Hello! This is the KRM public relations team.
The last month of the year is here and the town is in a Christmas mood, but for us Roadster drivers this is the arrival of **“the season when the engine feels its very best”** (haha).
In December's cold, clear air, we set off on a gourmet touring run toward Tamba-Sasayama and the Kyotango area in search of piping-hot “gibier (wild boar)” and rich egg-based sweets.
This time it is a report full of delicious things from start to finish! 🐗🥚
☕ 9:15 AM Fruit Flower Park / 10:30 AM Lawson Sasayama Yasuda
This time we used a two-stage meet-up, with a Kobe group and an Osaka group.
The Kobe group gathered at 9:15 AM at “Fruit Flower Park,” the Osaka group gathered at 9:30 AM, and then everyone joined up at 10:30 AM at the “Lawson Sasayama Yasuda” store.
The morning chill is severe, but once everyone is together the cold gets blown away.
After joining up, we cruised along Prefectural Routes 17 and 37.
Choosing routes with few traffic lights, we ran on through the mountain ranges of Tamba-Sasayama.
Every one of us with the top down, of course! Heaters at full blast — a cool head and warm feet, just like an open-air bath — and the touring run was under way.
🐗 11:30 AM Tamba-Sasayama, Wild Boar Cuisine Specialist Okuei
Linking National Routes 97, 69, 138 and 176, we arrived at our destination, **“Wild Boar Cuisine Specialist Okuei,”** at 11:30 AM!
A wonderful smell was already drifting out in front of the restaurant…
“We rode all this way in the cold, so it's zero calories, right?” — making excuses to ourselves, we dug in!
What arrived was wild boar with a beautiful contrast between splendid lean meat and fat.
Simmered in a miso-based broth, the boar had no gaminess at all, and the fat was astonishingly sweet!
“Whoa, this just melts…” “It warms you right from the core…”
Not one member could put their chopsticks down. It was the finest energy recharge for our thoroughly chilled bodies.
We ate right through to the closing course, and our stomachs were bursting.
🛍️ 2:00 PM Bazaar Town Fukuchiyama
We left Okuei at 1:00 PM and headed toward Fukuchiyama.
Battling the drowsiness that comes with a full stomach and warm sunshine (haha), we drove about 40 km and took a restroom break at “Bazaar Town Fukuchiyama.”
We stretched out a little here and refreshed ourselves.
🥚 2:55 PM Tankuma (Desserts, Vegetables, Eggs)
“I'm completely full of boar meat…” — that is what we had been saying, and yet there is always a separate stomach for sweet things.
Our next destination was **“Tankuma”, famous for tamago kake gohan (rice with a raw egg).
This is the holy land of TKG (rice with a raw egg), but what we were after this time was, quite deliberately, “sweets”**!
At the adjoining sweets shop, we enjoyed pudding and cream puffs made lavishly with freshly gathered eggs.
The egg flavour is so rich! Dense and yet clean on the finish, so we polished them off in no time.
They also sell vegetables and eggs, and plenty of members bought some to take home as souvenirs.
Earning some solid points with the family, naturally.
🍘 4:10 PM Kaisen Senbei Tajima
After topping up on sugar comes topping up on salt? (haha)
We stopped in at **“Kaisen Senbei Tajima”** for samples and souvenir shopping.
There is such a wide variety that your eyes keep wandering. Plenty of shopping got done here too.
🏁 5:00 PM Michi-no-Eki Asago — Breaking Up
After a full day of fun, we closed with a farewell gathering at the “Michi-no-Eki Asago” roadside station.
“Not much left of this year, is there.” “We'll have to do a final drive of the year, too.” — talking like that, we reluctantly went our separate ways.
Delicious gibier, exquisite sweets, and winding roads with the best of company.
It turned into a hot day that blew the winter cold clean away.
To everyone who joined us, thank you for a great day! Let's meet again on our next outing 👋