No, I'm not being rude. It's the name of a vegetable (and also in fact a fruit), which the owners of Poco-a-Poco have grown themselves over more than a year, then hollowed out and painted, and have sitting in their restaurant in three different colours and sizes (representing a family). What a fun idea, I bet the kids who come love them!

In Japanese the vegetable is called ヒョウタン (pronounced 'hyoutan'), and in English it's a calabash or gourd. I've heard the word 'calabash' somewhere before but never really knew what it was.

Last night we tried to take my brother to Poco-a-poco, a favourite restaurant of ours which I've written about before. Unfortunately however Wednesday is their day off, so we returned tonight in expectation of a feast; and we weren't wrong in that expectation.

In addition to the オムライス (omelette-covered rice) and プリン (creme caramel-style pudding) ordered the last time, we shared one of their wonderful mixed meat and vegetable pizzas and a mini oyster gratin. Needless to say we all left there totally stuffed!

   

For our first short trip by car we took my brother into the mountains of Togakushi (戸隠) to eat lunch at Utsuraya (うづら家), arguably the most famous soba restaurant in Togakushi.

Togakushi is well known for its soba noodles, its shrines, the Togakushi mountain range and ski area, and finally its connection with the ninja martial arts. But we were of course here first and foremost to eat. So once inside the restaurant (there is always a queue outside, no matter the weather or day of the week) we set about ordering. We went for a 大現盛りざるそば (extra large cold soba noodles - photo one) and a かけそば (regular hot noodles), plus a plate of tempura consisting of vegetables and three large prawns (photo two). As always they also provide a lump of raw wasabi root to use as a condiment, which you grate yourself while adding some sugar - shown in photo three.

After lunch we walked up the nearby steps to the middle (中社) Togakushi shrine, shown in photo four. Because of its elevation (somewhere around 1200m) they have already had snowfall, and there were a couple of patches still lingering around the temple. This of course started the inevitable but short-lived snowball fight.

We then jumped in the car and headed up the road a bit to the ninja village (忍者村) where my brother and I attempted to navigate ourselves through the various secret doors and compartments in the ninja trick house (からくり屋敷) which was fun if a little perplexing - I got a bit stuck at one point even though I'd been there once before! The last photo shows my brother humourously attempting to run up the 'strange slanted room' (斜めの不思議な部屋).

As a final mention, there's some great information available on the official website about Togakushi in English (PDF).

         

For lunch today we took my brother to Gorokutei (五六亭) tofu café, a place where all the food is made from tofu. The fried tofu (揚げ出し豆腐) lunch set we all went for comprised the fried tofu in the middle, miso soup with tofu, tofu with egg (top-left) and for dessert a piece of tofu cheesecake. It costs 1000 yen (about £6.50) and makes a nice change from the norm.

For my brother's second meal in Japan I suggested that we could go to Tsukiji fish market to taste some of the freshest sushi available. He's eaten sushi once before with me in London but it was really terrible. (Yo Sushi is definitely not recommended!)

So we headed to Sushizanmai, a 24-hour restaurant I've been to several times before. After saying he was up for trying anything (a great attitude to have!) we ordered and quickly consumed various types of tuna, red snapper, flounder's fin, scallop, eel and tamagoyaki (a kind of sweetened egg roll - it can be seen in the very top-right of the first photo).

The favour ite for me was the broiled tuna (two of which are shown in the first photo next to a prawn and cucumber temaki roll) which is truly delicous, and also the most expensive at 395 yen (about £2.50). My brother said that he really enjoyed the eel, which was great news - I foresee an unagi (eel) dinner coming up for us in the next couple of weeks.

At one point the staff all stopped what they were doing, and one of them held up a huge crab and announced that they were going to sell the legs for 1000 yen (about £6.50) each. We didn't partake but I did get a photo.

This morning my brother arrives from the UK, so it's likely I won't be posting so much over the next two to three weeks.

Edit: well it turns out I have been posting, and on an almost normal basis too, so ignore that. But anyway it has been lovely to be able to show him around, and let him experience some of the foods I enjoy regularly. Like ramen. And udon. Mmmmmmmm.

I wrote about part one a few weeks ago, and part two of the yearly Ramen Fantasista is taking place between the 16th and 28th of October, where the chefs all switch round and we are given three new types of ramen to try.

So dutifully we went again with ramen-lover-extraordinaire Yuzo yesterday to taste the second batch. We went with two orders of the 醤油ラーメン (soy sauce flavoured soup - photo 1) and one of the 信州肉味噌ラーメン (miso fish-flavoured soup with meat - photo 2). The 醤油ラーメン which Yuzo and I chose seemed to mix pork and fish flavours, like a 魚介, but with a very mild taste. Yuzo commented that it was almost a 塩らーメん (salt-flavour soup) in taste and thickness.

The 肉味噌ラーメン on the other hand was very strong in flavour with an almost cheesy taste to the slightly spicy meaty sauce; almost similar to a pasta! Yuzo and I quite liked it, and in fact he ended up ordering it as his second bowl.

As my second bowl I shared the third ramen variety (photo 3) which offered both pork meat and smoked chicken meat (which I wasn't a fan of, being smoked) in a thick soup not unlike 豚骨 (tonkotsu) but supposedly with prawns also included somewhere in the soup mixup. The inclusion of prawns unfortunately excluded it for Yuzo as he's allergic, but with the organic soba-like noodles it made for a nice taste. Very thick though, so I don't think I could have managed more than half anyway.

Overall though, from all six Fantasista ramens available over the four weeks, I think my favourite has to be the 醤油ラーメン from part one last time as that really was a great taste for me.

We won't be in Japan for next year's event, but I'll definitely be back in 2011 to try them all again!