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Fukuoka City Sights, Kyushu Japan 09
Yokoso!
Who says Japan is fished out? Just like the surf which noone thinks Japan has any of, there's a whole lotta fish here, too, lemme tell ya! Right in the city of Fukuoka, off of a large pier which you had to pay a couple of bucks to get on, we were finally able to land as many aji as we wanted, a fact we were grateful for after our first unsuccessful attempt back in Yobuko.
Aji is the Japanese version of halalu, or baby akule, and I couldn't believe how many of them there were! Had we been there a half-day or so, we could have easily filled a large ice chest or five-gallon bucket to the rim, as each drop of the line brought us one to three squirming fish, and they hit almost immediately after reaching the bottom, every time! Waaay too easy, this was. In the hour-and-a-half or so we were there, we just kept giving fish away everytime our bucket began filling up:
Like us, most people on the pier were catching aji, but once in a while, someone would pull up a huge mullet, tai (snapper), or other fish I couldn't identify, and when that happened, there were large, aerated tanks in which to hold them until you left. If there's one thing I love about Japan, it's the fact that petty thieves and idiots are not found lurking around every corner, and you can leave your prized fish in these public tanks and not worry 'bout a thing - anywhere else, I wouldn't let a freshly-caught four to five lb. fish out of my sight for any more than two seconds! Besides that, I also loved the fact that everyone's so respectful and friendly to their neighbors, even when crammed onto a pier almost shoulder to shoulder!
Thanks to our good friends Maya and Yoshiki-san for taking us fishing and showing us a great day! They also brought us to the giant Sky Dream Ferris Wheel, which stands almost 400 feet tall and takes 20 minutes for a single revolution, but it was recently closed, and is now waiting a buyer to resume operations. Oh, well...
During lunch with our friends from Japan, I experienced another one of many firsts, which was semi-raw chicken! Slightly grilled, it did nevertheless carry enough pink to keep you at least a little uncomfortable. The taste was surprisingly mellow, however, being very similiar to a normal grilled chicken, only much more chewy and tough. Like horse meat, a great novelty, but nothing I'd ever really care to try again.
I was really surprised at the chicken here in general, as it's not like the US, where almost all chicken comes from the giant farms that pump-up their birds with hormones, additives, and who knows what else. Here, most of the chicken served comes from smaller, local farms, where the difference in taste is very noticeable. As in Plato's ideal forms, when speaking of the perfect horse-ness of a horse, or the chicken-ness of a chicken, it was like a stronger concentration of chicken-ness, which was much more natural, a bit more wild, and not quite as soft as what I'm used to - all for the better, of course. In fact, the pleasant difference was even apparent in the chicken karaage sticks found in any Lawson's or 7-Eleven convenience store, both of which you'll find on just about every street corner! Get yourself a stick or two along with a musubi or two, and it all makes for a great meal any day, and all for under five bucks!
But another delicacy happens to taste better when the taste is not increased, but decreased. In Hawaii, ikura (salmon roe) is usually so salty, I can only eat a tiny bit with lots and lots of hot rice, but in Japan, I gues they don't have to use so much salt to preserve the roe, so it's much more naturally sweet and mellow:
During our last several days in Downtown Fukuoka City, pretty much all we did was eat, drink, and shop! Besides the giant Department stores that feature just about every style of clothing and apparel known to man or woman, Kumi favors the smaller boutique shops lining the Tenjin district of Fukuoka, which are generally cheaper, have more original, edgy designs, and was only a short walk away from our hotel. Fine for her, but for me, I could not find a single pair of pants to fit me! I'm about a 32-34 US, but that's still too big for most Japanese! After the first couple of days searching, I pretty much gave up!
