FOUND THE BEST UDON RESTAURANT IN SHUNAN!
13.01.2025
Today is a National Holiday to celebrate the Coming of Age of the young people who turn twenty this year. Most of the shops and restaurants are still open, despite it being a National holiday.
As for our family, some of us used the time to do some cleaning around the house. Yoshi did some sorting out of the kitchen cupboards, I cleaned shelves, benches and floor in the kitchen. Youko and Yoshi both did some gardening. Mami was looking for my hearing aid which was a job well done as she found it in the back seat of Youko’s car. Well done, Mami!!
Late in the morning Yoshi took off for his favourite onsen and I’m sure he will be there for at least 3 hours. Yuri was off to see her friends again before going back to Osaka tonight, as she has University classes to attend. As for Youko, Nana, Mami and I, the women decided to go out to a Udon restaurant, having udon noodles. I was asked if I wanted to go out for lunch with them and it was an easy decision. I love Japanese curry udon!!
We had to wait for a while as there was quite a queue waiting to get in. After about a 15 minute wait we got the call and made our way to our table. The others chose to have clear broth for their udon noodles with various vegetable tempura or tempura prawns, I chose to have my udon in curry and had the biggest and best kakiage I’ve ever had!! Kakiage (pronounced ‘Kaki a geh) is usually made up from shredded potato, carrot and sliced onion deep fried in batter. The kakiage I had today had all of the preceding ingredients but also added pumpkin, 3 or 4 prawns and some beans. It really was the best and well worth the wait. Have a look at the photos to get an idea of the size. The total cost of meals for four was only $32.
I want to go to this restaurant again before we leave. Mami, Youko and Nana all enjoyed their meals but I reckon if we do go back there, then they will all be keen to tuck into the curry udon with kakiage!!
When I thought it was another ordinary day, it came with a surprise. We stopped at Yume Town and heard a ‘choo choo’ sound. It was a mini train with real train noises, running through the corridor of the shopping mall, with four carriages in tow. It made electric train sounds and was full of young kids. We followed the train back to the ‘station,’ and there were even queues of families waiting to get on.
We found out that it was a special event at YouMe Town just for the long weekend, designed to encourage shoppers to visit the shops. What a smart idea!
Nana and Mami have just left to drive Yuri to Tokuyama Station*. She will take the shinkansen back to Osaka, tired but happy to have caught up with family and friends while here.
We are packed and ready for an early start tomorrow as we are off to Okinawa! We are all very much looking forward to some fun activities and relaxing in a these beautiful islands,
*I put the asterisk on Tokuyama station as Tokuyama was the main city in this area years ago. However as the city spread, other suburban town soon outgrew Tokuyama and felt they needed more of a say at council and decision making. In the end all of the newer towns were asked to amalgamate with Tokuyama and form a new city to be called Shunan. All the newer towns, with the exception of Kudamatsu, agreed to this proposal and Shunan the city was formalised. One of the things that did not change however was the name of the station, where the library is, has remained as Tokuyama Station.
