November 18, 2010
郭公丸子
Our tour group landed at Sendai Airport in the late afternoon. When we got on the bus it was still too early to go to the hotel, but the sun was already low in the sky in northern Japan. Good thing the tour company had it all worked out so we were able to hit this one tourist destination before nightfall. Genbikei Gorge might've been a gorgeous autumnal scene in daylight with golden leaves. But we were already past the fall-colors season, so the leaves had already turned brown and fallen away, and the light was rapidly fading with the sunset.
Thankfully the sad foliage wasn't the only attraction at the site. Although most of the nearby shopping arcade had already closed their doors, the famous mochi house located on the river-shore had stayed open by prior arrangement. They even put up Taiwanese flags on the outside to welcome our tour group. No need for us to cross the river and squeeze into the small shop, either. Instead the shop sent down a basket from their second-story window on a cable line across the gorge to our side. Our tour guide wrote down our order and put it in the basket with the money. They pull it up to the shop and soon sent the basket back filled with boxes of mochi and a big pot of hot green tea.
Each box contained skewers of marble-sized mochi balls, each skewer coated with azuki, sesame, or sweet shoyu sauce. The sweet sesame and red-bean spreads are similar to wagashi fillings, except spread over the outside of the mochi instead of being wrapped within. The salty-but-slightly-sweet thickened-soy-sauce sauce was a bit funky, but it's a very Japanese flavor and made for a nice change from the standard sticky-sweet fillings. A couple of skewers made for a perfect afternoon snack, washed down with hot tea in the cooling air. Unfortunately we had to eat it in a hurry to catch the bus before it got full dark, instead of relaxing by the river under sunny skies as it was meant to be. By the time we were leaving the mochi shop was already readying another basket of goodies to zip across the river to the next Taiwanese tour group which arrived just after us.
郭公だんご
岩手県一関市厳美町字滝ノ上211
0191-29-2031