No worries, as Kumi was already satisfied with her clothes shopping by then, and we concentrated instead on da grinds! Right outside of our hotel stood a crab restaurant we had been eyeing ever since the first day in Downtown Fukuoka, and it took my birthday for us to finally venture in. One type of crab you almost never see in Hawaii, save for specials at Marukai every once in a great while, is the kegani, or hairy crab. A true delicacy among clawed creatures, this crab really is hairy, but the prize is their snow-white meat and dark-brown miso, both of which come sweeter than your average snow, dungeness, or King crab. Normally highly miso-averse, I could stomach this hairy crab miso, while the snow crab miso was more like the stuff I usually stay away from:
There are a couple of downsides to a crab meal here in Japan, and these are that the crab is almost always cold unless coming in a nabe hot-pot or as tempura, and also that they never use butter, only a ponzu or vinegar dipping sauce, instead. But no worries, as the crab is always fresh, and they pre-slice the shells for greater ease in getting to the sweet meat inside. In such times, forget the rice, forget the fries, forget anything else - all you need is crab and beer!
As hinted at last time, Kumi and I were fortunate enough to have stayed at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, right in the heart and center of action in Downtown Fukuoka City. The hotel was right alongside a canal that cuts through the city, and also connected to a major shopping/entertainment complex called Canal City. As you might have guessed, water is a major component at Canal City, as it is at the adjoining Fukuoka Grand Hyatt:
Of course, that's only the little man-made canal that runs between the Grand Hyatt and the Canal City Complex - the real canal is on the opposite side of the Hyatt:
See all those people on the left? Well, they are nowhere to be found during the day, except maybe in passing quickly by, and you'll see why in just a little bit, when we return to this very scene once again.
For now... just a few thoughts on the differences between beef and pork here in the US and Japan. While we in the States have historically favored leaner cuts (although that's beginning to change more and more), the Japanese have always relished fat, and I would venture to say that there's no other country in the world that has more fatty beef or pork than Japan. Whether it comes to Kurobuta (Berkshire) pork or Kobe, Kagoshima, or Saga beef, the amounts of fat in these animals are legendary. We hooked up one day with Kumi's parents once again, who took a train into the city, and also with Kumi's brothers' family, and had the opportunity to experience both the fatty Kagoshima beef and Kurobuta pork, both shabu-shabu style, or cooked by ourselves in a hot pot of boiling nabe. Check out the marbling on first the beef, then pork:
Of course, all that fat, as precious as it is, does have its downsides once in a while. Like all good things, don't over-do it, or you'll be sorry. Have you ever tried a Kurobuta pork cutlet here in Japan? All I can say is, I'll never do it again! These fatty slices shown above, especially on the beef, were almost paper-thin, and shared amongst several people, but a Kurobuta pork cutlet is a single-server about an inch or so thick, and over half of that is pure fat! These are times where I actually do favor a leaner cut of pork, despite the high esteem I hold for transluscent meats.
But it wasn't all protein for us on this particularly fabulous day, as there's always lots of veggies and sides in a Japanese meal:
These veggie products were also thrown into our hot nabe pot, and the broth that developed after all that cooking was a soup that'd sure make a fine breakfast on a chilly Fukuoka morning! To top things off, our kind server, clad in full Kimono, entered the private room to cook our ramen noodles in this very broth - a perfect way to end our meal!
After such a great feast, we were one big, happy family!
But hey, when in Japan, do as the locals do, and get your fill of fatty beef, as we did here at a cool yakiniku spot called Daitoen, which was just a short walk away from our hotel:
Here's some beef cheek, which, I guess, is kinda like the Kama of a hamachi, only a completely different creature, and this one wasn't quite as soft as I'd imagine. But for about $6, still a great way to go:
The beef in this next shot is not meant to be thrown on the grill, but eaten completely in the raw. It's known as yukkei, and yeah, I did cheat and throw a few of them on the fire, while Kumi had the bulk of it the way it was meant to be eaten!
And finally, their choicest offering, a local kalbi cut. Can you believe the fat on these things? It's a whole different breed of cow and pig in Japan, that's for sure!
Although while cruising around Japan it's almost entirely safe for any guy, I'd say that women may have something to worry about when taking short cuts through unknown alleys, especially at night. I don't think they have to worry much about getting shot or mugged, but because of the huge number of adult entertainment venues that lurk behind just about every main street in any large Japanese city, if I were a woman, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near these places at night, when skebei guys drink copious amounts of beer and take women for sex objects that can be bought and paid for anytime they want. It's amazing how many men flock together in large groups at night, looking for cheap women in these raunchy environments - only, something tells me, they ain't so cheap on your wallet!
