The final leg of our Christmas winter breaks was in Tochigi prefecture. This was supposed to be our second visit to Tochigi, as we had a big trip to Nikko planned in Autumn, but Sam fell ill the night before and we couldn’t go in the end. (Not to worry though, we’ll try again this year!) So because of the events, it just so happened this was our first time visiting the prefecture, and what a better way than to explore Utsunomiya, the biggest city the area offers. All my students kept reminding me to check as many gyoza restaurants as possible for any versions that were soy-free, but unfortunately this time, we were unsuccessful in our hunt. We will keep trying each time we visit, so maybe at some point we can eat the famous Ustunomiya gyoza. Until then, we will continue to make our own at home, which still is pretty tasty honestly.
During our trip we visited Utsunomiya castle ruins, a structure which I later discovered isn’t so well known with people outside of the area. Regardless, it was beautiful and one of the highlights of our day. We also visited Matsugamine catholic church, to pay respects to our late Grandad who we very sadly lost just before we went on this vacation. The church was beautiful, almost cathedral-like, and it had sparkling Christmas decorations still adoring the windows and bulletin boards. After going to the church, we headed to a shopping centre to get out of the cold for a while. There was a cute pop-up market filled with novelty gifts and freshly made food. Of course, I couldn’t eat most of what was on offer, but there was a kind older lady making these filled savoury, almost pancake-style snacks who happened to have a green onion and cabbage version that was without meat or fish and still happened to be dairy and soy-free! I proudly ate my fresh food on the benches at the bottom of the stairs just before entering Utsunomiya Futaarayama Shrine. I savoured the feeling of having some food that hadn’t been planned and prepped at the hands of either me or Sam, something fresh, something new and something Japanese. It was like Christmas had come all over again! After eating we climbed our way to the Shrine and did our New Year celebrations. Surprisingly, the day wasn’t so busy with people, so it was a very peaceful and relaxing way to start the afternoon. Once we were finished at the shrine, we started a kind of city trek over to Hachimayama park. I had seen pictures of the long bridge and the tower online and we really wanted to see them for ourselves. I tried to get pictures, but couldn’t quite capture on camera how beautiful it was to look over the city from up there. [SIDENOTE, a little warning for any vegans or animal lovers looking for things to do in Utsunomiya: the “zoo” labelled on the map is not a zoo and you can’t avoid seeing it if you enter the park from the south. I highly recommend entering and exiting the park from the north as to not see what awaits people there.]
We sat for a little while in the park before trudging back to the station. At this point, our legs and feet were rather sore from all the walking during our year-end trips, so we were very relieved when we got to our Shinkansen seat and were heading back home.
