I was invited on a trip to Otsu city by the city today

And I'm super excited to be here because it's my first time, but we have so many cool things planned out

And I'm really excited to take you guys along so let's get started. We're gonna rent some bicycles

I've got electric bikes over here, which are good if we get kind of tired

And I've got some other bikes over here without a motor

They have all the important information in English so if you don't speak Japanese

Don't worry too much this place is really convenient for English speakers

It looks so pretty

I'm so excited

So this is where we are right now Otsu-eki and our first stop is going to be

This cafe right here for lunch right on the coast of the lake I cannot wait

We've made it to the edge of the lake it's so big it looks like the ocean it smells like the ocean too

I feel like I'm on a beach

Weather is so nice. I was so lucky. It was actually supposed to rain today, and I think it might later a little bit

But right now. It's perfect. It's cloudy. It's not a million degrees. I'm happy

So for lunch they have lots of options, and there's a couple of vegan options here

This looks like a whole set with a whole bunch of different things to try.

Vegan cake!

I don't know what to start with

There's so many!

It's so good

This is delicious the vegetables taste sooo fresh

This is a brand-new vegetable for me. I've never seen it before it's called a shikaku-mame, square bean

It's a bean. It looks like a sea creature

It's crunchy and it kind of tastes like a green bean

but it's a little more... it's got a little more moisture to it. It's not as dry

All right. We're already off to our next location! I'm gonna be going to Omi Jingu

Which is a shinto shrine and I'm going to be doing something really fun there

I'm gonna be wearing a special type of kimono

It's one of the super fancy ones with lots and lots of layers.

I cannot wait!

I'm so excited this place is sooo pretty

The weather is holding up it hasn't started raining yet. It was supposed to start right about now

But the sky's still looking

slightly cloudy

Not overly bad, so I think I was pretty lucky

So this is the type of kimono I'll be wearing, it's called juni (12) hitoe

12-layered ceremonial kimono

Konnichiwa!

Look at all the kimono

the anime

so a movie was filmed at this shrine, and this is the outfit that one of the characters wore

Ohh it's heavy

So I was told that I can choose whichever kimono I want.

this one's really pretty

So hard to choose!

I really like this gold one. This is really pretty. I think I might choose this one

Alright, I'm gonna attempt to sit down and pose my kimono so that it looks nice

Well that was awesome, I really like how they just kind of leave you to it

And you can try on whatever kimonos you like if you brought your own Chucky

You could take as many photos as you like too and it only costs $10

It's 1,000 yen, and you get one of the instant photographs included with that

So these are really tiny kimonos

These are for three year olds.

In Japan, they celebrate when you become 3 years, 5 years and 7 years

so they have all the kimono you would need for that here Wow

Wooow

They have everything here

We've arrived at our hotel, I'm gonna get a quick little tour of the inside now

wow

It's nice in here

So they have an Italian restaurant

It smells great. I'm getting hungry, and they also have a Japanese restaurant

This is where I will be eating tonight. So look forward to see what kind of food they have prepared for me

They also have a swimming pool, but it's closed because summer is almost over

But if you come in the summer you can swim

And have an amazing view of Biwa Lake right beside you

there's a souvenir shop inside the hotel too

So if you want to grab some souvenirs for your family

apparently, this is a fancy

mochi

it looks like it would be reaaally soft

Their rice is famous too

So their rice is probably used in all these mochi products here tea is famous in this region as well

Tea is famous in this region as well

So there's lots of kinds of green tea here

these little fish

fish sweets are soo cutee

Biwa Lake cider

Time to check out my room!

I'm so exciteddd

Let's go

Wow

Here is the shower room.

It's a whole room for showering you can get this whole area wet

It's awesome

Sink area

Got some shampoo and stuff

The bedroom area is so pretty. I love the blue ocean theme

So I picked up some of the famous mochi at the gift shop

Couldn't pass that up because they looked really soft and delicious, so let's give them a try

It looks like this, they kind of look like dango

They're on sticks and then lots of what I think is matcha powder

Not pure matcha obviously

That would be intense

But matcha flavoured... kinako, maybe?

It's matcha flavour

They're just as soft as I imagined they would be.

Wow I can see why this is famous

This is some of the best mochi I've ever had

Mmm. They're so soft

it melts in your mouth. You guys will love this

It's almost dinner time so I think I'm gonna head downstairs to the restaurant that I showed you earlier

Ohmi. The Japanese-style restaurant,

and they have prepared a special vegan dinner for me

They've already brought out one of my favorite dishes

which is yuba~ It's tofu skin

You dip it in wasabi and soy sauce. It's delicious.

Fig. That's really interesting. I don't think I've ever had a fig before

It reminds me a lot of sashimi

the tofu itself doesn't have much flavor, so you really get the taste of the soy sauce and wasabi

Kind of like a vegetarian sashimi

All right, let's get this fig with sesame dressing a try

my first time eating fresh fig

It's so sweet

It's really sweet and juicy

melts in your mouth

And here we have

Tadaaa~

A beautiful cup of seaweed

Very gooey seaweed. It's apparently really good for you

Tastes delicious

kind of vinegar flavour to it

okay they just gave me the fanciest salad I've ever seen in my life

So it's full of different superfoods like goji berries, quinoa, a bunch of different other vegetables

And then I can make my own dressing here, however I like.

We've got olive oil, salt, and lemon

That's delicious

It's so good

I can't go back to regular salad

So this one is a wheat gluten

Apparently it's really chewy, and there's a miso sauce on top

Mmm it's sooo good

It's like a soft mochi

Kind of like buckwheat flour

mixed with a little bit of an earthy flavour

Mostly, you just taste the flavour of the sauce

Next, we have the aka konnyaku that we saw in the gift shop

The texture is super squishy

I don't know how to explain it

It's like eating an eyeball

Yeah, it's got a slight smoky taste to it

but basically it's just like regular konnyaku, not much flavour

so you just enjoy the flavor of the sauce that they put with it

Did you see this?

There's no gap

They carved it like this

That's awesome

Matsutake are really expensive mushrooms

You don't get to eat them very often, so really excited about that

And I don't think I've ever had tempura with matcha shio before so that'll be new

Alright, I'm gonna try the matsutake with just plain rock salt

So good

They're so flavourful

Wow

don't even need to put anything on it

'Cause it has such an earthy flavor already

This is a vegetable nabe made with soy milk

I'm excited for this one

I love how they cook it at your table in these cute little pots

My nabe is all ready to eat

It smells really, really good

And they give you fresh ginger

To add into it which is just the perfect combination with the soy milk

I love this I'm gonna try making this at home. Not sure exactly what they put in it

I'm assuming some kind of vegetable base broth, and then the soy milk and maybe

Yeah, I feel like that's all you need and then add a little bit of fresh ginger. It's sooo refreshing

It's such a great flavor that goes with all the different vegetables and great with the tofu

For dessert we have some fresh pears

Look at how delicate that is.

It's so pretty on a bed of ice to keep them nice and crispy

I'm back in my hotel room now and enjoying my comfy bathrobe. I hope you guys enjoy day one of my trip

I'll see you again in my next video for day two we're gonna be visiting a temple and

Doing some interesting stuff there, and we're gonna be trying shojin ryori

Which is like the food that monks eat, which is vegan so awesome

And we're gonna be doing some of the cool stuff, so I hope you guys join me for that

Thanks for watching!

Bye guys!