21 Jan

We found this small ramen shop in the large undercover mall near our hotel. We ordered our dishes using a ticket machine after the waitress tried explaining the more popular dishes using the photos on the wall. Mum got shanghainese sort of noodles with a spicy, Korean-like sauce (¥700). Dad and A2 and I got ramen that was almost the same, most likely tonkastu based. A2 and I had one with miso, a bit of chilli and a scallop (which arrived in its own little plate, ¥900) whereas...

20:49 / Food / Japan / Japanese / Kumamoto / Ramen Shop / Restaurants / Travel
21 Jan

After checking out of the hotel we drove down to Dejima Wharf where there were a few restaurants that sold mainly seafood. We settled on Dejima Asaichi because their posters showed some interesting-looking lunch sets. A2 and I wanted the same set for ¥1000. It consisted of a piece of tofu with soy sauce, what looked like egg custard with a prawn stuck inside, rice topped with a piece of fish and some sort of fritter with a light-coloured sauce. Unfortunately it was sold out and I was...

20:33 / Dejima Asaichi / Food / Japan / Japanese / Nagasaki / Restaurants / Travel
20 Jan

For dinner we wanted to try shippoku, which is a banquet particular to Nagasaki and takes cues from Japanese, Chinese and Western cuisine. One of the famous shippoku restaurants in Nagasaki is Hamakatsu. All the waitresses were dressed traditionally and there was a choice of Japanese or Western seating. We thought of sitting on the tatami mats, but because of A2’s knee we settled on Western furniture. I didn’t see anyone in the Japanese section. All of us ordered the third cheapest option, which was called Bura-bura shippoku (¥3750)....

20:25 / Food / Hamakatsu / Japan / Japanese / Nagasaki / Restaurants / Travel
20 Jan

We bought these from a small grocery store we passed on the way to Arita along with another large punnet of Amaou strawberries. One bun was white with many pieces of purple sweet potato. Another was a green tea bun with red bean paste. The red bean paste wasn’t as sweet as normal, and I prefer it that way. I liked the sweet potato one better through. Later on during one of our many car drives we ate the rest of the bao. All of them had red...

20:19 / Dessert/Sweets / Japan / Japanese / Misc. Snacks / Travel
20 Jan

Arita is a small pottery town. We drove up and down different streets looking for restaurants, but almost every shop was a pottery shop and the one restaurant we did see was a Chinese restaurant, which mum wasn’t keen on. In the end we went into the tourist information centre to ask where the restaurants were. The ladies directed us to a store around the corner. We walked around but couldn’t find it so we had to go back and ask them again. It turned out that the...

20:00 / Arita / Japan / Japanese / Pottery Store / Travel
error: