tsubame sanjo-nagaoka-tokyo

Was wondering why our bathroom had blinds...it's because we can also see the people in the large bath area of their hotel across the way! except they didn't have blinds...eep!

It was a rare time we didn't have a meal plan with our booking, and nearby breakfast choices were also slim.

Luckily, there was a 7-eleven across the street.

I had a Yasuda yogurt drink, pineapple and teri chicken egg salad sandwich

We also bought some coffee too

While eating we decided to check the time for the local trains, only to discover that there weren't any for the next hour...BUT if we paid an extra 800 yen each, we could take the Shinkansen from Tsubame Sanjo to Nagaoka

How is this huge sakura tree? we could see it from across the JR Tsubame Sanjo parking lot..so pretty

And this huge knife and fork?! made by the blacksmiths of the area.

Nagaoka...known for their firework makers, they have firework shows during the summer, I remember back when they had a show at Pearl Harbor, we could see it from where my parents house used to be (thought I wrote about it here but only uploaded a video to IG).

Satoshi wanted to check out Yukyuzan Park, which was about 15 minutes away by bus

On the property is Aoshi Shrine

Niigata people (I think), enjoying the cherry blossoms

There is a picnic area as well as this area with double cherry blossom trees

And weeping cherry trees

So pretty

Lunch was at Restaurant Nakata, near the JR Nagaoka station, which Satoshi had wanted to try

Their pork curry is popular, you can choose the spiciness from 1 to 50!

I chose 1, while the dude at the other table chose the 50...if you finish eating it they take your photo and put it on their wall of fame...they took his photo!

I also added cheese…1040 yen (tax included)

Satoshi wanted to try their demi katsu and ketchup katsu, but also wanted to try their curry...980 yen (tax included)

I gave him some of my curry to taste.

After lunch, Satoshi wanted to check out some historical areas, I wasn't too interested in that, so I walked around 

This is the City Hall Plaza Aore Nagaoka

Loved the benches in front...

Loved how they had walkways above the roads

We picked up some kamaboko from Taketoku, their nitama (seasoned egg), shrimp, red ginger and tako negi (octopus onion)…1578 yen (tax included)

The nitama was wrapped with kamaboko and was still jammy...delicious

Satoshi said the shrimp one was delicious too.

I put the red ginger and octopus kamaboko into the freezer

We also bought some takikomi gohan which used Niigata koshihikari by Kaiho

And a saba bento...both were delicious.

Not many steps as the other days (16851). 

We hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

Restaurant Nakata

2-3-6 Sakanouemachi

Nagaoka, Niigata

Taketoku & Kaiho

inside Cocolo Nagaoka

niigata-kamo-higashi sanjo-yahiko-tsubame sanjo

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel buffet there were some items served that were foods of Niigata, in particular, Yasuda yogurt, thick aburaage and koshihikari (variety of rice), so I made sure to try them 

After checking out, we caught the train and headed to Kamo.

It was after this photo that I "gracefully" fell while crossing the street, luckily I was wearing long sleeves...why is it that whenever I fall it is in slow motion?!

I surprised myself, Satoshi and the probably the people sitting in their car waiting for the light to change...luckily, it didn't seem like anything was broken. (just my ego...ha!)

The reason for stopping in Kamo was to see this...500 koinobori

It was something to see

Then we went across to Aoumi Shrine

And Kamoyama Park where they have a tsubaki area with about 100 different types of tsubaki (camellia)…so pretty

And the squirrel area...man, those guys run fast!

(When they let you go in or out, the people manning this area watch so the squirrels don’t get out)

Across the street is Marudai Arimoto Shoten, which has been in business since 1919, they sell varieties of local sake and we picked up some souvenirs here.

Mameten by Ohashi Shokuhin, handmade soy bean "chips"..410 yen (tax included)

Chocoman by Magara Kashiten, white bean paste filled manju is covered with chocolate...800 yen (tax included)

This product is only made during the winter because the chocolate will melt.

Magara Kashiten has been in business for over 120 years!

And then we went two stations to JR Higashi Sanjo to look for lunch...

Tarekatsu don...tare is a sauce, katsu is tonkatsu and don is short for donburi (bowl) is a popular food in this area

I ordered the mini, with no miso soup...800 yen (tax included)

Satoshi ordered the Niigata tarekatsu don...1090 yen (tax included)

So ono! the tare was a little sweet salty. The pork was tender and the panko (bread crumb) coating stays a little crisp

We then walked to find Kanegi Fruits

At the entrance we found this friendly furry one...hello!

Kanegi Fruits has been in business since 1903!

I wanted to try the Echigo Hime (area variety) strawberry, fruit sandwich...650yen (plus tax)

Satoshi chose the Honey Glow Pineapple...600 yen (plus tax)

We found a place to eat our fruit sandwiches...outside the Kita Sanjo Library!

What a beautiful building!

