Why Don’t You Taste Ayu (Sweetfish)? – The Most Precious & Unique Fish in The World

Have you ever seen the fish in below pictures? This is Ayu in Japanese and Sweetfish in English. It is one of the most popular freshwater fish in Japan but foreign people don’t know about it so much. Then, I’d like to tell you how special it is since my current place Maze is the best place to fish and eat it. Long history of Ayu in Japan as word origin says I like investigating any history like origin of a word. Ayu actually has a log history with Japanese people. Why is it called “Sweetfish” Before telling you about the word history of Ayu, I’d like to talk about […]

Cooking Class for Foreign Tourists in Hida-Furukawa

I’ve joined in a cooking class for foreign tourists in Hida-Furukawa on this weekend. I’ll share the experience with you. Hida city is one of the stage of 『Your Name』 Hida-Furukawa is well known for where 『Your Name』 took place, which was a big hit in Japan. This is the first visit for me. It took about 90 minutes from Maze (15 minutes from Takayama by train). I really enjoyed the drive to Hida-Furukawa since it was far from traffic jam. It seems so retro-inspired and there is the city office nearby the station. Hida city is as large as Gero city (my current place) but the population is 24,000, […]

E-Bike Tour with Super Friendly UK Guests and Happy Coincidence!

This time, E-bike tour with UK guests. I would like to share not only the tour but the amazing coincidence happening afterwards. They are from Southampton but the big sister living in Japan as a TV caster booked our bike tour since her brother wants to see more rural area with his girlfriend. They stayed at Takayama and took train for 40 minutes to join in the tour fortunately. From the first sight at the station, I guessed they would be so friendly and humorous guys. Actually, that was true!  See it? As if they are not from UK! Maybe from US? haha. After some instructions, we started the tour as […]

Bike around with US Family to See the Life in Rural Japan

Today, I gonna share another memory with you. A customized e-bike tour with US family. They are from San Francisco and it is the first time for sons to come to Japan. That is why dad want them to see various parts of Japan, then picked Maze as the rural part. They stayed at Maruhachi Ryokan for 2 nights and joined in the e-bike tour on the 2nd day. Basically, our e-bike tour starts from the station but this time from the ryokan. It was the first trial tour actually. It took 4.5 hours and what we did is like below. Cycle around the rural village Visit a small shrine […]