Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [386]
Eating
Pasta Factory (28-0101; 82 Suetsugu Honmachi; 11.30am-10pm) A swish glass-fronted deli specialising in pasta and sandwiches. The daily pasta lunch ¥980, and the daily hot sandwich is ¥880. There is some English on the menu.
Yakumo-an (22-2400; 308 Kita Horiuchi; 9am-4.30pm) Next door to the samurai house, this soba (buckwheat noodle) restaurant and its beautiful grounds are an excellent place to sample the local warigo soba. A combination of noodles with kamo nanban (noodles with slices of duck in broth) is ¥1130. Look for the large gate topped by a lantern; there is an English menu.
Tsurumaru (22-4887; 1-79 Higashi Honmachi; dishes ¥600-1050; 5.30-10.30pm, closed Sun) The smell of fish grilling over coals permeates this restaurant, which specialises in the cuisine of the Oki Islands. The (Japanese-only) menu features things like eri-yaki konabe (hot spicy soup cooked over a flame at your table; ¥630). Sashimi moriawase is ¥1260. You’ll know it by the noren with the crane on it, and the rustic folk-singing that plays into the street.
Kawa-kyō (22-1312; 65 Suetsugu Honmachi; meals ¥800-1300; 6-10.30pm, closed Sun; ) You can count on a friendly welcome at this izakaya-style restaurant that specialises in the ‘seven delicacies’ from Shinji-ko (Click here). The daughter of the family speaks good English, and an English menu is available. Look for the lantern hanging outside with on it.
Yamaichi (23-0223; 4-1 Higashi Honmachi; 4.30-9.30pm, to 9pm Sun) This atmospheric izakaya is a good place to try the local specialities. It’s an old-fashioned little place with a small Shintō shrine above the bar. The ‘seven delicacies’ are available here, along with other options such as a sashimi moriawase (at market price). The menu is handwritten above the counter in Japanese only. It’s immediately on the right after you cross over the Shin-ōhashi bridge; there is a white sign with the name of the restaurant in black: .
Minamikan (21-5131; 14 Suetsugu Honmachi; meals ¥1500-10,000; lunch & dinner) Top-quality Japanese food in an exquisite ryokan set directly on the river. Kisetsu bentō (seasonal bentō) go for around ¥3360; the tai meshi gozen (sea-bream course; ¥3780) is another beautifully arranged treat. Lunchtime deals start at ¥1575. The menu has some pictures. Look for a driveway leading to the entrance.
Naniwa (21-2835; 21 Suetsugu Honmachi; lunch & dinner) Next to Matsue-ōhashi bridge, this bright restaurant is an elegant spot for unameshi (eel and rice; ¥2625). Courses featuring the local specialities start at ¥4200 for a Shinji-ko course.
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JAPAN’S ADOPTED SON
Mention Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) to people in the English-speaking world today, and you’re likely to be met with blank stares. But in Japan, where he’s known as Koizumi Yakumo, he’s a superstar. More than 100 years after his death, Hearn remains a beloved figure in his adopted homeland, his books cherished for providing glimpses of life in Japan during the early years of the country’s emergence as a modern power – a vanished world as alien to the inhabitants of Osaka and Tokyo today as his was to original readers in Boston and London 100 years ago.
At the turn of the 20th century, Lafcadio Hearn was synonymous with Japan. Indeed, for many people in the West, Lafcadio Hearn was Japan – but his life would have been a remarkable one even if he’d never set foot in the ‘fairyland’ that made him famous. Born to a Greek mother and an Anglo-Irish army surgeon on the island of Lefkada in the Ionian Sea, Patrick Lafcadio Hearn grew up in Dublin and studied in England before being packed off at 19 with a one-way ticket to America and instructions to try his luck in the New World. An odd-looking misfit of a man with atrocious eyesight and the paranoia of a born outsider, he eventually found work as a journalist in Cincinnati – until he scandalised acquaintances by marrying a