Blog | FindingSachi – Japanese Food, Cycling Japan, Foodie Adventures | See Japanese food found on a bicycle tour

Day 47 Into The Under Water Tunnel! Mojiko To Shimonoseki

Jun 16 • Blog, Honshu, Kyushu • 4325 Views

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I was finally at the end of Kyushu. Mojiko is a port town in Kitakyushu with many retro buildings like this red brick building and the old train station. These European style buildings of the Taisho Era (early 1900′s) made me feel like I was somewhere outside of Japan. Many huge international ships went by as I stood in the wind with my bike. I was getting close by the minute to cross the channel to get to the other side to Shimonoseki City in Yamaguchi Prefecture. “I can see Honshu island from here!” I was so very excited. Rickshaw boys with nice smiles were waiting around for tourists. Unfortunately for them, I had my bicycle to get around on. I had Mojiko’s cheesy “yaki curry” before I crossed the channel. I was trying to stay in Kyushu as long as I could. The curry was topped with an egg and cheese and grilled in the oven. It was bubbling hot when it came in front of me. Mojiko port town’s retro style was very cool, and so was this retro Sa
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Day 46 Don’t Want To Leave Kyushu! Cycling Friendly Fukuoka

Jun 15 • Blog, Kyushu • 3017 Views

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Choosing which bread to buy in a bakery in Japan can be a time consuming process. Particularly in this bakery where I stopped for breakfast, I had to circle around several times to decide which one to eat for breakfast. There were so many cute ones too, like these Totoro (a character from Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film, “My Neighbor Totoro”). Fukuoka is famous for Mentaiko, which is spicy cod raw. This is a staple delicacy when people think of Fukuoka, along with Hakata ramen that I’d eaten the day before. Mentaiko is very good with white rice, but in a bakery, it goes on top of a baguette. Why not? After my breakfast stop at the bakery, I cycled to Kitakyushu, the city in the northern tip of Kyushu island. Japan is made up of four main islands, Hokkaido (where I’m heading to), Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. I’d been in Kyushu up to this point, and I was getting to the northern end of it. As I cycled over 80km this day, I came by these field filled wit
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Day 45 Sakura Onigiri, Mom & Dad’s Obento, Hakata Ramen in Fukuoka

Jun 14 • Blog, Kyushu • 2832 Views

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Having spent a few days of family time, once again, it was time to say see you soon. I left home for the second time and cycled off to Fukuoka City. I could actually cycle without a map most of the way. What a relief that was, as I’d never been good at directions. I stopped by my friend’s house in Kurume. My friend’s mom had made these onigiri (rice balls) with real sakura in them. How beautiful! I was amazed and thanked her for such pretty treat. I’d never made onigiri this beautiful before myself. I have a lot to learn! As I’d left home for the second time, my parents had made me an obento lunch. Inari sushi, tamago yaki (rolled eggs like omelet), pickles, and wieners. No lunch makes me happier than this. Bento is love in a box! I stopped by Fukuoka’s famous Dazaifu Tenmangu. It is a Shinto shrine built over the grave of Michizane Sugawara venerated by the Japanese throughout the country as the God of literature or calligraphy. Many students pray h
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Day 40-44 Cycling Home Sweet Home to Delicious Miyama

Jun 7 • Blog, Kyushu • 2666 Views

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After spending the night at Bobby and Yori’s in Saga City, I met up with the 65 year old triathlete, the owner of yakitori restaurant, at 10 in the morning. We had promised that we’d cycle together to have the famous unagi (fresh water eel) in Yanagawa. It was a windy, but absolutely beautiful spring day, which made us both reassure how great cycling was. The destination was my parents’ home in Miyama City, which was right next to Yanagawa. I had to go home to renew my driver’s license. My father sounded so happy over the phone to let me know that the letter of license renewal came. So I was cycling home on the way to head north. Yanagawa is famous for its Seiromushi of unagi (freshwater eel). Unagi is grilled and then steamed with the unagi-sauce-flavored rice. Unagi is popular in many places in Japan, but the way it’s prepared differs. Seiromushi is what I grew up with when it comes to unagi. The yellow ribbons on top are chicken eggs. That particular st
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Day 39-40 I Am Never Alone in Saga City

