Summer in Itoshima, Fukuoka – Japan

✴︎

8.22.2015

Hey, welcome again to my blog.

As my tagline, everyday is holiday so I think this is the right time for me to share you some awesome exploration in Itoshima. For you who don’t know where is the location of Itoshima, Itoshima is located in Fukuoka , Kyushu Island, Japan. This place is popular with its amazing beautiful scenery and high quality of food.

Itoshima was established on 1st January 2010

Starting today’s exploration from Kyushu University, Ito campus, we went to a place for making sashimi 鯛めし作り体験 “taimeshitsukuritaiken” .

What is sashimi? very fresh raw meat or fish sliced into thin pieces. How is it taste? it’s good. For moeslim who aware about the blood in raw food, (when I was back to Indonesia, my family ask about the blood in raw food). I can say, before we eat this, this fish already clean, so Insyaallah there’s no blood.

as you can see, there are 2 kinds of tool on the table, Knives and “skin cleaner” well I dont know what’s in the middle thing name. LOL

There are several tools to make sashimi,

a tool for cleaning the fish skin
a knife for fillet the sashimi
a knife for cutting the bone

what you only have knife? that’s okay.. you still can make sashimi.

Sensei taught us how to fillet the sashimi

yeah we’re so lucky because we got a chance to be taught by sensei. This’s my first time to make sashimi.

after fillet the fish, we will get 3 part, 2 pieces of fish meat and 1 piece of bone. the meat we use for sashimi, the bone we use for Miso — after fillet the fish, we will get 3 part, 2 pieces of fish meat and 1 piece of bone.
the meat we use for sashimi, the bone we use for Miso

well, after listening the explanation from sensei, time for us to try it by our self,, I just realized, fillet a fish is not too difficult,, muahahaha.

We tried to make sashimi, and yatta!!! dekita!

wait, what is miso? for you who don’t know what is miso. Based on very well known and free encyclopedia, called wikipedia :D, Miso (みそ or 味噌 ?) is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and the fungus Aspergillus oryzae, known in Japanese as kōji (麹 ?), and sometimes rice, barley, or other ingredients. Most of Japanese like miso, this is one of side food that you gonna miss when you left Japan. in our case, we used the Fish head and Tofu (when you eat this , it’s better to add negi on it).

well, In Japan, china and Korea, chopstick is common to use in cooking. As can be seen in the picture below:

chopstick is very usefull, specially for cooking.

There are many kinds of chopstick, the longer one as you can see in the picture above is used for cooking, and the small one is used for eating,,, aheem itadakimasu!

If you wanna see it clearly, just click the picture.

chopstick also a thing that you gonna miss when you left Japan.

the picture above is a room with Japanese style, we ate in this room,, I love this Japanese style.

the rice is do tempting! — the rice is so tempting!

The rice is contain fish, vegetables and etc,, one cup is not enough man… you need to eat this rice more than once… why? because it’s delicious

Itadakimasu!!! yeah sashimi, miso, gohan, ocha,, what a wonderful life.. — Itadakimasu!!!
yeah sashimi, miso, gohan, ocha,, what a wonderful life..

yeah, from the rice, we got rice ball! yatta… oh I am hungry (again)..

and after eating, we continued our exploration to 北伊醤油県学 “ Kita I shōyu ken-gaku”. This is the place to produce Japanese soy sauce “shouyu”.

北伊醤油県学　“ Kita I shōyu ken-gaku” factory — 北伊醤油県学 “ Kita I shōyu ken-gaku” factory

do you know, ? kitashouyu was established 118 years ago. (1897 ) wow!! it’s so old, isn’t it? wanna know more information about this company? This is the website of 北伊醤油県学 http://kitaishoyu.com/.

Inside the factory, we had a chance to get explanation and see “how to make souyu”. at the 2nd floor, you can see this :

these are the soy bean. on this picture, the soy bean has been proceed since 3 months ago — these are the soy beans. on this picture, the soy bean has been processed since 3 months ago

do you know ? the more time you processed this sauce, the more expensive it will be….

the sauce become darker, and it has been proceed since 3,5 years ago — the sauce become darker, and it has been processed since 3,5 years ago

I was in Indonesia when they started to process this sauce

after that we came back to the down stairs and got a chance to try all soy sauce,, including the most expensive one,,, muahaaha

the oldest souyu is 4 years “old”

we got a chance to try all the sauce, the more time they proceed this sauce the more salty the taste would be

not only shouyu, they also pruduce soy Pudding.

This pudding is the best “food” in summer, specially this soy pudding

so how’s the pudding taste? uuhh .. yabai oishii! it’s really delicious and sweet. the texture is soft and because it’s summer, I think this is the best food (?) in summer..

This is my first time to eat Soy pudding, so I have to capture this moment,,, anoo shasshin tottemoratte ii desuka??? — This is my first time to eat Soy pudding, so I have to capture this moment,,,
anoo shasshin tottemoratte ii desuka???

after eating my pudding, I realized there is the explanation about souyu processing on the board that hanging on the wall.. it’s interesting because the explanation using cartoon and English.

how to make soy sauce, yeah that picture shows us how to make Japanese soy sauce.

warning! that's Hot!! atsui atsui — warning! that’s Hot!!
atsui atsui

after visiting the soy souce factory, we went to Tateishiyama, This Mountain is located near from Keya beach,

at first, we have a plan to go to keya no oto. (keya beach), yeah the location is still in Itoshima. Keya beach is popular with The largest basalt cavern in Japan. But, because we’re worrying with the wind, we decided to change the plan… but it’s okay.. Itoshima is a wonderful city. we still can find awesome scenery in this area.