Satoyama Auberge Maki No Oto

This is a charming little auberge wich takes only 3 customers (couples, families) a night, making it very personalized. The service is great, the food is delicious (using mostly local produce) and the rooms are very spacious with a nice jacuzzi bath. |

Very friendly staff and good food. The staff tried very hard to explain the Japanese menu.

Satoyama Auberge The Sound of Firewood (Makinooto)(Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture/Nearest station: Johana)The auberge ``Takikinoto'' is quietly located in the countryside of Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture, near the World Heritage Site Shirakawa-go.Auberge is a French word that means a restaurant with accommodation facilities, and it is said to have originated in the suburbs of France where chefs and owners who served meals would let customers who had traveled all the way stay overnight at their establishments. .This "Takigi no Oto" is a 5-minute drive from Johana Station, the terminal station on the JR Johana Line, and a 10-minute drive from Fukumitsu IC on the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway. It is located in a small rural village towards the city. You can spend a peaceful time in a rural village surrounded by rich and beautiful nature.The owner, Seiichi Yamamoto, has been a farmer on this land for seven generations, and the site where the inn is located is where Yamamoto's birthplace once stood. While working as a farmer, he also worked as an employee at the Johana town hall for about 30 years, and was involved in a variety of jobs including tourism, industrial promotion, agriculture, and town development.When I went to Yufuin in Oita Prefecture to inspect town development, I started interacting with local inn owners, which led me to want to start a small hotel myself, and started working at the town hall. Apparently, he quit his job and decided to open an accommodation facility.We opened in June 2005 as a restaurant/hotel auberge, with the desire for people to get to know the charm of the local area more deeply, so that they could not only enjoy the food, but also enjoy the charm of the area that can only be understood by staying overnight. Since then, they have maintained a style of entertaining only three groups a day.The high quality of its food and heartwarming hospitality have earned it a reputation, and it has won the Hospitality Award in the 2018 edition of the French gourmet guide Gault & Millau, as well as being included in the ``100 Japanese Hotels and Ryokan Selected by Professionals, Japan's Small Inns.'' It has become one of the leading auberges in Japan, having won the Selection Committee Special Award in this category.The owner says, ``I wanted it to be like a hideaway for adults,'' and the inn is filled with things he likes and admires.It has the atmosphere of an old folk house, but the lounge is equipped with a modern-style sofa called ``Corbusier LC2.'' A sophisticated space equipped with speakers from the high-end audio brand B&W (Bowers & Wilkins).The room offers a spacious view of the countryside through the large windows and a spacious terrace. There are 3 guest rooms: the natural and modern "Etsubaki" (capacity 1-2 people), the Japanese-style "Kozakura" (capacity 1-3 guests), and the special room "Shikabishi" (capacity 1-4 guests) that combines Japanese and Western styles. There is.Since Auberge is mainly a restaurant, you can also use it for lunch only (advance reservation required, lunch course 5,500 yen). This time, it was a family trip, and the accommodation fee was about 40,000 yen per person, including 1 night and 2 meals.Dinner is a full course of ``Satoyama French,'' a creative French-based cuisine that emphasizes local production and consumption, such as home-grown rice and vegetables, and seafood from the Sea of ​​Japan. Even though we call it French, we don't overwork it more than necessary, and instead try to simply bring out the best aspects of the good ingredients grown in the local environment.Chef Hiroyoshi Uno met owner Yamamoto at a restaurant when he was planning an auberge, and he invited him in as chef. At the time, the chef was working at the restaurant, and he was serving a dish called ``lightly smoked seafood.'' This dish, which combines Hokuriku seafood with a rural atmosphere, is exactly what the owner envisioned. He was strongly attracted to the concept of ``Satoyama Auberge,'' which he had been developing.You can also enjoy pairing with wine from Domaine Beau, a winery that opened in 2017 about a 5-minute drive from the inn. It's great to be able to stay in the same place even after drinking a lot of wine.There's nothing but nature around the inn, so you don't have to go out after dinner, just take a good night's rest in your room, and wake up the next morning to breathe in the fresh air to refresh your mind and body.The long-awaited breakfast was Japanese food, and the rice was fluffy and glossy, cooked in a wood-burning oven using home-grown Koshihikari rice grown with great care by the owner. Enjoying deli dishes made with plenty of fresh vegetables and local ingredients in the clear air will bring you the ultimate happiness.