everyone to see for the future it is foreign [Music] okay so we're gonna go get some water from this well this is natalie's well you're well natalie you're well so show us how we do it how do we get water from the well i've never done this before well and the well had the whale well as well at the world walk up to the well and i'd have a little wash okay wow that's wild it's well good it's well good you did that so well so this is like water from the mountain delicious it's cold and delicious [Music] oh you see a very natural taste [Music] so this place is considered to be one of the beautiful villages in japan and i can see why it really is beautiful lots of nature and just just spectacular are those rice terraces oh it's beautiful so we're here at fujita ceramics uh to check out some of the ceramics of course because i love ceramics you really really love potato ceramics i do ceramics and pottery so this particular ceramics is koi yaki particular to this area and uh they're using the local dirt which gives it this uh special color they have so much what am i going to do maya what am i going to do i wonder if they ship do they ship oh no this is torture for me guys this is torture what am i going to do there's too many things i like here you will choose that one really that would be great for your coffee you drink coffee every day and i think shinichi likes this design i do but then i also like this one you know i don't usually like the the shiny ones but this one i like the earthy colors and we also need to get some rice balls and this color is beautiful look at that it's a reddish dirt this one looks like the one we use at the hotel yeah yeah oh oh i think i'm in love with this one look at this rice ball look at that so this is the dirt that they use to make the ceramics which gives it that that distinctive color foreign uh found these two uh coffee mugs i'm gonna get this and i also got four uh rice balls check it out look how beautiful they look yeah got four of these very beautiful you know what once you see how they make it you know you have a much bigger appreciation for these see you again [Music] dinner time [Music] all right let's see what the first layer contains oh this looks like it's the torah which is the local puffer fish this is the puffer fish that lives in the onsen water so that makes it naturally non-poisonous so i think this is sashimi that's the meat the flesh and i think this is the skin here we have local trout carpaccio that's a trout and i think there are some vegetables in here as well okay second layer oh look at that so that you see is ayu this is the local freshwater fish and ayu is in season you got some boiled edamame soy beans i think that's teriyaki chicken with some vegetables here that is a pate made of uh the local boar i believe finally we have the simmered local vegetables i see shiitake mushrooms carrot fish cake konyaku takenoko i see tamagoyaki we got some tempura i believe this is a saya endo which is green beans and watercress tempura we got some pickled vegetables some steamed rice and for dessert we have konyaku yuzu jelly all right so first i'm going to try the torah which is a specialty it's puffer fish um i actually have not eaten puffer fish so i'm gonna put it into the sauce along with the green onions and the grated daikon and the chili pepper tadakimasu what an interesting texture i was expecting the texture to be like maguro for example completely different it's a bit firmer flesh very clean taste i like it so i believe this is the skin of the puffer fish kind of reminds me of cartilage once again it's very fresh and clean tasty almost no flavor to be honest with you and let's try the local trout carpaccio the radish is crunchy and crispy the trout is not fishy at all whatsoever so second layer the main one is ayu freshwater fish just in season so itadakimasu it's a salt flavored it is clean tasty and it's flaky and it's seasoned simply with salt it's good it's good the sword matches [Music] um little bit ponzu like taste it's juicy good this one is a wild boar pate it's pretty rare to eat boa it's like a corned beef pork bedroom what does that mean i don't know sweet soy sauce marinated fish and outside is a coating with coated with the sugary stuff also tasty fish but it's not fishy okay last layer we have nimono so that's what we're gonna start off with the mono simmered vegetables i see the shiitake mushrooms i would like to start off with the shiitake mushroom perfectly simmered in a subtly sweet soy sauce dashi sauce i think this is loco yuba tofu skin i think so too [Music] that yuba has taken the flavor of the the sauce very very good all right this is koshihikari rice the loco koshihikari rice which is a high quality rice i'm just gonna eat it without anything oh [ __ ] it has a subtle sweetness to it i