Ferry Ride Return

After a heated game of competitive up and down the river, we retired to the main lounge where Masa decided his 7 servings of udon was not enough, and the ferry udon gods tempted him. Nobody else had the stomache left to join him:


I decided to head outside to see what kind of good shots I could get of dusk, and came up with these interesting shots. Note the buoy to the left of the shimmering water. Postcard-esque, n'est pas? The second one though I would've liked to have snapped sooner since there were LOTS of oyster? beds, but you can only catch the tip (all those dots in the water) in this shot.

Last but not least, sweets and coffee

So after all the udon, the ladies begged for some sweets and coffee, so before riding the ferry back to Tamano, we parked and walked into a coffee shop called Azumaya.


As any restuarant or shop in Takamatsu, you can not only have coffee, cakes, and sweets, but udon as well, and we witnessed a grandmother near us polishing off an apple tart after her udon. Masa being insane as he is, pulled the "udon/chocolate parfait" combination, but I opted just for the 280yen cheesecake.



Whereas Maddo went with the cold udon, chocolate cake, and coffee combo.

Gun Hunting

Is prohibited in just this small area of Kagawa Prefecture.

A new week

Although it is Monday and interesting things happened this weekend, I still have to finish my Takamatsu udon post, so that's first. Before I continue though, I must admit to an error previously: Shrine in romaji is Jinja, not Shinja. Apologies for all you checking my Japanese/English (Jez and Claire).

So after the 2nd place, we made a brief pitstop to see Kampira Temple near Kotohira station. This temple is to revere the God of the Sea, and is well known (I just asked a teacher how to read the kanji for the station, and he asked me if I went to see Kampira Temple!).


Then it was finally off to what ended up my last udon meal, a place in the middle of the countryside with a small sign advertising it. I thought we were going to somebody's ranch almost...


Walking in, here's what you would see waiting in line to pay. Same exact options on the menu as the 2nd udon shop.


A picture of my lovely meal (but thankfully the last udon meal of the day). I decided that it would be wise to put how much money it costs on the tray so when I took a picture it would be easy to remember how much it was; Smart thinking! So, how much you ask? That's 320yen, or roughly a little under three dollars.


Last but not least, a view from the car after exiting the shop, proving that yes, we were well outside of the city. But this udon shop was listed in the book of tasty udon shops in Kagawa Prefecture!

Taima Town

We're driving along to the third (and what was supposed to be 2nd to last, but people were really starting to feel the throngs of udon and the lulls of the road and being in a car for an extended period of time), and all of a sudden Masa yells at Maddo to take a picture of the sign.

"Taima Townu!!! Taima Townu!!!" They kept repeating.

I asked what was so funny and why it needed a picture when all of a sudden Masa burst out laughing again, saying in Japanese "ah... look, Taima Shinja (or shrine)!!!"

We ended up pulling a uey (spelling? u-turn for all those non-northeasterners), and pulled into the road leading to the ginza. Masa went out and took pictures, and I did too, finally realizing why they thought this was so funny; Taima means weed in Japanese. Thus, this was weed-town, and we were visiting the weed shrine. I have a funny video of this, but I can't figure out how to post videos yet...

Udon Shop - The Second

The second udon shop was about an hour drive away. During this time, our energy was still high, and our tolerance levels for udon was still high as well, so it passed pretty quickly. We were well out of the city that I thought we were lost, but no worries, everything was under control.

Here is the shop from the street.


I took a side slanted shot to show the background better and prove that this shop was truly in the middle of nowhere, yet people were flocking to it. We came just before a crowd of 15 assembled!


This is a shot of the inside. There's two sections: Normal dining area, and Japanese-style tatami area. Since it was so crowded we split up: The women ate together at a table in the tatami room, and the guys at at the bottom right table in this picture.


