EDDIEWONG

I joined with a few girls from my ex-employers to visit Utsunmiya (Tochigi prefecture), a place that is famous for its dumplings, gyoza, and Oya stones (image: that frog is carved from Oya).

The girls basically named this trip, gyoza eating trip: go around to a few famous gyoza restaurants and just try ‘em all and see whos the best. So yeah, I thought it was just an eat-till-you-drop kinda thing. But to my surprise, they had plans to do a bit of sightseeing too which is always great since I do not venture out of Tokyo all that often, if ever.

The journey took us about 1hr 30mins (train ride). Upon arriving, the first thing I noticed was, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of people. Certainly, this place is no big city but nor is it really countryside. Anyway…

Minmin gyoza
We first headed off to Minmin which is supposedly the king of gyoza restaurants here and the queue more or less shows that statement. We lined up for about 40 mins before we got in and we had to sit seperately (3 and 2) since they didn’t have a table that would fit the 5 of us cuz they were just so busy. This restaurant serves gyoza that is either lightly fried (can’t find the exact word: its mainly like steamed but the bottom is lightly fried), boiled or deep fried. I and 2 others each ordered a portion of the boiled and lightly fried gyzoas, and shared a portion of the deep fried ones. Neeedless to say, they were all good rather tastey.

Masashi gyoza
After we finished with Minmin, we headed straight for Masashi which is just around the corner. Masashi doesn’t open till 1pm but there was a decent sized queue at 12.30pm. Masashi is supposedly the 2nd best gyoza restaurant around but the shop’s footprint is much smaller than that of Minmin. Here they serve lightly fried or boiled gyozas only - one choice less than Minmin. Despite Masashi being ranked 2nd, me and the girls think the gyozas here are better than Minmin (something that was later agreed by a few taxi drivers and shop assistants).

The great thing about these 2 gyoza restaurants is they have ready packed frozen gyozas for take-out or to be shipped overnight. Most of us ordered a box each for pick-up later during the day while one of the girls ordered 5 boxes to be shipped out. How posh…

Oya Kannon and Oya Temple
After stuffing gyozas like there is no tomorrow, we made our way towards the Oya Stone Museum. Oya stone has special deodorant purification, and thermal-resistant properties. This stone has been used and well loved in Japan since ancient times because it blends into the landscape and creates harmony with the natural environment. Example of these industries includes the former Imperial Hotel in Japan, in many contemporary restaurants, museum, gallery and residential buildings. Oya stone is distributed mostly here in Utsunomiya where Oya has been quarried for centuries.

On the way towards the museum, we stopped by and marvelled at the huge 27-meter high Kannon statue which is carved from Oya.

We then crossed over the road to the Oya Temple where it supposedly houses Japan’s oldest stone budda. But because an entrance fee had to be paid, we decided to leave it for now (taxi was waiting with the meter ticking!).

Oya Stone Museum
Oya Stone Museum is situated in a large quarry that is still operated. The museum is essentially an old mine - a huge cavern with a floor area measuring 20,000 square meters which was formed over 70 years of stone-mining works. Inside the cavern, the way the rocks were cut out in geometric shapes, and the uncanny atmosphere makes it rather impressive although dark and cold (7C). The cavern is also used for art exhibitions, concerts, and performances of traditional Noh theater, and as a location for shooting movies and TV shows.

Because one of the girls had visited the cavern before, she was convinced the place was rather dusty therefore this time she brought along a mask for every one of us. Well, it turns out the cavern was not so dusty (this time) and the girls happened to be the only people here wearing masks! They were really freaky looking as you can see from the pic! Hahahahaha…

Utsunomiya local district and Mentamagawa Ramen
After the museum, we made our way back to the local area near the station to checkout a few spots such as the temple, shopping area, etc.

As it approached dinner time, we went back to Masashi to collect our take-out gyozas before heading off Mentamagawa noodle shop for dinner. This ramen shop was once situated in Meguro, Tokyo, the area where my ex-employer used to be (up until 5 years ago). During my time in Meguro, I have visited this restaurant 2-3 times with the rest of the guys. Due to the shop owners parents being ill, they had to move their business to Utsunomiya so they can take care of their parents. Now that their parents are no longer here, the owners are preparing to move back to Tokyo once they find a suitable business location.

I’m no fan of ramen but Tamachan ramen is really , really good! The noodles are good, the charsui is good, the egg is good, and so is the soup! This is the only ramen I have ever liked.