can eat the rice just as is there's two types of tempura one is the green bean the local green bean mmm it's so crispy that is fresh hmm and not oily at all whatsoever and this is watercress tempura watercress um hmm watercress is good when it's made into tempura i do like watercress but made into tempura is nice too this whole town is one hotel and this this hotel this house is one room of the hotel the meals came from the town catering service most of these ingredients are local local harvested in this area konyaku is very popular it's a one of the specialty of this area yuzu is a local local ground is yeah it's cognac so texture is different from jelly regular jelly but the inside takes inside my mouth it's almost melted i thought cognac is more farmer but this one is soft oh and usually flavor is really [Music] refreshing so every morning at izukate they bring your breakfast in your room yeah you can enjoy breakfast in the comfort of your own room we have vegemite at this hotel i think that in itself makes this place very unique we have the japanese breakfast today you can actually uh request the western breakfast if that is more your thing but let's open this up okay so that's the first layer that's onsen tamago that's natto which is fermented soy beans that's yuba tofu which is tofu some cherries sakura oh my goodness cherry yes cherries and then you have a little um here okay so that's the first layer and the green stuff is wasabi by the way look at that first cherry of the season yeah it's very early yes very early and then the second layer we have some kim piragobo which is a gourd and uh carrots and this is sauteed that is some skimono that's cabbage and radish that's uh wakame seaweed with some ginger uh yeah what is this some green vegetables and some shiras uh fish that's boiled fish then the final layer is the salmon with some daikon radish grated and you got some i think ham underneath here i think this is the local ham and then you have your membership of course you know oh my god this look look you can pick it up with your ham because it's it's actually kind of dry it's been pickled for 10 years amazing rice you know after three bites the sweetness came from this rice yeah it's very sweet rice it's not sugary sweet it's good rice sweetness i love onsen tamago sometimes i make at home i love this i love this texture arab salmon grilled salmon nitrogen is salted i'm with good good salmon taste my mom used to always make japanese breakfast you know before i went to school simple japanese breakfast okay i think i would like to try the tofu the yuba tofu yuba is tofu skin tofu is tofu so maybe it is made with yuba the tofu is made with yuba interesting isn't it okay that's not your typical tofu no it's like cream it's like a block of cream that tastes like soy beans if you can imagine that's amazing it kind of just melts in your mouth the local ham are so tender almost delicious it is different from the ham that we buy at the supermarket gotta try this 10 year old umeboshi whoa it's so sour it's like lemon oh but you know what wakes you up in the morning are you with some rice [Music] i imagine it's 10 years 10 years in memory so it is sorry but it's not sorry it's not salty it's sour there's one thing that i'd like to try vegemite a little bit on rice oh my gosh that's vegemite it does look like uh there's a vegetable vegemite on the rice thank you natalie thank you let you guys know vegemite's usually not on the menu hmm is it good really well but it's used very less i put too much but it's not bad not bad i love this umami really oh my god you're putting more vegemite on your rice soy sauce interesting so that was our very short trip to nakagawa machi we stayed at this amazing place for two nights and we got to try many of their local specialties including yuba rice bows a visit to our mango and coffee farm and the local brewery as well as the most amazing dessert we've had this year we even got to experience making our own soba noodles those videos are coming up real soon so stay tuned thank you to natalie and kawani's son of izukate for their hospitality and the kindness of everyone we met in the village we cannot wait to come back thanks for watching please smash that like button and let us know your thoughts below information about the hotel is listed in the description see you guys on our next video bye [Music]

Channel: TabiEats

Views: 154,060

Rating: 4.9621906 out of 5

Keywords: tabieats, Iizukatei, Japanese hotel, Hotel, Japan hotel, Best hotel japan, Ryokan, Japanese inn, Japan luxury hotel, Traditional japan, Traditional Japanese, Tochigi prefecture, Japanese mansion, Old japan, Where to stay japan, Japan accommodations, Unique hotel japan

Id: UZ-SWlA9AIs

Length: 29min 46sec (1786 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 02 2021