Staff Trip to Shakotan

As summer is swifty coming to an end, SkiJapan was nice enough to organise a little staff trip to Shakotan and a beach bbq. Some of the guys went into the ocean to collect fresh mussels, abalone and uni from the rocks. Monday was the end of uni (sea urchin) season. I, myself am not a fan of the uni, abalone I had never tried, but was pleasantly surprised, the mussels were enormous and a little gritty. Lucky for our group the sun was out and it was lovely basking in the sun, why can't every Monday be like this?

After all the food had been eaten, we piled everything back in the shiny new SkiJapan van and went to the Shakotan view point. I had been here a few weeks previously and with my legs still aching from the Youtei climb I was quite happy to enjoy the view from the lookout point.

Next stop, Misaki-Yu, Cape Onsen, a really nice salty water onsen that looks out over the coast line. We only had about half hour here as we had dinner reservations at a sushi restaurant. Since being in Hokkadio I have consistently been disappointed with the sushi I've eaten here. They just don't compare to the Umai Sushi Ya in Haramahi/Sendai. I've had the fish frozen and way too big for the rice. I haven't really enjoyed my sushi experiences in Hokkadio, until this restaurant. The maguro, tuna, is available from September and was delicious. I also ordered a salmon sushi that had a clear something on top, not sure what it was, it didn't taste like it added or took away from the flavour. There was a lot of uni on the menu but not something I wanted to try again.

Staff Trip to Shakotan