Japan 2024 Trip Part 5: Floral Village, Owl’s Forest and Yunotsubo Shopping Street in Yufuin

Previously:

Japan 2024 Trip Part 4: Japanese-style Breakfast at the Ryokan

We dedicated a whole day just walking around in this tiny town, visiting museums, nibbling on so many snacks and enjoying the nice cold weather as well.  Ok, I lied, the weather that day was so icy cold and my both hands were freezing plus the rain wasn’t even helping, made it even colder.  However, who cares of any of those!!!  Because the beautiful view and delicious snacks, made it worth the walk. 

We visited Floral Village, Owl’s Forest, strolled along Yunotsubo street and bought so many snacks.  This place is heaven for someone like me who love snacking and like hunting for unique and yummy food.  There will be a little description and price on each single item that we bought.   Not only for food, there are lots of cute merchandises and souvenirs that you can find in this area, such as Ghibli store, Snoppy, Miffy and so on. 

Beef, potato and onion croquette 200¥

This time we got to try the famous Kinsho croquettes.  Remember on our first day, we tried those random croquettes and they were delicious.  My thought was Kinsho would be the same or even better.  However, I was quite disappointed.  We even ordered the gold medal awarded one to be safe which was the beef, potato and onion croquette.  My husband liked it but for me, the filling was too soggy and flavour-wise, it was mediocre. 

Honey ice cream with honeycomb 800¥

This was a honey ice cream that I bought from Bee Honey store.  I bought one with honeycomb in it as well as extra honey.  Ice cream was creamy and nice, honey was sweet and delicious but I suggest to get the one without honeycomb because the coldness from ice makes those honeycombs hardened and became unpleasant to eat.

10 coin with mozarella 500¥

It was another good snack.  At first, I thought that this would be more like a biscuity texture but I was wrong.  It was softer and more like a bread with strachy cheese filling.   We took a video of me eating this but I wasn’t biting on the right direction and we didn’t capture that stretchy cheese.  Second attempt, I gave one big pulls, now from the middle and yayyyyy.. Exactly what I’ve seen from people vlogs 😛

Pork bun 350¥

Hot gingerbread milk 600¥

This gingerbread milk was amazing.  It was the perfect drink to have in such a freezing weather.  Tasted like a gingerbread man but in liquid.  The milk was super hot because they boiled the milk instead of frothed.  But that whipped cream on top, cool it down.  Just like having Christmas in my mouth. 

Mixed ice cream with plain cone 500¥

I saw this ice cream shop along Yunotsubo street and the interesting part was their cone.  They used a sweet biscuity cone.  Not those regular hollow wafer nor the waffle cone but this cone has a full body and crunchy type of biscuit.  Their ice cream was creamy and nice but the service wasn’t that friendly, very unlike Japanese.

Combo set 1,220¥

Not to be missed from here is to get some cheesecake from Milch, right here is the birth place of this world-know cheesecake and pudding, Milch.  I bought the combo set that has a cold plain cheesecake, a cold matcha cheesecake and two puddings.  However, I meant to try the hot one.  That’s fine because the cold cheesecake was good too and I really like their pudding as it was silky smooth and married well with that slightly bitter caramel sauce on the bottom. 

    

White strawberry 1,280¥

Strawberries in Japan are the best.  They are sweet and very juicy and super delicious.  The price is pretty reasonable and sometimes could be even cheaper.   The way they pack strawberry most of the time is in one layer, not on top of each other, so they all come out in pretty much perfect condition.  We tried the white strawberries as well and it was a lot sweeter than the regular red ones. 

There are more and more snacks and places that I wanted to try and visit but a day is really not enough. I have so many lists on my note like beef mabushi, swiss roll cake from B-speak or we didn't even visit that Showa Retro museum nor Cheshire cat forest nor shiba cafe.  There are plenty more other things, I think if I have one or two more days, I can manage doing more things.  I really underestimated this little town.  There are plenty things to offer.  

  

Yufuin Floral Village

Open: 9:30 - 17:30

Owl’s Forest

Open: 9:30 - 17:30

Entry fee: adult 700¥ and kid under 12 yo 500¥

Yufuin Kinsho Croquette

Open: 9:00 - 17:30

Milch

Open: 10:30 - 17:30

Bee Honey

Open: 10:00 - 16:30

Stay tuned for the next blog still in Yufuin:

Japan 2024 Trip Part 6: Shabu Shabu Dinner and Yawaragi Onsen at the Ryokan

Japan 2024 Trip Part 4: Japanese-style Breakfast at the Ryokan

Previously:

Japan 2024 Trip Part 3: Sukiyaki Dinner at the Ryokan

For breakfast, they serve it in the main dining area and it starts from 07:30 to 10:00 am, with last order to be placed at 9:30.  You can come anytime there without booking the time before hand, given that your package is including breakfast.  

