By mere chance we arrived at one of West Japan's most attractive towns on the day of her autumn harvest festival.
We're on the final leg of our 16-Day Circle Route from Hiroshima, moving from remote but gorgeous Hagi towards world-famous Miyajima. In the midst of this move we passed the historic town of Yanai, quaint, friendly and worthy of a day-trip even without an annual fiesta, which was simply icing on the cake.
Sugoku kawaii~!! exclaimed our neighboring Obasan as this cute 4-year-old performer and her umbrella almost got lifted off by the wind. For the first time I was able to bring my wife to a Japanese street festival without boring her to death, which nearly happened the first time I took her to Kyoto's renowned Aoi Matsuri.
The romantic setting of a medieval town instantly made this Matsuri ten times more enjoyable. While not all Japanese festivals are fun and games, I've since learned the key to keeping ourselves entertained at these street carnivals -- check the schedule beforehand, and partake in the games and street food while waiting for the parade.
Inexplicably ignored by foreign tourists, understated Yanai features a nationally-protected historic centre in the same order as Kyoto's Saga-Toriimoto or Kanazawa's Higashi-Chayagai, just 90 minutes from Hiroshima by local trains. This is easily doable as a day-trip from Hiroshima, or as a pass-through from Honshu's western tip to Hiroshima in our case.
That morning we had the scare of our trip when I nearly lost my DSLR camera -- and the entire trip's photos -- when I forgot my camera bag on our highway bus from Hagi to Shin-Yamaguchi Station. Luckily this was Japan after all, and my expensive camera was found untouched on the parked bus outside the train station within minutes.
At Shin-Yamaguchi Station we hopped on the local train to Yanai, but not before picking up breakfast from Shuklevain, a local Yamaguchi bakery chain best known for the pictured Golden Curry Pan. Adding a Mashed Potato Pie and a standard Rum Raisin Furansu, and it was a quick fill-up for two for less than 600 yen.
Our only logistical problem -- where to store our wheeled luggage for four hours -- was solved upon arrival at Yanai when the station's coin-lockers turned out surprisingly vacant even on Matsuri day. That gave us exactly four hours for attending the festival, sitting down for lunch AND exploring the charming historic quarter, home of whitewashed storehouses adorned with Yanai's distinctive goldfish lanterns.
Originating from ancient harvest rites, Yanai Matsuri is now held annually on the national holiday of November 23 when the entire population of 35000 descends upon the compact town centre between the train station and the gymnasium. Local schoolchildren such as the pictured South Yanai Children's Club would kick off the festivities carrying Mikoshi palanquins in various flamboyant designs from colorful foam shrines to yellow Minions to a pink-and-white Hello Kitty.
What's a genuine Japanese street fest without some goldfish scooping action? For a couple hundred yen you could test your patience in flipping goldfish into a bowl, practice archery at a makeshift range or perhaps release your inner-Ninja with some Shuriken-throwing.
Then there's the plethora of street snack vendors touting everything from traditional Torikawa (grilled chicken skin; 250 yen) and Yaki-ika (roasted squid; 300-500 yen) to chocolate-dipped bananas with blue confetti sprinkles (300 yen). As usual we simply headed for the stall with the longest line-up ...
... and found this excellent Minchi-Katsu, a deep-fried croquette of minced beef and onion, for 150 yen. I suppose this would be considered our second breakfast along with a custard-filled Oobanyaki biscuit (100 yen) and a large skewered squid (400 yen) picked up as we waited for the parade.
Here we came across the cheapest fruits of our trip in these organic Mikan oranges from the nearby coastal orchards of Ihonosho, at 100 yen (CAD$1.2) per all-you-can-fill plastic bag! This was so ridiculously cheap that we felt bad about filling the bag to more than half full, but the owner wouldn't let us go and filled our bag to the brim with a dozen oranges.
After shopping for oranges we returned to the main thoroughfare where the Matsuri's feature presentation, the colorful Hanagasa-odori or Dance of Flower Umbrellas, started marching towards the historic quarter led by a police cruiser, traditional music blasting out of its loudspeaker.
Unlike the famous Hanagasa-Junko at Kyoto's Gion Matsuri where participants simply flaunt their ornamental umbrellas at a marching parade, Yanai's version is a meticulously rehearsed and synchronized dance on a colossal scale, requiring all participants to dance to the theme song in coordinated unison.
Umbrella dancing wasn't just for middle-aged Obasans, but everyone from 6-foot hunks to tiny kindergarten kids all clad in Yukata uniforms representing their own companies or schools. The largest groups were typically government branches and major financial institutions, followed by colleges, local businesses and non-profit clubs.
Participating groups were endless and the parade would go on for hours. With all the townsfolk congregated along the parade route, it was the perfect time to head back to the historic quarter and enjoy Yanai's main sights in relative privacy.