【dinner】●Appetizer (smoked platter)Lightly smoked Hokuriku seafood caught in Imizu and Himi. Assortment of nine types: amberjack, cherry salmon, puffer fish, octopus, scallops, bigfin squid, barracuda, saury, and cream cheese. Two types of sauce: chives and tonburi.●Appetizer (onion bavarois, komatsuna sauce)A dish of Bavarois made with onions harvested locally at Sakuragaike, Komatsuna sauce, and Etchu-gai (bai-gai).●BreadHomemade bread made with honey and homemade yeast. Perilla toast is served at the beginning of the course, and mugwort bread is served at the end. Accompanied by the chef's special homemade butter, unsalted butter, and charred onion and anchovy oil sauce.●Salad (local vegetable salad, burdock soup)Assorted fresh vegetables from our own garden and burdock soup. Carrot puree and marinade, radish, cucumber, turnip, tomato, okra, broccoli, somen pumpkin, sweet melon, happa (Kintoki grass), etc. Even if you enjoy it without adding anything, it has enough natural sweetness and is delicious. We also recommend pairing it with charred onions and anchovies to create a bagna cauda style.●Fish dishes (scallops, white eggplant, chestnuts, American sauce)A dish that combines scallops, white eggplant, and chestnuts with an American sauce rich in the rich flavor of crustaceans, and is topped with a generous sprinkle of powdered chestnuts. This exquisite dish is a perfect combination of seafood and mountain delicacies, and is the true charm of Satoyama French cuisine.●Fish dishes (sweet sea bream, winter melon sauce)A dish of plump and tender cooked sweet sea bream fillet, sweet sea bream paste, winter melon, light and elegant lotus root sauce, and local sudachi. It's more like creative Japanese cuisine than French.●Meat dishesFor the main meat dish, choose your favorite from three types: sautéed pork shoulder loin, Wagyu steak, and stewed Wagyu tail. I chose the wagyu steak. It is a part of beef from Ishikawa Prefecture called shinshin, which is located on the inside of the thigh, and is characterized by a good balance of fat and lean meat, and a finely textured and tender meat. Madeira wine sauce, garnished with arugula from our own garden.●Rice, miso soupIt's a full-course meal, and the portions are large, so rice, miso soup, and pickles are only served if you request it. The rice is cooked with edamame and scallops, and has an exquisite aroma of ginger. The miso soup uses miso made by hand at Ishiguro Tanekojiten in the local Nanto city. The homemade rice bran pickles are also excellent.●Dessert, cafeFor dessert, choose from three types: dried persimmon ice cream, chestnut pudding, and coconut roll cake. Chef's Specialty Chef's ``Rum-soaked dried persimmon ice cream'' is a masterpiece that uses a generous amount of Toyama dried persimmons, a specialty of Nanto City. It is also a popular mail-order product, winning the bronze medal (2011) and the special jury award (2013) at the ``Chibamon National Awards''. Dried persimmon pulp soaked in rum and caramel-flavored ice cream create an exquisite bittersweet taste for adults.If you wish, you can also have ``fondant chocolate'' as an additional dessert. It was the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever had, crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The pear garnish is also exquisite with its refreshing sweetness. At the cafe, you can choose from coffee, espresso, herbal tea, and fruit tea.【breakfast】●Domaine Beau grape juice●Simmered dishes (boiled blowfish, hard tofu, mushrooms)●Steamed food (yuba sauce)●Steamed combination (winter melon, dried shizuki, komatsuna, fried hime)●Grilled dishes (cherry trout, dashimaki egg, pickled firefly squid, boiled rice)●Rice, miso soup, pickles●Accompanying rice (chirimenjako, kelp tsukudani, sansho bonito flakes)●Sweetness (blancmange)●Drinks (coffee, black tea, hojicha, milk)

Perfect for relaxing in the countryside 🎵There were only 3 groups staying at the auberge each day, but it was a weekday and we were the only ones staying so it was very quiet. This is a calm inn for adults. For the meal, we had a choice of creative Japanese-style French cuisine, local vegetables, sweetfish, black-throated sea bream, stewed beef or steak, and paired it with wine.