Author: Kurt

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Unlike my previous stop, Kurashiki wears its tourist heart on its sleeve. Quaintness is just oozing from the mortar and tile of the old granaries (kura) that line the “historical district”. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but there’s just something a bit inauthentic about it, a bit disingenuous. Would these buildings still be around had someone not realized the tourist potential of them? On the other side of the station, seemingly far away, there’s a Tivoli amusement park modeled on the famed Tivoli in Copenhagen. But I can’t vouch for it’s fidelity to the original. I only had time to fit in one theme park today.

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So-called “debira” (which I take it is a type of flounder) drying out in the harbor of a quaint little fishing village of Tomo-no-Ura, south of Fukayama (2 hours east of Hiroshima by train). Actually “quaint” usually means “touristy” but, perhaps due to it being New Years time, the town seemed refreshing free of the usual trappings that come with picturesque seaside locations. That’s not to say the town doesn’t try to accomodate tourists, especially English-speaking ones who proportionately can’t make up a lot of those who visit here.

I ran into these two Americans from New York the other night, they were on a 2-week trip here (Japan), and they were going on about how Japan is such a hard place to travel, very little information or signs are in English, etc. I was polite and bit my tongue but having just spent a good few hours at the Hiroshima Peace Museum, which had just about the most copious English translations of any museum I’ve ever been to in the non-English speaking world, I couldn’t help but wonder what planet these guys were on (well, I knew the answer, it’s called the American planet). I was thinking about these guys today as I walked about this tiny hamlet I just introduced you to, where every monument plaque, every sign related to sightseeing, not to mention these wonderful engraved maps/sign posts highlighting the tourist trails, is written in both Japanese and English. All for a place that needs a local bus to get to, is probably not mentioned in any guidebook (confession: I don’t have a Lonely Planet Japan), and probably doesn’t see a whole hell of a lot of non-Japanese travelers, comparatively speaking.

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I knew I would regret it if I succumbed to laziness and didn’t try to find a place to eat Hiroshima’s variant of okonomiyaki. Not eating meat, invariably when the questions come post-travel — ie. “Did you eat so-and-so ramen?” I always have to answer “No,” which seems to cause the Japanese questioners some degree of consternation. However, okonomiyaki can be ordered niku nashi (without meat). The problem was that I didn’t want to go to a guidebook recommended place with tourist crowds et al (for one thing, when traveling on one’s own it always feels like you’re the only one not with someone at those places). Naoko suggested I just ask the hotel receptionists to recommend a jimoto (local) place, so I did, and they directed me to an establishment a couple of blocks down the street (“Masahisa” I think it was called), and it was just what I was looking for, one owner/chef, only a few customers (one family, a few lone salarymen, one spinstress, and me), and one of those quiz/variety shows with a million talento revealing that even a only-4-years-in-Japan non-native like myself sometimes knows more about the country than the natives do. While nothing that knocked my socks off or seemed radically different than the Osakan variety of okonomiyaki that I’m used to, it was good all the same and I won’t have to feel guilty when those “Did you eat…?” questions come my way next week.