In fact the town's star attraction, an exquisite merchant house from the late 1800s known as the Kunimori Residence, was entirely unattended during our visit. Our entrance fee simply went into an unguarded money tray as we finished admiring the beautiful two-storey Machiya and its collection of 100-year-old advertisement panels and Yanai-jima textiles.
Around the corner stood the whitewashed warehouse of the 200-year-old Sagawa Soy Sauce Brewery, my favorite sight -- or perhaps shop -- in Yanai. Best known for its handcrafted Kanro Shoyu, this respected soy sauce maker has long served as official supplier to feudal lords of the Edo Period, and to upmarket Sushi-ya these days.
The savory aroma of dark soy saturated this cavernous storehouse, still hosting enormous cedar vats surviving from the early days of the brewery, each containing 5400 litres of soy sauce in various stages of fermentation and sedimentation. This was just before lunchtime and we were all over the samples counter within minutes.
Look at this galore of soy sauce samples: the artisan-crafted, 200-year-old recipe of Kanro Shoyu in regular or spray-bottle format, a Yuzu-Shoyu with a refreshing dash of citrus for Karaage, a Ryotei-style Dashi-Shoyu for delicate dishes, and even a lazy man's soy sauce formulated for Tamago-Kakegohan. We picked the original Kanro Shoyu for its fantastic depth of flavor that perfectly matches any Sashimi, at the reasonable price of 286 yen (CAD$3.4) for a 100 mL bottle.
Should have known better than to visit a soy sauce brewery just before lunch! Fortunately Yanai was quite walkable and our choice of lunchspot, a Tonkatsu specialist known for certified Kurobuta pork at reasonable prices, was just minutes from the train station.
Food Review: TON TON (Yanai)
Address: Minami-machi 4-4-66, Yanai-shi, Yamaguchi Prefecture
Hours: 11:00-15:00, 17:00-21:00; Closed on Tuesdays
Map: from Google Maps
Directions: Starting from the train station, walk southeast and take the pedestrian overpass crossing to the backside of the station. Walk southwest for 300m until reaching the Yanai Police Station where Ton Ton is diagonally across the busy intersection, in the middle of a large parking lot.
Located south of Yanai Station amidst Pachinko parlours and home improvement stores, Ton Ton is a serious Tonkatsu-ya specializing in Kurobuta Pork from Kyushu by day and fancy fusion gastronomy by night. While Tonkatsu rice bowls could be easily picked up at train station 7-Elevens, the ambition here is to elevate these ubiquitous breaded pork cutlets beyond the common perception as blue collar grub.
Catering to true Tonkatsu connoisseurs, Ton Ton offers its signature 140g pork fillet at three different grades: 1260 yen for imported American pork, 1440 yen for domestic pork from the Japanese pork capital of Kagoshima, and 2300 yen (CAD$27) for the highly prized, certified Rokkaku Kurobuta. And if you find even 1260 yen (CAD$14.8) too steep, the pictured lunchtime special cost only 870 yen (CAD$10.3) for a 2/3 portion of fillets. Now that's a good deal.
For the sake of research we splurged on the top-of-the-line Roppaku Kurobuta, a cross between native Japanese Buta and English Berkshires, for a pricey 2300 yen. This was nearly 3 times the cost of our cheaper lunch set, and 4 times the price of a small Tonkatsu Don we enjoyed at one of Japan's oldest and most respected Tonkatsu specialists in Okayama. We had to expect nothing less than the best Tonkatsu of our trip.
In truth it was an excellent Tonkatsu, fluffily crusted, succulent and paired with a full-bodied sauce more acidic than your typical Bulldog brand. But the real surprise was the fact that ...
... the 870 yen lunch set was just as good! Tonkatsu fans may call this blasphemy, but to me there was little discernable difference in texture between the imported American pork and the exquisite Roppaku Kurobuta. At just 1/3 the price, the cheap Hitokuchi Katsu lunch would be a no-brainer for me.
What put us over the top was a housemade sweet corn dressing that turned the standard sliced cabbage into a superbly enjoyable salad, by far the best Tonkatsu-meal-cabbage-salad we've ever had. And you know what's even better? The cabbage was all-you-can-eat!
Our final bill ended up slightly expensive for a simple Tonkatsu lunch, though in retrospect it didn't need to be. My advice to fellow travelers is to simply order the Hitokuchi Katsu Teishoku for 870 yen, and enjoy the unlimited cabbage salad bathed in sweet corn dressing. That would be a top class Tonkatsu and salad combo at a great price.
Bill for Two Persons
| Hitokuchi Katsu Teishoku | 870 yen |
| Roppaku Kurobuta Filet Katsu Teishoku | 2300 yen |
| 8% Tax | 253 yen |
| TOTAL | 3423 yen (CAD$40.3) |
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