Around the time I was heading back to Korea, we had a small farewell dinner at Omoigawa, on the second floor of the Matsue Club. It was a tempura course eaten at the counter while looking out over Lake Shinji,…
Finally kicking off my 2011 posts. Over the New Year holidays we got an enormous snowfall, and I was basically stranded at home. It wasn’t exactly a happy time for me, but I’m leaving a record of i…
Since I was out for once in a long while, I decided to wander around the area. Mihonoseki sits at the very tip of the Shimane Peninsula. It’s mostly known for fishing, but a fair bit of traditional cultu…
One day in November.. the weather finally turned chilly and snow crab season came around again! Could anything make me happier.. Whenever crab season comes, the place I always go is Matsuya. It’s closed …
After work I dropped into a nearby izakaya, Ajidokoro Akishima, for a drink. It’s on the pricey side, but the food was really good. This was also my first time testing my new camera, and so far I’m…
I’d helped someone I know with some computer stuff and got a meal out of it, but since it wasn’t anything major, we went somewhere reasonable: Jasmin, a cafe-cum-restaurant. It’s run by the s…
Someone I got to know somehow through work was hosting a Calera wine dinner, so I went along. Calera is the pricey wine people call the Romanée-Conti of California -_-. Apparently the winery’s owner trai…
I could only get one day off, so I had to be at work in the morning and got up early. After last night’s feast there was a hearty breakfast waiting too, so I couldn’t just rush off because I was bu…
Finally, the dinner I’d been waiting for. Good food is really the single most important thing that draws people to an onsen ryokan. If all you want is a hot spring, there are plenty near the city. The d…
For a friend who came all the way to visit, I booked a room at Kasuien Minami, the most popular onsen ryokan around here. With the wagyu course it came to a little over 20,000 yen per person, which is actually…
Restaurant Hara is a French restaurant in my neighbourhood. It seems to have opened only about a month ago, but it’s always full, so I made a proper reservation and went with a friend. Wine and glasses …
This visit was more than two weeks ago now. I’d heard that Kokoan (香古庵), a sister restaurant of an onsen ryokan in the Daisen area of Tottori Prefecture, opened back in February, so I went to see what it…