Ice skating / Nikko, Tochigi pref.

We joined the ice skating tour to Nikko from 12th to 13th January.
This is an annual event what my parent’s friends have held every January for several years (decades?) (Last years tour is here (click)). We stayed again at Nikko Kanaya Hotel. Old but well maintained facilities, great services and comfortable atmosphere of Hotel welcomed us as usual. The only thing what we surprised because it was “unusual” was that … the ice skate rink of Hotel was not available! It was not enough for skating. The skate rink there is a natural rink where you can enjoy skating in crisp air. We were looking forward to skating there, but we could not. It might be the effect of Global Warming.
So, we went to indoor skate rink, which is located in Imaichi city.

Anyway, despite the rink, another highlight of this tour was the hotel dinner. Every year I had tried to take photos of the full course, but I could do that because it was very tough to control my mind when I saw big meal. Every year, I had to say “AH!” after enjoying the dinner. But finally, this year , I could manage to control myself and took some photos of them. OK, I will introduce the Kanaya hotel’s preimier grand gru dinner!

This is the Menu for Today

1. Hors-d’oevure

White material on the plate is Yuba. Tofu skin. You can produce it from the boiling soy milk as film like material. This is the coagulation of the soy bean’s protein. Kana and I (and many Japanese and Chinese) love that texture and the flavor. This is one of the Nikko’s specialties.

2. Gobou (Burdock) potage soup
I am sorry there is no pic of this soup. I forgot about taking photo. To tell the truth, I had assumed that gobou (burdock) was the foodstuff for Japanese food, this French style soup with gobou was a kind of sensation for me. It was delicious with great flavor.

3. Saute of Rainbow Trout Kanaya-style
I am so sorry I could not stop eating before taking picture! Please allow me to introduce the skeleton model of rainbow trout.

Instead of that, let me introduce the looks-delicious photo from the Hotel broacher.

This is my most favorite fish cuisine. The detailed explanation is in the photo (please click the photo to read it). You can also have it for lunch, too. I think its worth more than the price. Please try it!

4. Fillet steak
This beef is also the specialty of Nikko area.


5. Dessert

Gochisousama deshita ! (We really enjoyed the meal)

It was snowing during the night.

Next morning, we went to the Hotel skate rink to check the ice condition.

My daughter stand by the closed ice skate rink with regretful look..

You can see the skating scene here(last year's posting).

Anyway, we were satisfied the stay. We will come again for skating here next January.

Hotel homepage is listed at the end of the previous Kanaya posting (click).

BTW, according to the weblog of Hotel staff, the ice skate rink is available now.