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As autumn deepens, I think you miss hot meals.
And I went to the Russian restaurant “Soupya” for the first time in a long time.
Probably, it is the only restaurant which serves authentic Russian dishes in Fukui City.
I think “Soupya” was located originally in a shopping street close to Katamachi and then
moved to the present residential area located on a hill. Even since then, it has been quite
some time so you might say it is a long-established restaurant.
Now I arrived at the restaurant, when I was parking my car, presumed its owner
came out and guided to park. It was quite dark already and my car has no back monitor, so it was thoughtful.
When I looked at the menu outside the door, I decided B course. Because it includes
borscht, piroshki and gryby!
I was guided to a table beside the window and had a quiet meal looking taillights of cars go by below. And I thought that there were few restaurants such a location in Fukui. Recently, the number of cafes along the Echizen Coast have increased but restaurants and bars along a river like in Kyoto or with the evening view, or a stream of cars as a part of view are still few.
So, how about making riverside summer terrace on the Asuwa River bank?
Or, how about inviting Starbucks at the foot of Saiwai Bridge like Sanjo-ohashi Bridge in Kyoto? Things unrelated to Russia popped into my head while eating ;) (H.S)
The exterior of the Soupya
Ornaments in the entrance hall
Inside the Soupya
There were Cheburashka, Putin and Medvedev on the rear wall of my table.
Start with borscht. Sour cream adds deep taste.
Freshly fried piroshki was soft and delicious.
Put mayonnaise or ketchup as desired.
Main gryby. You can choose fillings out of several kinds.
I chose cheese and mushrooms.
Dessert and chai. Russian tea is thought to put jam in tea but in fact, Russian people put jam in the mouth first and have tea, the owner told me.
This autumn, Ichihomare, new brand-name
rice which Fukui Prefecture is proud of, was ready for harvest for the first
time and its sales started on a trial basis.
Then, I bought and tried it immediately.
When I look it cooked, it was glossy and shining. It isn’t need to wait for eating to know that it is delicious. Then at last, I
had a taste nervously and I felt elastic first. Each grain was soft but firm
and had a perfect gummy texture. Also, its delicious taste and sweetness were great.
I realized again that rice is such delicious. Actually, after I ate Ichihomare,
I came to feel that even Koshihikari tasted like something is missing.
In fact, my family grows Koshihikari, but
are we going to grow Ichihomare someday? I am looking forward to it. (H.S)
There are many places that are very interesting and attractive for people to visit in Fukui. However, I often hear that not too many people visit Fukui. I would like more people to know about our beautiful city and come here to visit.
As I introduced in our previous blog (part-1), Julia, an intern from the USA at the Hotel Riverge Akebono, and I had a chance to talk about why not so many people visit Fukui.
She said that there are amazing places in Fukui but most of the places are difficult to get to. Even she wants to go to some places in Fukui by taking public transportation but there are no English signs and/or announcements on them.
When I took a local train in Fukui the other day, there was English guidance but not on local buses in Fukui. To visit many interesting places in Fukui, we need buses to reach them if we don’t drive, so I started remembering what Julia said. Some visitors from overseas would be ok going there without any English guidance but I’m sure for many of them it can be inconvenient. I had the same experience in the USA. There was no Japanese guidance on buses and trains and it was very inconvenient for me. After a few years, I was confident enough to ask people because I learned English, but before that, I did not event want to take buses and/or trains even though I wanted to go to many interesting places.
I hope people take what Julia said seriously to solve these problems and more people will want to visit Fukui.
I went to the Takefu Chrysanthemum Doll
Festival in Echizen City after a long time. Speaking of the Takefu Chrysanthemum Doll
Festival, it’s a very familiar event in Fukui. When I see an announcement about its
opening, I feel that autumn has truly arrived. On the other hand, I thought that it always
had finished before I was aware. This year, it has been held from October 5th
to November 5th.
When I got the site, I found the
facilities have greatly improved. “Daruma Doll Square” supervised by Satoshi
Kako, who is a famous picture book author from Echizen City, was completed.
There are cafe and bakery in a new facility which is next to Echizen City Culture
Center. In the main building for chrysanthemum dolls, there are countless
numbers of chrysanthemums dressing dolls in many scenes of a popular NHK
historical drama.
Also, for the first time, I saw the stage
of OSK Nippon Revue, which is another main event of the festival. The OSK
Nippon Revue, which is called one of the three major girl revues in Japan, was
established in 1922 and they are active and based in Osaka. The stage is titled
“OSK Symphony” and they show a glammorous one-hour revue. There are “Beauty And the Beast” dance, flamenco,
jazz dance, funny hip-hop dance featuring Fukui dialect and line dance. Even
more than the great songs and dances, Yan Rin, who is playing a male part, is
so cool and good looking. And female part dancers’ cute smiles made me feel
comforted.