Kumi and I walked into a bar/restaurant one day for lunch, as this was the only place around that actually had any chicken katsu (not tonkatsu). Turns out, the inside looked exactly like what we imagined of the kinds of places that boomed during the Japanese bubble years of the 70's and 80's, when money was everywhere and high-paid women from all over the world sat as escorts to wealthy businessman who had more money than they knew what to do with. It was kinda funny to see, actually. And lunch was pretty darn good, so who cares? I can imagine this place at night, strobe lights going off, disco and techno playing loudly... Gemme outta here!
But one experience you always need to try when in Japan are the open-air yatai stalls, the ones I showed you from a distance earlier, right beside the canal at night - remember?
This entire scene is completely void in the day, and that's including all the seemingly permanent, but in fact, highly mobile structures where you see people dining, leaving only a large, empty, open thoroughfare when the sun shines. These things are so popular, there's people waiting on the side for the best stalls, as you can see above. And I can see why, too, as there's nothing like great food outside in the cool, crisp evening air, all the while enjoying the tranquility of the wide canal, the allure of bright city lights, and the vibrant, be-dazzling energy found in the Japanese night life scene. Add to that good friends, as much beer as you want, and a crowd that just wants to have fun, and you got yourself an experience of a lifetime! And guess what? No security guards or cops anywhere! Whaaa? I guarantee, if you find this many people on a regular basis in Hawaii or the Mainland with this much beer, and some idiot or idiots will end up causing trouble, stealing, or starting fights. Why? Who knows. Idiots will be idiots. The cost of an orderly and respectable, yet super-fun evening under the bright moonlight, with absolutely no need for security? Priceless!
And how's the food? Well, you know what they say - food always tastes better at the beach, at the picnic, or anywhere outdoors. Who knows how it'd compare at a regular restaurant, but here at the yatai, everything sure tasted pretty darn good! The foods are simple and rustic, including the grilled horumon (intestine), chicken, negi (giant green onion), shiitake mushroom, cherry tomatoes, and more!
Kumi always needs to have sazae, that famous shellfish found all over Japan, which kinda tastes like a cross between opihi and abalone. I like the meaty portions, but the guts are all her's. The funny thing was, we didn't experience a yatai until our second-to-the-last night, but after one try, I was kicking myself for not coming earlier, and made sure to return once again on our last evening, too! This counter contained giant scallops, huge beef tongues (right side), veggies, shellfish, and fish, including the one item I wanted to try here in Japan, but didn't for some reason - fugu (the large, skinless fish on the left). I dunno, it's just that fugu is always so expensive, and I have a sneaking suspicion the taste isn't much different from other fish, the only difference being, you know, the lore of it all -ooooooh, fugu... Wooow... But then again, I could be wrong! Anyone out there think I'm completely missing something, please let me know! There are a few places in Honolulu that do offer fugu, and I'll make sure to try it real soon if there's a big reason to.
But alas, our trip finally came to an end, and despite carousing for nearly two weeks, we both wished for another two, which would have been perfect! One day...
Thanks to Nami, Maya, Yoshiki-san, dad, mom, and all the folks who've ferried us around and helped make our trip so enjoyable and fun! Hope this can be a yearly thing, and please, do come out to Hawaii any time! Kumi and I have decided to scrape a little more so we can save for trips, instead of eating out at every turn - I can't even keep up Closer Look pages for everytime we eat out! Cutting back a little won't hurt at all.
I'll leave you with one more shot, canal-side, only steps away from the yatai, where a lone saxaphonist played to the street audience under the bright lights of Downtown Fukuoka City:
And I guess it's about time to return to Honolulu, home sweet home, and more ono kine grinds! I half-finished a page from the Honolulu Fish Festival, held a few weeks ago, but wasn't able to complete it before I left. I'll finish it up and show you all the great fish Hawaii itself has to offer, which is some of the best stuff in the world!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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Comments:
Tony K (12/28/09) - Awesome! www.alohatony.com.
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