Good morning guys
I was invited on a trip to Otsu city by the city today
And I'm super excited to be here because it's my first time, but we have so many cool things planned out
And I'm really excited to take you guys along so let's get started. We're gonna rent some bicycles
I've got electric bikes over here, which are good if we get kind of tired
And I've got some other bikes over here without a motor
They have all the important information in English so if you don't speak Japanese
Don't worry too much this place is really convenient for English speakers
It looks so pretty
I'm so excited
So this is where we are right now Otsu-eki and our first stop is going to be
This cafe right here for lunch right on the coast of the lake I cannot wait
We've made it to the edge of the lake it's so big it looks like the ocean it smells like the ocean too
I feel like I'm on a beach
Weather is so nice. I was so lucky. It was actually supposed to rain today, and I think it might later a little bit
But right now. It's perfect. It's cloudy. It's not a million degrees. I'm happy
So for lunch they have lots of options, and there's a couple of vegan options here
This looks like a whole set with a whole bunch of different things to try.
Vegan cake!
I don't know what to start with
There's so many!
It's so good
This is delicious the vegetables taste sooo fresh
This is a brand-new vegetable for me. I've never seen it before it's called a shikaku-mame, square bean
It's a bean. It looks like a sea creature
It's crunchy and it kind of tastes like a green bean
but it's a little more... it's got a little more moisture to it. It's not as dry
All right. We're already off to our next location! I'm gonna be going to Omi Jingu
Which is a shinto shrine and I'm going to be doing something really fun there
I'm gonna be wearing a special type of kimono
It's one of the super fancy ones with lots and lots of layers.
I cannot wait!
I'm so excited this place is sooo pretty
The weather is holding up it hasn't started raining yet. It was supposed to start right about now
But the sky's still looking
slightly cloudy
Not overly bad, so I think I was pretty lucky
So this is the type of kimono I'll be wearing, it's called juni (12) hitoe
12-layered ceremonial kimono
Konnichiwa!
Look at all the kimono
the anime
so a movie was filmed at this shrine, and this is the outfit that one of the characters wore
Ohh it's heavy
So I was told that I can choose whichever kimono I want.
this one's really pretty
So hard to choose!
I really like this gold one. This is really pretty. I think I might choose this one
Alright, I'm gonna attempt to sit down and pose my kimono so that it looks nice
Well that was awesome, I really like how they just kind of leave you to it
And you can try on whatever kimonos you like if you brought your own Chucky
You could take as many photos as you like too and it only costs $10
It's 1,000 yen, and you get one of the instant photographs included with that
So these are really tiny kimonos
These are for three year olds.
In Japan, they celebrate when you become 3 years, 5 years and 7 years
so they have all the kimono you would need for that here Wow
Wooow
They have everything here
We've arrived at our hotel, I'm gonna get a quick little tour of the inside now
wow
It's nice in here
So they have an Italian restaurant
It smells great. I'm getting hungry, and they also have a Japanese restaurant
This is where I will be eating tonight. So look forward to see what kind of food they have prepared for me
They also have a swimming pool, but it's closed because summer is almost over
But if you come in the summer you can swim
And have an amazing view of Biwa Lake right beside you
there's a souvenir shop inside the hotel too
So if you want to grab some souvenirs for your family
apparently, this is a fancy
mochi
it looks like it would be reaaally soft
Their rice is famous too
So their rice is probably used in all these mochi products here tea is famous in this region as well
Tea is famous in this region as well
So there's lots of kinds of green tea here
these little fish
fish sweets are soo cutee
Biwa Lake cider
Time to check out my room!
I'm so exciteddd
Let's go
Wow
Here is the shower room.
It's a whole room for showering you can get this whole area wet
It's awesome
Sink area
Got some shampoo and stuff
The bedroom area is so pretty. I love the blue ocean theme
So I picked up some of the famous mochi at the gift shop
Couldn't pass that up because they looked really soft and delicious, so let's give them a try
It looks like this, they kind of look like dango
They're on sticks and then lots of what I think is matcha powder
Not pure matcha obviously
That would be intense
But matcha flavoured... kinako, maybe?
It's matcha flavour
They're just as soft as I imagined they would be.
Wow I can see why this is famous
This is some of the best mochi I've ever had
Mmm. They're so soft
it melts in your mouth. You guys will love this
It's almost dinner time so I think I'm gonna head downstairs to the restaurant that I showed you earlier
Ohmi. The Japanese-style restaurant,
and they have prepared a special vegan dinner for me
They've already brought out one of my favorite dishes
which is yuba~ It's tofu skin
You dip it in wasabi and soy sauce. It's delicious.
Fig. That's really interesting. I don't think I've ever had a fig before
It reminds me a lot of sashimi
the tofu itself doesn't have much flavor, so you really get the taste of the soy sauce and wasabi
Kind of like a vegetarian sashimi
All right, let's get this fig with sesame dressing a try
my first time eating fresh fig
It's so sweet
It's really sweet and juicy
melts in your mouth
And here we have
Tadaaa~
A beautiful cup of seaweed
Very gooey seaweed. It's apparently really good for you
Tastes delicious
kind of vinegar flavour to it
okay they just gave me the fanciest salad I've ever seen in my life
So it's full of different superfoods like goji berries, quinoa, a bunch of different other vegetables
And then I can make my own dressing here, however I like.
We've got olive oil, salt, and lemon
That's delicious
It's so good
I can't go back to regular salad
So this one is a wheat gluten
Apparently it's really chewy, and there's a miso sauce on top
Mmm it's sooo good
It's like a soft mochi
Kind of like buckwheat flour
mixed with a little bit of an earthy flavour
Mostly, you just taste the flavour of the sauce
Next, we have the aka konnyaku that we saw in the gift shop
The texture is super squishy
I don't know how to explain it
It's like eating an eyeball
Yeah, it's got a slight smoky taste to it
but basically it's just like regular konnyaku, not much flavour
so you just enjoy the flavor of the sauce that they put with it
Did you see this?
There's no gap
They carved it like this
That's awesome
Matsutake are really expensive mushrooms
You don't get to eat them very often, so really excited about that
And I don't think I've ever had tempura with matcha shio before so that'll be new
Alright, I'm gonna try the matsutake with just plain rock salt
So good
They're so flavourful
Wow
don't even need to put anything on it
'Cause it has such an earthy flavor already
This is a vegetable nabe made with soy milk
I'm excited for this one
I love how they cook it at your table in these cute little pots
My nabe is all ready to eat
It smells really, really good
And they give you fresh ginger
To add into it which is just the perfect combination with the soy milk
I love this I'm gonna try making this at home. Not sure exactly what they put in it
I'm assuming some kind of vegetable base broth, and then the soy milk and maybe
Yeah, I feel like that's all you need and then add a little bit of fresh ginger. It's sooo refreshing
It's such a great flavor that goes with all the different vegetables and great with the tofu
For dessert we have some fresh pears
Look at how delicate that is.
It's so pretty on a bed of ice to keep them nice and crispy
I'm back in my hotel room now and enjoying my comfy bathrobe. I hope you guys enjoy day one of my trip
I'll see you again in my next video for day two we're gonna be visiting a temple and
Doing some interesting stuff there, and we're gonna be trying shojin ryori
Which is like the food that monks eat, which is vegan so awesome
And we're gonna be doing some of the cool stuff, so I hope you guys join me for that
Thanks for watching!
Bye guys!