While the show, Yan Rin and other members came
down to the audience seats, so you can feel much closer to them. Their one-month
performance at the festival is a grueling schedule that they play twice on
weekdays, three times on the weekends and days off is only one day. Furthermore,
I was touched by Yan Rin’s greeting at the end “We have practiced very hard for
a long time to show great stage to everybody here.” I wish I could go to see
them again before the final day. If you want to go to see them, please enter
the center early because there are many fans from Osaka there. (H.S)
There were still a lot of buds, so it will be more beautiful in the
latter half.
The lead role, Naotora Ii.
Naotora, when she was a trainee priest.
The
leftmost is Naomasa Ii.
Artisans of growing chrysanthemums come all this way from Yamagata Prefecture.
Huge Yan Rin is waiting for you at the
Echizen City Culture Center, where is
*Izakaya means Japanese style pub
Today, I will introduce an izakaya which has a little difficult name to read. The izakaya
is located in a corner of Katamachi area, where is a restaurant district in Fukui City.
Those who have visited the Kunten say that everything is good there. So I have always
wanted to go and I finally went there the other day.
The first thing that I was surprised when I entered the izakaya was the number of
the menu written on the blackboards. It has gone beyond izakaya and I could call “Bistro where you can eat Japanese food as well” because they have many Italian and French menus. In addition, all of those are delicious. Especially the penne was much better than
Italian restaurants around here.
In fact, the woman owner cooks all dishes by herself at the izakaya and the staff is all women. As it is a small izakaya, it’s not noisy and the dishes are served at an appropriate time so I think that it’s a good one to enjoy meal and drink over conversation with friends.
It is a popular izakaya, so you should make a reservation before going. I would strongly
recommend the Kunten. It is a really good izakaya. (H.S)
The entrance
The customers sitting at the counter are thinking what they will order while looking the blackboard menu.
An appetizer
The Gorgonzola penne is superb.
Clams and shrimps fried in garlic oil with baguette.
I had it with red wine.
I read the book “I am Mario” sometimes
before I go to sleep.
Every tanka is lively and I feel
overwhelmed with her remarkable talent in creating tankas.
Machi moved to Ishigaki Island from Sendai
City after the Great East Japan Earthquake with her son, who was 7 years old. After a
while, she noticed that he hasn’t been used his game machine and said to him
“You don’t play a game lately, do you?” Then he replied “Because I am the Mario
now, mom.” The book title was taken from this conversation. Since he came to Ishigaki Island, it seems
that he came to think he himself was the game’s main character by spending time
in nature.
Here is her tanka about that.
“I am Mario now” since we came to this
island, my son stopped playing a game
Talking of Machi’s son, now there is a
collection of sayings on the internet. And his
sayings had been a popular topic on Twitter.
He seems to have a good taste in choice of words, which may be because of a
gene from his mother.
Additionally, I will introduce some other tankas
which are about life in Ishigaki Island from the collection.
Short winter is gone like a part of paste
and the island’s beaches open in March
A shower gets the island wet like crunchy straws
are falling
Daily life like Orion Beer is always in the
fridge is not bad and my 40’s passes
The day I did snorkeling, I thought humans
are creatures on the upper half of the earth
School of fish turns around quickly and
smoothly like dropping oil on a mass game
In June, kids of the island practice in a
rice field not for planting but harvesting
My son is sleeping with a reward of the
day, which he saw a crested serpent eagle
While I can see everything through the eyes
of a traveler, I see the blue of the sea
By the way, Machi Tawara is a person who has
a deep connection to Fukui Prefecture.
Because she used to live in Echizen City in
her junior and high school days. Also,
she is a big fan of brothers and a cousin’s
band “Kiiyama Shoten” from Ishigaki Island, like myself, so I have a sense of closeness
very much. In Ishigaki Island, she was on the radio together with the members
of the Kiiyama Shoten. Currently, she lives in Miyazaki City because of her
work but she sometimes visits ‘home’ Ishigaki Island.
As for the cover of the book, the work of a textile designer from Ishigaki Island,
MIMURI is used. The colors are very beautiful and bright. The image is exactly the same with vegetation in Okinawa and Ishigaki Island. The colors are very beautiful and bright. The image is exactly the same with vegetation in Okinawa and Ishigaki Island. (H.S)
Machi Tawara talks about “I am Mario” (Only in Japanese)