Here's the menu. Here you could order three different sizes, as well as you could order hot/hot, hot/cold, cold/hot, or cold/cold, the first temperature being that of the noodle, the second that of the soup! Since it was a pretty chilly day, most of us had hot/hot, though I tried the cold/hot that Maddo ordered, which was, interesting but not that strikingly different. The menu on the left is the same thing as on the right, but with the little blue/red symbols it's a little more user/visual friendly.


Here is the table before the udon came. We all have tempura (I have chikuwa tempura, which is fish past in a log-like shape fried tempura-style - note my blue, old cell phone next to the plate. the camera broke so I may look to upgrade, but not sure I really want to spend 50 dollars just to get a brand new phone with a camera that works that I rarely use. The phone has started to cut-off and restart without warning though, so soon it may be necessary). Also on the table: Ginger on the right, and pepper in the red cylinder.


To your right as you walk in is where all the tempura is. So you just grab what you want and put it down on the order form which you fill out and hand to them behind the counter on your own.


The remnants of my udon. I forgot to take a picture before I started eating, and didn't have the heart to ask a random Japanese person if I could take a picture of their food when it came before they started eating. That sounds very strange.



This place was decent. The total bill came out to 330 (small udon and the tempura was 100yen).

First Udon Shop Pictures

Here is the shop. That is the line of people waiting to get in and it's only just before 10:30am !!!


Here is the inside of the shop. Pretty crowded/tight, somewhat hot. I realize that none of the pictures show how just to the left of the camera in every shot is the wall, so all of what you see is the open space of the little shop. In the picture, to the right the guy is rolling noodles, the old lady is somewhat in charge of selling gift-bag udon sets (although more just socializing), there is the cutting machine to the left, and in the back is the big stove manned by another woman(which you can't see).


A better shot of the old lady and folk. Each person is manning a different machine/area. You'll see the old lady in the magazine shot.


The cash register! Yep, 500/100/50/10 yen coin baskets. Put whatever amount in, and take the correct amount out. A very trusting system.


The lady in charge of the noodles. Note how the baskets are lifted up out of the boiling tub, probably for easy cleaning. This gives a pretty good idea of how hot/steamy this was. There was a serious gas flame heating up this gigantic tub.


Another shot of the same thing, only this time you can see the noodles and baskets that they're in...


An up close shot of the cutting machine. This machine's pretty neat, although very 1-dimensional. There's one in Genkotsuya Ramen shop (the ramen shop near my apartment that I frequent a couple of times a month, and who play mahjong).


The tempura selection. You can also pick an egg. Prices are listed below on a very short and simple, yet not easy to comprehend if you can't read Japanese menu!


Here it is. The menu in all it's glory. Udon-70yen. Egg-30yen. Tempura-100yen. The one below that in the orange/yellow is a joke or perhaps an off-beat way of advertising the 70yen price of their udon: "shi-awase ippai (ichi-mai) 70yen", or for 1 serving of lots of happiness, 70yen.


Serious flames. This udon shop was the only one where everything was in front of us and laid out, hence the amount of pictures. The others definitely had a more restaurant-like feel to them, whereas this was like an organized bbq or something.


And the final product before consumption (yes, that's a raw scrambled egg, and the green is a spicy/hot kind of chai or something).


Here are the folks and the background/restaurant after our first meal. Physched and off to a good udon start!


Last but not least, the magazine. Doesn't that face look familiar!! I laughed when I saw that.

Udon Fest: 1st Stop

So what I will do is post a description and then pictures of the place for each place, so each store will get it's own post.

That being said, to back track a bit; Masa met me in front of my house (Chie knows where I live), and we hopped on the ferry. I had brought a deck of cards with me, and we played Up and Down the River. They finally got the hang, and we also played a much faster and cut-throat game on the way back to Tamano that afternoon.

Landing in Takamatsu, we drove to the first shop. It was tucked away behind the main straight, almost in what seemed like a little neighborhood; not your usual location for a restaurant.