Basically, for rice, miso soup to drinks like hot coffee, tea to cold milk are self-serve but then the main meal comes as an a la carte.  School kids will have same menu as an adult but then little kid will have a different small special menu. 

I know it may sound silly, but this cold fresh milk from Aso mountain tastes better than any fresh milk I have drunk before and it has a distinguished and unique taste.  It has a good amount of sweetness, it is rich and fatty but cold and very refreshing at the same time.  I like it so much, I found that it even tastes better than Hokkaido milk.

Small kids breakfast set

Again, it is not Japanese if they don’t put on all these beautifully presented dishes.  We started with assorted small dishes like cooked greens, eggplants, pickles, deep-fried and sesame coated sweet potatoes and as well as sweets and fresh fruits.  On top of that, there was this raw beef marinated in some sort of tangy sauce with truffle oil.  It was absolutely yum-yum and flavorful.  

We then also got Japanese traditional breakfast of grilled salmon with steamed rice as well as raw eggs again to put it over hot rice and have it with a splash of soy sauce.  Then there was pork belly dish cooked in a hot pan.  The pork was so tender too.  It was a nice breakfast we had and overlooking that picturesque mountain view, what more could I ask?

Breakfast available from 7:30 to 10 am 

Stay tuned for the net blog still in Yufuin:

Japan 2024 Trip Part 5: Floral Village, Owl's Forest and Yunotsubo Shopping Street in Yufuin

Japan 2024 Trip Part 3: Sukiyaki Dinner at the Ryokan

Previously:

Japan 2024 Trip Part 2: Yawaragi-No-Sato Yadoya, Yufuin

I was really looking forward for their dinner menu.  I booked the half board package in this stay, so breakfast and dinner are included.  I totally recommend people to have this kinda experience while you're staying at a good ryokan.  Where they normally serve a delicious meal accompanied with superb services.  

As we stayed there for 2 nights, they served sukiyaki style dinner on the first night and another one as a shabu shabu or hot pot style dinner.  While for kids, they had a slightly different menus to suit them better.  Please see pictures below.

Dinner time needs to be reserved in advance.  Once we arrived in the dining room, our appetizer was already ready and served.  

My daughter was very excited when she got the food in front of her.  Her dinner was served on a fancy car bowl.  It has some spaghetti Bolognese with some chicken katsu, nuggets, a bowl of soup with sausages and completed with chocolate donut and fruits.  They looked very appetising.

While for my older son, he got something called kids' kaiseki meal, the food was pretty much similar as my daughter's meal, but it came with some curry sauce and sashimi as well.

Deep fried sesame tofu, bite-sized rice malt bun, boiled taro, cooked ginkgo, kadaif

We started with kaiseki dishes, all appetizers and entrees came in a bite-sized or small portions.  Japanese people are really paying attention on timing.  I can see that sometimes the waitress stealthily took a peek inside our dining room, so whenever we finish with one dish, they will serve us with another dish.  They will always wait until we seem ready to have another dish, before serving the next dish.

Sashimi: horse mackerel, flounder squid and sweet shrimp

Yuba or tofu skin

Short time smoked mackerel pieces

Deep fried fig with beef loin

This little fried stuff was beyond delicious.  It said on the menu as a deep-fried fig with beef loin.  I don't think it was a fig, more like a peach or something else to me.  Beef was very tender, too tender actually until I can't really remember chewing it and all those wrapped inside a seaweed and coated with kinda crispy flour before then deep-fried.  The sauce was a little salty and tangy.  It was an amazing and clever tiny bite. 

Creamy soup with Japanese leek

Clam soup

Japanese hot pot "Sukiyaki" of the beef and raw egg "Ranou"

Now, come to the main meal.  Sukiyaki is a Japanese style hot pot where you cook meat and vegetables in a sweet soy base sauce.  They will normally give you a raw egg too, crack the egg into a bowl and lightly beat it.  Once the meat is cooked to your liking, you can dip them into that beaten egg.  It will give those tender marbled meats another level of lusciousness and richness.

By the way, Oita beef is a must-try while you were here.  Their high-quality beef has earned them the same level of reputation as Hida beef or Kobe beef.  The marbling texture in its Oita wagyu beef is so pronounced and you can see a clear white line of layer after layers of fat that when you cooked them properly, it just melts in your mouth.

Pickled Japanese radish, eggplant and seaweed

Today's dessert - semifreddo

We then ended the meal with a nice light semifreddo.  We left with an extremely full yet happy tummy.   It was definitely one great meal.  

Stay tuned for the next blog still in Yufuin:

Japanese 2024 Trip Part 4: Japanese-style Breakfast at the Ryokan