Sado - Ayusuday and Tayaki

Every month, a small village festival with a flea market takes place at the harbor in Ogi. The festival is a reminder of the shipping route that went through Japan and also stopped in Sado, called Ayusuday. World Unite has an information booth and collects 'hot pockets', which are single-use hand warmers. The contents of the bags are used for a project that we will do on another day of the week. In the morning, we spend time playing a game that the festival organizer came up with. We move our ships on the game board, which represents a map of Japan and travel along the trade route. In the ports, we buy and sell goods, and whoever has collected the most money at the end wins. We have lunch in the hall and then explore the harbor town a bit. First, we visit a small shrine on top of a hill. From there, we have a beautiful view over the city. We walk through a small piece of forest and along the sea back to the city. Like in almost every city on the island, there is an almost abandoned shopping street where less than one-tenth of the stores are still in operation. They try to keep the houses reasonably maintained so that the street does not look too run down. In a particularly desolate-looking section of the street, there is one store open. It looks too new compared to the rest of the surroundings, and there is a sweet pastry and coffee fragrance coming from it. It feels a bit like a fairy tale, and the store is some kind of trap to lure people in. It belongs to a young man (for Sado) who makes Tayaki here with regional ingredients. Tayaki are fish-shaped filled waffles, and I am immediately excited. I love Tayaki. And I haven't had good ones in a long time because in Germany, if at all, you only get the ready-made ones from the Asian store. We unanimously decide that we urgently need to go in there. There are many different varieties, and besides the classic one with anko beans, there are also purple sweet potato, mochi, and ham-cheese fillings. I decide to go for anko first, as you can never go wrong with it. The Tayaki are already ready in a bamboo basket and only need to be warmed up briefly in a small oven. You get them handed to you in a paper bag, and for each variety, there is a separate bag labeled with the name. I am super happy when I finally get my Tayaki, and they are the best ones I've had so far. The crust is nice and crispy on the outside from being warmed up, and the bean paste is only lightly pureed, so there are still small bean pieces in it. I definitely have to come back here. And yes, I just wrote a whole text about how delicious these Tayaki are. The next one will be more exciting, sorry xD