SAKANA BEIBE (Shake it up, baby) This robata izakaya sits in the middle of Kyoto. The owners are brothers Atsu and Yasu, who trained at an Izakaya in Vancouver, BC. They opened this establishment in April. Yasu is a colleague of Makoto Kimoto, owner of Suika and Tamari Bar, both well-known izakayas in Seattle. At the center of the restaurant is a counter that...
SAWAYAKA RESTAURANT Touted as the best restaurant in Japan, Sawayaka Hamburg Steaks is a chain of 28 restaurants in Shizuoka Prefecture. Not a single chain exists out of Shizuoka, so if you want to experience their food, you have to go to Shizuoka. They chose not to leave Shizuoka to preserve quality. The steaks served there are prepared at the main kitchen and delivered...
Tosenkyo is a ravine in Ibusuki City, about an hour’s drive from Kagoshima City. It is known for the pure spring water that rushes through the canyon at the rate of about 100,000 tons a day. City-run outdoor restaurants use this pure water to serve a rare dish called “somen nagashi.” Somen is a noodle dish specific to Japan made from wheat kneaded with...
Amakusa is an archipelago in Kumamoto Prefecture that’s made up of 120 or so islands, small and large, which are linked to the Kyushu mainland by The Five Bridges of Amakusa. Dolphin watching can be enjoyed al year round. When it comes to sightseeing in Kyushu, tourists tend to flock to such destinations as Hakata or the Fufuin Onsen. Amakusa is a place for...
LET’S GET LOST IN DEEP JAPAN When in Kyoto’s Gion district, step off the main tourist-filled path and you’ll find yourself in an alley dotted with restaurants behind noren, or shop curtains, that are plainly adorned only with the name of the shop. The restaurants’ interiors are not visible from the outside. These are bars, also known as Ozashiki Bars, which are uniquely Kyoto-esque...
LET’S GET LOST IN DEEP JAPAN There’s a small triangular strip of land in Tokyo’s Sangenjaya neighborhood called the Sankaku Chitai (Triangular Region). About 30 meters in radius, this labyrinthine space has many skinny alleyways packed with izakayas, bars and restaurants. Visitors to this space, which has remained untouched by development, get to travel back in time to Japan’s bar district the way it...
