Monthly Archives: April 2017

2017/04/27 Thank you for staying.

They came from France and stayed at Pension Sakuraya for the 1st time.

After arriving in Japan they went to Kyoto, Nagano and some other places, and came to Shimoda as the last stop in Japan.

Unfortunately it had been cloudy during their stay they went to Irozaki cape to get on the tour boat and Shirahama shrine.

Thank you very much for staying with us.

2017/04/19 Thank you for staying!

They came from Germany for the 1st time.

They visited Kyoto and some places for sightseeing and came to Shimoda for the last place to relax.

But unfortunately it had been cloudy and rainy during their stay.

We wanted them to see the beautiful beach and scenery in Shimoda.

We hope you will come to Japan and Shimoda again in the future.

Thank you very much for staying with us.

2017/04/10 How to make Amazake

I sometimes make homemade Amazake which is a traditional sweet, non-alcohol Japanese drink made from fermented rice (kome koji), and this is believed to be very nutritious.

We Japanese have Another type of amazake made from sake kasu (lees left from sake production) which is alcoholic.

Rice koji (kome koji) is rice covered with a kind of mold. And this mold is enzyme and fermentation starter. By fermenting rice with rice koji below 60°C (140°F), starch turns to sugar. So that without adding any sugar, amazake tastes very sweet. It sounds more like chemistry than cooking.

Here is a recipe to make it.

< ingredients>

200g fermented rice ( rice koji – Kome koji) not sake kasu

250ml or 300ml water (depends on the taste)

a thermos bottle

#1

Heat water to around 60℃ by kettle.

Put both 200g rice koji and the 60℃ water into the pot.

Boil the remaining water in the kettle again.

Put the boiled water into the thermos bottle and put the lid on to make it warm.

#2

Heat the rice koji in the pot to about 65℃ degrees mixing well.

#3

Remove the water in the thermos bottle out, and pour the heated rice koji (#2) into the bottle and shut the lid to keep warm.

#4

After 4 hours check the temperature, if it is under 60℃, reheat it to 60℃, and pour it into the bottle and shut the lid again

Leave it for at least 4 hours again and keep warm between 50℃ and 60℃.

#5

It’s done!!

*If the taste is not sweet, need to keep warm more in the bottle.

If it’s too sweet for you, you can add a little water when you drink it.

After you make it you should keep it in the refrigerator.

If you have sake kasu, the recipe is different from mine.

Here are the links to some recipes below.

#1

#2

#3

Enjoy homemade Amazake!!

 

2017/04/07 Rain all day long

It has been raining all day long since this morning.

My son went to the school by local bus for the first time today, but it was really fun for him with his primary school friends, he said so.

There are a lot of natural Sakura trees in the mountain on the other side of Pension Sakuraya and they are almost fully blooming now.