Our Favorite Mountain... Again

You may remember that the last time we went up Mount Maya, it was to scout the terrain for a visit with the American study abroad students who were coming. Well, they came and we we took them this weekend. The end goal was the Mount Rokko Pastures - a destination on a neighboring mountain, but the fastest way up is to take a bus from downtown to the Mount Maya cable car, and then take the cable car, followed by a gondola and finally a bus from Mount Maya over to Mount Rokko. Its not a short trip, but every leg of it was amusing. For example: While we were waiting for the bus, we got to gawk at this poor fellow. Got to love Japan.


The draw of Rokko Pastures is the chance to feel the spirit of a dairy farm and the pastoral beauty of - well, I guess the Alps? This is not where you go for Japanese culture and history, but it is entertaining. While we were there, we had the opportunity to see a goat tied to a tree, share our picnic space with real, fluffy (and cleaner than average) sheep, and make ice cream from scratch. In spite of feeling a little far to the left of reality, we enjoyed ourselves.

We hiked across the grassy knoll to the main building where ice cream lessons were being given. I had made ice cream before in an electric ice cream maker, but this was much simpler and took much less time (and was perfectly delicious.) We just put all of the ingredients in a metal bowl, nestled that bowl in some ice in a bigger bowl, whisked the ingredients, mixed some salt into the ice, spun the bowl of ingredients until they started to freeze to the side of the bowl (about one minute) and then started scraping the frozen part off the bowl repeatedly until it was all ice cream consistency. About that time, the hosts came around with a generous number of ice cream cones and we all dug in. Each bowl made 5-8 small cones of ice cream. Some of you may recognize Airi from OSU last fall. She was among several university students that came to have a good time with the American students.

And the results.

After making ice cream, we had free time. The American students all clumped together in some shade and chatted, but the rest of us wandered around and got to watch the sheep dogs getting some training. They give a sheepdog show on week days, but Saturday wasn't show day. They were just exercising. We left the Pastures at about 5:30pm and went back to the gondola. The original plan was to kill time until nightfall so we could catch the highly rated night view from the top of Mount Maya. We were still a good hour or two away from any such view, though, and we were all getting hungry. We decided it would be more prudent to return to the city for dinner and forgo the view. While we were waiting for the gondola, though, Russell did enjoy some Takoyaki.
I can't remember if I explained these previously. "Tako" means "octopus" and "yaki" means "grilled." Unlike "yakiniku" which I did post about back in May (grilled meat) "Takoyaki" is not straight grilled octopus. It is actually a kind of grilled, savory, pancake ball with vegetables and bits of octopus in the middle. The end result is a little fried ball of dough with tasty bits of vegetable and octopus inside. Its hot, though, so you have to be careful. The balls look like they are just the right size to pop in your mouth whole, but it wouldn't be prudent to do so (as I discovered the hard way during the cherry blossom festival earlier this year). No, the inside of a takoyaki ball is like molten lava - and the outer crispy casing keeps it that way for far longer than an amateur might guess. If you pop one of these lovelies in your mouth straight out of the box. you're either going to be spitting it back out again or sitting for a very long time contemplating your mistake as you wait for it to cool enough to bite into in your mouth. - A very long time. There might be tears.

If you are more clever and simply nibble away at your takoyaki ball until it is cool enough to finish off, it really is a delicious treat. Its a bit rich for my liking, but as an occasional treat - say from a vendor at a fair - its awesome. If you are familiar with Abelskiever, Takoyaki is made in a similar way. If I can talk Russell into acquiring an additional household item, a Takoyaki pan is totally going to be it. Of course, if there is anyone who knows how to make truly traditional octopus balls, its my favorite canine. Enjoy.