Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [152]
Shimoda Bay Kuroshio (27-2111; fax 27-2115; www.baykuro.co.jp; r per person from ¥10,500; ) This futuristic 42-room hotel gleams above Shimoda-wan. Texas-sized rooms are festooned with textiles, woodworked headboards, designer bedspreads, and relics, shells and fossils inlaid in its poured-in-place concrete. Outside: rotemburo (naturally) and summer barbecues.
Kurofune Hotel (22-1234; fax 22-1801; www.kurofune-hotel.com, in Japanese; r per person incl 2 meals from ¥15,000; ) On the hillside across from Shimoda’s boat dock and with dead-on bay views, this old-line hotel has both Japanese- and Western-style rooms – some have their own rotemburo – plus heaping seafood meals and huge common onsen with rotemburo. The lobby decor is a little over the top, but squint as you walk through and you’ll be fine.
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THE LEGEND OF OKICHI
Shimoda is famous in international affairs, but an affair of the heart remains this town’s most enduring melodrama. Like all good stories, there are many versions.
Saito Kichi (the ‘O’ was later added as an honorific) was born a carpenter’s daughter in Shimoda. Some accounts say that her exceptional beauty and talent for music led her poor family to sell her to a geisha house at age seven. Others skip directly to 1854, when the Black Ships arrived in Shimoda and a devastating earthquake destroyed Okichi’s home and possessions.
Okichi’s home was rebuilt by a long-time admirer named Tsurumatsu, and the two fell in love. But in 1856, when Townsend Harris became America’s first consul in Shimoda, he needed a maid, and local authorities assigned the task to Okichi, then in her late teens. Despite her initial refusal, authorities prevailed on her to sacrifice her love of Tsurumatsu for the good of the nation. Tsurumatsu received a position with the shōgunate in Edo (now Tokyo).
Okichi gradually developed respect for Harris, even reportedly protecting him from an assassination attempt. Some versions of the story say that Harris forced her to fulfil his needs as well, and locals began taunting her as ‘tōjin Okichi’ (the foreigner’s concubine), driving her to drink.
Following Harris’s departure in 1858, Okichi moved briefly to Kyoto before heading to Edo to find Tsurumatsu. Together they lived in Yokohama until Tsurumatsu’s untimely death.
Okichi returned to Shimoda and opened a restaurant (some say it was a brothel). But drink had taken its hold, the business went bankrupt and she wandered the streets before eventually drowning herself in a river.
Okichi’s story has been dramatised in just about every form of Japanese drama. Outside Japan, the best-known version of this story is The Barbarian and the Geisha, the 1958 film starring John Wayne, which, no surprise, tells the story its own way.
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EATING
Seafood is the speciality in Shimoda.
Musashi (22-0934; mains ¥630-1000; lunch) This casual spot serves tasty Japanese shokudō (cafeteria-style) favourites, including kamo nabeyaki udon (duck hotpot; ¥950). Take a left out of the station, turn right down the narrow lane and take the first left. Look for the giant badger.
Dining Log Shimoda (22-3457; sets from ¥1000; 11.30am-8.30pm Wed-Mon) This recently opened, log-framed resto has decent French-Italian-Japanese dishes like mentaiko (pollock roe) pasta (¥900). There’s a picture menu and an English sign.
Porto Caro (22-5514; mains ¥1050-1360; lunch & dinner Thu-Tue) A second-floor trattoria serving tasty pastas, pizzas (at night) and other Italian fare. Try seafood pasta with local wasabi, or paella (¥3000). It’s two blocks north of Perry Rd, on the same road as the post office;