SUP and Soba

During one of the long weekends in September, my wife made an awesome decision on what we were going to do on the Monday we both had off. She said "We are going to Gozenyama and we are finally going to try SUP." SUP for those of you who don't know is paddle boarding, and Gozenyama is a village located in the HigashiIbaraki District close to Hitachiomiya. I had never done SUP before so I was quite excited. Who knew that our Monday adventure would be full of paddle boarding, soba, and take out ramen.

SUP Gozenyama Dam

The Ibaraki Eats Duo headed to Gozenyama from Tsuchiura which was a bit under an hour drive. We picked up a friend who joined us for our SUP adventure. When we got to the DAM area we parked our car in a nearby park and met the Gozenyama Dam Activity staff members. We then got in a van and headed to the SUP launch point.
If you want to try SUP at Gozenyama here are a few things you will need: a towel, change of clothes, water shoes, and sunscreen. The staff told us that the water shoes were a must. When we got to the launch point we were given a short instructional speech on how to do paddle boarding. After that a few of us changed into our bathing suits. There are a few tents by the launch point for everyone to change their clothes. We were given life jackets and then it was time to go.

SUP Time

Off we went paddle boarding. We started on our knees at first and then gradually stood up on the board. I had a tough time getting up but was proud of myself when I finally did. Our group paddled around the lake for a little more than an hour take a few breaks here and there. During one of our breaks, my wife let me know that there were probably houses under us since this used to be a small village area before they built the dam. That freaked me out a bit but there was still a lot of nice scenery around us to check out. I am happy to report that Mr. Ibaraki Eats did not fall over once. Mrs. Ibaraki Eats however was taking a picture and lost her footing. Not to worry, she was OK. After our lovely time paddle boarding, we headed park to the park where our car was and headed to a soba restaurant nearby to grab some lunch.

Soba Kiri Sorazo

After driving a few minutes, we reached our soba destination, Soba Kiri Sorazo. From the outside it looks like most soba restaurants you find around Japan. The inside is also no different. Inside there was a huge wooden table that seated up to ten people. There was also a tatami area with small Japanese style tables that are low to the ground. That day, the restaurant had a lot of customers. We waited a few minutes and were then directed to the huge wooden table in the middle of the restaurant.

The Menu

This being a soba restaurant out in the countryside, of course the menu was only going to be in Japanese. Most of the menu items are soba sets with tempura selections. The tempura is mainly vegetables but there is shrimp tempura as well. You can also order a tendon which is a tempura rice bowl if you are really hungry.
I ordered the soba set with a few different vegetables and one shrimp tempura.

Soba Set with Tempura

The soba looked amazing and we couldn't wait to dive in. I tried the tempura first and it was fresh and crispy. Just like all tempura should be. We were all given the usual soy sauce dashi soup to dip our soba into and a few squares of tofu. Honestly, the soba was tasty but there really wasn't anything special about it. This soba reminded me of most soba I have had in Japan. I wasn't sure I was going to write about this part of our adventure, until I dipped my soba into the chestnut sauce.

Chestnut Sauce

This chestnut sauce was incredible. It was thick with small pieces of chestnut in it which made it incredibly delicious. I have never had soba with this kind of sauce before but I think everyone should. This was the highlight of our soba adventure and I wouldn't mind having this sauce again.
After we finished our soba, we headed out to grab some ramen. Not to eat at a restaurant but to take home.

Gozenyama Ramen

I have never been a huge fan of cup ramen. I know it is a cheap, fast, and easy to make for lunch or dinner or sometimes even breakfast, but I never liked how salty all the flavors are. Plus, not very good for blood pressure.
Gozenyama Ramen doesn't sell that powder ramen. All the sauces are in small packets, and boy do they have a lot of different packets. I saw many different flavors at Gozenyama Ramen. There was miso, shoyu, spicy chili, maze soba, tonkotsu, and way way more. Once you buy the ramen packets you want, the staff will give you a big pack of ramen noodles. The noodles aren't hard noodles that need hot water to turn soft. The noodles are fresh and ready to be put in your ramen at home. My wife and I grabbed a few packets and decided we would try the miso packet when we got home.

Our Miso Ramen

We grabbed one of our bowls, added the miso packet we bought, boiled the noodles a bit, and bought some chashu from our local butcher in Tsuchiura called World Meat. The picture above is our result. How was it you might be asking. Way better than cup ramen but if you have the chance to go to a ramen place, go to the ramen place. I did enjoy checking out all the different ramen packets at Gozenyama Ramen and if I go back to Gozenyama Ramen I would like to buy more ramen packets. But I would only make Gozenyama ramen if I didn't want to go out for ramen that day. Still, I enjoyed it.

The Ibaraki Eats Duo enjoyed our time at Gozenyama. I loved SUP and want to do it again as soon as possible. The soba was good, especially that chestnut sauce, and Gozenyama Ramen was a fun store to visit. I hope we can go back to Gozenyama and enjoy some more water activities and food. You should too! Maybe we will both be paddle boarding together. If we do, let's grab some soba after!
Enjoy!

For more information on Gozenyama Dam Activity, check out their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/gozenyamadam_activity/

Soba Kiri Sorazo
https://www.ibaraki-shokusai.net/shop/shops?id=10974

Gozenyama Ramen
https://maps.app.goo.gl/tGG3qRUHyywFMZV7A