This place was cheap, and despite it being just 10:30am, it was pretty packed. I was surprised. The price for Udon was 70yen (100yen if you wanted to add an egg, which I did). As you can see, the menu didn't really contain much. Another interested thing about the place was that you ate outside (crammed into the little tent area if it was raining. People shuttled through the inside to pay and get your food. Speaking of paying, it was very nonchalant; Put your coins in the appropriate dish and take whatever change you need. People were too busy to pay much attention, and the Japanese place quite a bit of faith in the honor code that I guess it works.

So there was the option of getting some tempura to go on top as well, but I passed for the raw egg instead (after putting in three pumps of shouyuu, or soy sauce). Scramble the egg (already scrambled in picture), and then eat away. Nearly everyone agree: Despite the cheap price, this was the best place we went to the entire day.

Lastly, we were able to find these places using a "Udon Shops of Takamatsu" book (basically a book on all the Udon shops in Takamatsu and Kagawa Prefecture. They have books like this for Ramen, Udon, Yakiniku, Sushi, Tempura, etc. etc.; The Japanese love their food. The best part was the old lady in the shop is in the picture in the book too!!!

Udon Eating Ryokou

Only in Japan would you actually go somewhere to take a "eating tour". In this case, it was Masa n friends all piling into his sweet spring-break-esque van (seats six, four seats in the back facing each other instead of all facing the front), and headed on the ferry to Takamatsu to go on an Udon eating fest. I thought this was actually going to be a Masa and foreign friends ordeal, but quickly realized that I was the token foreigner, and everybody else was Japanese (Masa, Chie, Miwa, Tsugo, and Maddo). Oh well. The next series of long posts will involve pictures and descriptions of the entire day (and it was an all-day long trip). I tried to take pictures of all the food, but inevitably forgot one or two.


In order from left to right: Chie, Miwa, Tsugo, and Maddo.


And Masa from very up close. He is mid-30's, used to live in Tamano but now lives in the city. I met him in Ibara during the all day concert festival I went to (will post a picture of that below). He's pretty wild, knows a pretty good deal of English, and says the craziest things in both English and Japan. Basically, a really really cool friend to have and good person to know. The concert (picture taken at night), started at about 1pm and ended at somewhere around 8pm I think. This is a neat shot I thought. Fun times. I actually ended up going with Chie, who is in the above picture, and below in front of Masa's massive van.


Here's a picture of Masa's pimping ride. These wheels would have been uber fantastic for string break.

AZZ

Yeah, this place is a little conspicuous. Note the real helicopter on the roof. This place is the notoriety of the sex-toy world in Japan. There was debate on whether or not this year's halloween outfit should be bought from here, but that was short-lived I think. I will actually be Momochi this year for halloween.


Momochi! He is the mascot for Okayama (Peach Boy), and this is the interpretation of him for this year's national games, which are being held in Okayama Prefecture this year (hence an appropriate costume I think!).


I am making a huge yellow star hat and oversized torch using paper-mache, although I am a little behind right now in the costume. Hopefully today I will be able to finish most of it... Last minute job, again.

Love Hotel

New York Dream. Japan's personal "love-take" on the US. 4800yen for a 3 hour stint, or roughly 50 dollars for 3 hours. Must be an exciting place, and no, I don't actually know...

Tamano - Elections?

I believe this is for elections for something in Tamano. It is pretty normal around Japan to hear blaring "arigatou gozaimashita"'s followed by somebody's name and more around town even before you see the car finally pass (amped up speaker cars). That being said, this was at night, and they were going down the snack-bar district area of Tamano stopping at each storefront handing out thankyou's and waving little flags with the person's name written on them. Strange. The crowd too was families, some elementary school kids recognized me and acknowledged me with the usual "niiru sensei!"

Finishing things up...

There was the 100 meter race (originally scheduled for the morning, but since the whole day started late it was pushed until after the block dance-offs), then the tug of war.

I'm not sure how the format really worked, but the yellow team kept winning and had to pull three times in a row, and well, after the third time (which they lost, the finals I think), things weren't looking pretty.

Dance Shots