After eating and then checking out the library, we went to the train station to see what time we could catch the train, unfortunately, it would be over an hour wait for one, so we checked out the Blacksmith Learning Center then walked to Tsubame Sanjo.

At Tsubame Sanjo, we caught a train to Yahiko, so that we could visit Yahiko Shrine. (the train connections are sparse so be careful of the times)

This area reminded us of Nikko.

There were still some weeping cherry blossoms as well as the double type too.

We returned to Tsubame Sanjo and checked in to our hotel.

(One exit of the station connects to the Tsubame side and the other exit connects to the Sanjo side of the area.)

And then we went to look for dinner...

I had several places marked "to try" but we ended up choosing the closest, since our feet were kaput

At Mizusawa, I tried the shoga shoyu (ginger shoyu) won ton men...980 yen (tax included)

Shoga Shoyu is a popular soup base of ramen in the Nagaoka area of Niigata

Satoshi had gyoza and the shoga shoyu ramen...1200 yen (tax included)

He said the gyoza was meh

And a beer...550 yen (tax included)

What a long day...lots of walking (31759) but we got to see, do and eat everything we intended to.

Marudai Arimoto

10-9 Kokucho

Kamo, Niigata

Hours: 8:00-19:00

*cash only

Tonkatsu Sanjo

1-3-27 Higashi Sanjo

Sanjo, Niigata

Hours: 11:00-21:00

Kanegi Fruits

1-3-23 Hayashicho

Sanjo, Niigata

Closed Wednesdays & Thursdays

Hours: 9:30-18:00 (Saturdays & Sundays), 9:30-18:30 (Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays)

*cash only

Hotel New Green Tsubame Sanjo

2-116-2 Sugoro

Sanjo, Niigata

Shoga Shoyu Ramen Mizusawa

3-88 Idomaki

Tsubame, Niigata

Hours: 11:00-21:00

*cash only

tokyo-niigata

From where we live it took us about 2 hours to get to Niigata

(The last time we were in Niigata was in 2003, pre-blog and we only went to Sado Island.)

Arriving at 10:30-ish, our first stop was here

Bandai City Bus Center...to try their curry

Apparently this is a local favorite, stand and eat style in the bus terminal

The yellow curry was on the thick side and had a little kick to it

I had the mini...430 yen (tax included), which seemed pretty huge to me

Satoshi had the croquette with a regular curry...680 yen (tax included)

After lunch we went to check out Hakusan Shrine and Park

Loved all the wind chimes and huge pine trees

We were a little late for the someiyoshino type of cherry blossoms but the yaezakura (double) and shidare (weeping) types were still in bloom

From here we walked through Furumachi, this area had many long shopping arcades.

In one of those shopping arcades, we stumbled on the bronze statues of the manga "Dokaben" by Shinji Mizushima, who was born in Niigata.

And bought a furuhitotsu yukidaifuku by Maruya Honten, a sweet shop that has been in business since 1878!

This hefty sweet has anko (sweet bean paste), whipped cream, candied chestnut, banana and strawberry all wrapped with a super soft and thin mochi…389 yen (tax included)

Tulips are the prefectural flower of Niigata, it was so nice to see them everywhere!

Then we walked to Toki Messe, Niigata City's convention center, shared the yukidaifuku and then went up to the observation deck.

Unfortunately it was cloudy, so there wasn’t much scenery to see, the Niigata tenugui (hand towel) exhibit that was hanging from the ceiling was pretty though

I bought this Shinnosuke rice serum face mask....880 yen (tax included) at the gift shop

And then we walked to our hotel

The hotel room we booked had two single beds squished in an "L" shape in the room...talk about teeny, it was a good thing we only had backpacks

After resting a bit, we went back out to check out Sado Benkei, conveyor belt sushi.

We had seen this place on a tv show and wanted to try.

It was nice that they had some locally caught fish for some of the sushi

Sado Nodoguro (black throat sea perch)

Sado Nanban shrimp

Sado Mebaru (rock fish)...mine still had bones! not fun eats...

I'm glad we tried this place and would go back 

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Cocolo, the shopping area in the station to pick up some souvenirs.

Satakeya sasadango (yomogi (mugwort) mochi and sweet bean paste is steamed in sasa (bamboo leaves)...180 yen (tax included) each

Zuika kakinotane and arare...1436 yen (tax included)

We had thought it would be "warmer" but Mother Nature had decided to bring back winter, luckily we had brought some long sleeved clothing, though we ended up wearing all the clothing we had...ha!

It was quite a long day, lots of walking (23,988) and lots of eating.

Niigata Park Hotel

1-8-10 Minamisasaguchi

Chuo, Niigata

Bandai City Bus Curry

Bandai City 1F

Hours: 8:00-19:00

Sado Benkei

Bandai Food Hall 2F

Chuo, Niigata

Closed: Tuesdays

Hours: 10:30-21:00

Cocolo Niigata

JR Niigata Station

Hours: 10:00-20:30

*if you'd like to see more photos/videos, please look here