YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
Cuisine — The TOJI.ba MATSUKAWAKAN
Dining at The TOJI.ba MATSUKAWAKAN
Meat · Rice · Dashi
If you are looking for a hot-spring inn in Nagano that is serious about its cooking, come to MATSUKAWAKAN. What we will not compromise on is meat, rice and dashi. Fresh gibier (wild game) — venison, boar and bear — taken in the mountains of Takayama Village. “Milky Queen”, a rice known to those who know. And a fermented dashi made with the umeboshi we pickle ourselves. Every one of them gentle on the body, and deep in flavour. Please enjoy cooking whose first thought is to draw out the ingredient, together with the nature of Shinshu.
Two Dinner Plans
Dinner Plan 01
The luxury of grilling at the hearth. A dinner in which premium beef and Shinshu gibier are something you experience.
A lavish meat kaiseki course that you grill with your own hands, at the hearth in front of you.
Venison, boar and bear brought in by the hunters of Takayama Village, taken in with all five senses along with the scent and the sound of the grill — an experience you will find only at MATSUKAWAKAN.
The time spent grilling becomes the memory of the journey itself.
Please enjoy the hour in which eating turns into totonoi.
Dinner Plan 02
A kaiseki course that is kind to the body, and a taste of the fermented-food culture of Shinshu.
A toji kaiseki built around a fermented dashi made from our own umeboshi, and around local mushrooms and vegetables, with no artificial seasonings used at all.
Kind to the stomach, and comfortable right through to the next morning — please taste this evening meal that settles you.
Breakfast
The morning meal of a toji retreat — you will taste it nowhere else.
Breakfast at MATSUKAWAKAN is a zosui rice porridge made with last night’s fermented dashi and Shinshu mushrooms. Kind to the stomach, sinking slowly through the body: a bowl that settles you, exactly.
Taken together with a morning bath and a morning sauna, this zosui makes an hour you will find nowhere else.
There is nothing showy about it, but the taste and the quiet fit the body surprisingly well. You may find yourself surprised that the simple act of eating can make a morning this comfortable.
Soak, settle, and fill body and mind with a gentle breakfast. That way of spending a morning is here at MATSUKAWAKAN.
Day-use Lunch
Lunch at MATSUKAWAKAN, to go with the day-use onsen or the sauna.
The centre of the cooking is the same as at dinner: meat, rice and dashi.
The most popular of all is the Shinshu mushroom hotpot set, eaten in the fermented dashi. More than ten kinds of mushroom picked in the mountains here, woven together with our own plum dashi — a dish of quiet depth.
There is also the Takayama Bowl topped with steak, a Chinese-style rice bowl, a mapo tofu bowl, and other dishes that sit gently with a body fresh from the bath.
| Lunch hours | 11:00–14:30 (last order 14:00) |
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Onsen or sauna, then lunch: that alone is enough to make a day feel a little luxurious. Please come and taste this hot-spring food, without ceremony.
Ingredients
Because the cooking is simple, every single ingredient matters. Nothing at MATSUKAWAKAN is about showy presentation; what we aim at is food that is kind to the body and sinks into it. Which is exactly why the ingredients we choose are thoroughly the real thing. Meat, rice and dashi, selected without compromise, make a depth of satisfaction you will find only here.
| Meat | Fresh gibier — venison, boar, bear — brought in by the hunters of Takayama Village, close by. We use whatever is in the best condition on the day. |
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| Rice | “Milky Queen”, a rice known to those who know. Grown on spring water near MATSUKAWAKAN, it is a rare variety with a springy texture and a natural sweetness. |
| Dashi | Our own dashi, based on the umeboshi we pickle ourselves and finished with fermented foods and Shinshu miso. No artificial seasonings at all — only savour that is gentle on the body. |
Draw out real ingredients, and the taste truly stays with you. Precisely because the cooking is simple, the ingredients have to be genuine. This taste, this scent, this hour — it should become a meal you do not forget. You will find this experience nowhere else.
You are welcome to come just for lunch after the onsen or the sauna. The Shinshu mushroom hotpot set, the Takayama Bowl and the rest are all gentle on a body fresh from the bath.
Reservation
Kaiseki at the irori hearth, and the breakfast of a toji morning. A way of eating taken in together with the nature of Shinshu.
Booking through the official site is always the best value.