Jun 2 • Blog, Kyushu • 1293 Views

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In life, there are days when things happen one after another. This day when I traveled from Takeo to Saga City, I was somehow never a lone traveler. As I was leaving for Saga City, someone at the ryokan (Japanese style hotel) where I was staying gave me a bag full of kumquats, telling me that they had lots of vitamin C and would be good for my sunburned skin. What a thoughtful gesture. They were tangy and sweet, and I loved how they burst in my mouth as I chewed them. Soon after I left, I had a trouble with the luggage rack on the back of my bike. I parked by the street, took off my panniers and was trying to fix the problem. Then a man and his wife came out of the house right in front and asked if I was okay. He helped me pulling the rack up and tightening the bolts. After I cycled off, I was waiting at a street light, trying to cross the street. Then a car came and honked at me. The passenger window opened. It was the couple who helped me five minutes before. The wife in the passenge
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Day 38-39 The Sweetest Strawberries in Takeo City, Saga

May 29 • Blog, Kyushu • 1470 Views

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I said goodbye to my great-aunt and great-uncle in Isahaya City and headed to Saga Prefecture. I came by this long bridge that lead to Nagasaki Airport, which was on a little island. As I cycled up the hills, these pretty farms showed up, shaped like staircases. Once I came down the hills after cycling by one of the most famous onsen (hot spring bath) towns in Japan, Ureshino, I rested my bike on a tree and sat by a field of wheat farms. I was almost at my destination, but was in need of a little tea break. There was no one but me and the pretty farms. I was sitting in the field of green wheat plants that swayed with wind. The light green wheat field looked so soft and fluffy as it moved gently with the spring breeze. I was eating ohagi, which was mochi rice covered in sweet red beans, as I hydrated myself with water. Then I heard a car come by. I was facing the other way though, just resting, not even realizing that it had stopped there. “Konnnichiwa!” Not expecting anyone
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Sachi’s Let’s Speak Japanese 1 – Phrases When Eating

May 24 • Blog, Japanese phrases, Video • 1702 Views

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Instead of prayers, what do Japanese people say when eating? Learn these two phrases, “Itadakimasu” and “Gochisosama” that you can use the next time you go to a Japanese restaurant!
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Day 34-37 A Flat Tire Can’t Stop My Appetite in Nagasaki

May 23 • Blog, Kyushu • 1114 Views

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The inevitable moment came in the morning just as I was leaving Kumamoto. A flat. As some of you know, I had never been on a bicycle tour before, and that meant I had never ever fixed a flat tire of a bike. I do carry two spare tubes and some tools, but using them was another issue. It took me two hours to fix this simple flat by watching several videos of “How to fix a bicycle flat” on my phone. Go ahead and laugh, but there’s always a first time for everything. I sat, turned into a little ball in front of my bike with tools and my phone as a teacher. What took the longest time was putting the tire back on at the end after changing the tube, which was really hard and didn’t want to go into the rim of the wheel. Arrrghhh! After a sweaty fight against the tire, I eventually won and was off to Shimabara Bay to take a boat. Because of the morning struggle, I was half a day behind schedule. Isn’t it funny how the wind is always against you when you’re in
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Day 33 Taste of Japanese Art & Spring in Kumamoto

May 12 • Blog, Kyushu • 1451 Views

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My arrival to Kumamoto the day before was so nice that I decided to stay another day to walk around the town. I actually put on some non-cycling, regular clothes and headed out for a walk. I came by a small sign that had a 500 yen lunch of Kumamoto’s local food. Without a high expectation, I went up the stairs into a small Japanese restaurant. This is very Japanese, just in case you’ve never been to a Japanese restaurant before. You often receive a damp towel called oshibori when you get seated. It is often warm, and it’s for you to clean your hands when you arrive. This place was serving Kumamoto’s staple, horse meat. Some of you may not like the idea, but it is what’s famous around here. This basuji, slow cooked horse meat lunch was extremely nice for 500 yen, I was really surprised. The little ceramic fish under the chopsticks is a chopstick rest. It comes in all kinds of designs. This was a simple, yet really beautiful eggplant/aubergine dish. Not only
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Day 32 Bicycle Is A Magnet Of Happiness! Kind Kumamoto So Stunning

May 12 • Blog, Kyushu • 1261 Views

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Towards the smell of these sweet chestnut buns, I was cycling north to Kumamoto City from Yatsushiro. Skipping breakfast isn’t a clever thing to do when you’re cycling long distance, but I hadn’t eaten anything that morning. I was sucked into a michi no eki, literally a road station, where there was food and resting space. Delicious and super soft daifuku mochi filled with sweet red beans were definitely tempting. I had a sample of this mirin (sweet sake used in cooking) flavored dried fish after being grilled. It was a little bit sweet and had this delicious concentrated flavor of mackerel, which begged for a glass of cold beer. It was still 9:30am though. There was a man of a chikuwa shop, frying all kinds of ground fish products right there. It smelled so good, and so I was looking to see what he was making. He saw me and my helmet on top, and asked if I was traveling on a bicycle. He told me he liked cycling too, and wanted to check out my bike. He was so excited
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