We woke up this morning to rain on the ground, though fortunately the rain itself had stopped, so we had a dry walk to the station. However, we also had an email from our Niigata friend, changing our pick-up point from outside the railway station to inside because a typhoon was heading right for Niigata! Oh well, our luck couldn’t last forever.
Today has been quite a lazy day, most of it spent on the shinkansen or in and around stations. We got to Takasaki station early in order buy some local omiyage for our Niigata friends, and then arrived at Niigata around lunchtime, to very different weather, as expected, than we’d left in Takasaki. It was very windy and pretty rainy.
Our first job was to drop off our bags at our favourite business hotel chain. However, choosing the right station exit can sometimes be tricky if their exit names don’t accord with the names on your map, and so it seemed here – but we were spied by a friendly Japanese man who gave us a pointer. As it turned out, the hotel pretty much adjoins the station complex (which has changed a lot since we were last here), meaning it was a covered walk all the way! Next, by accident really as it was near the rest-rooms, we located the meeting point our friend had indicated – the Chuken Tama Ko dog statue. And then, because Niigata is a big station full of amenities, we decided to find a lunch spot there, out of the rain, but eschewing, if possible, all the chains for something cheap, cheerful but local. We found it we believe. It was certainly cheerful with our server appearing to be highly amused by our presence. When she brought our drinks, she ensured that we said “Kanpai” (essentially “cheers” in Japanese) before she left us to it. We have no idea why we were so amusing, but we didn’t mind.
Now, Niigata is not one of your on-the-map-must-visit Japanese places, and we have been here before, so we had no burning desire to see anything specific, particularly on such an afternoon. However, l had spied that the Tsurui Art Museum was located within a very few blocks of the station, so we ventured forth. Well, dear readers, we found the location. We found a sign pointing to its entrance. We saw posters on windows for its next great-looking ceramics exhibition. But could we find its entry? Nope. It was suppposed to be open today. Maybe it was just on one floor of the building, but we didn’t see a sign like 2F, as you usually do, indicating that. Given the unattractive weather, we decided to retreat to the station, have a cuppa, and then go wait in the hotel’s large reception-area-cum-breakfast-room until check-in. Wonder of wonders! We were given our room key at 2:40, 20 mins before check-in! Woo hoo. Hadn’t they read the rule book? If they hadn’t, we weren’t going to tell them. Seriously though, it was much appreciated on such a day.
I should add, however, that my research of the city has turned up a new focus since we were here last. Niigata is apparently the birthplace of many noted manga and anime artists, and so it seems to have decided to make manga culture something it can cultivate and promote. Consequently:
- it holds one of the country’s biggest fanzine exhibitions/markets
- manga and animation are taught at local vocational and high schools
- it created, in 2002, “Shinji Mizushima Manga Street,” with statues of Mizushima’s popular baseball characters
- it introduced, in 2003, two art-covered manga-themed sightseeing buses
- it initiated, in 2011, the annual Niigata Anime and Manga Festival
- it established, in 2013, the Niigata City Manga House and the Niigata Manga Animation Museum
Yakiniku
As you will have gathered by now, we have come to Niigata to catch up with a friend, Rie – and her family, husband Atsushi, son Tsubasa (6), and daughter Riko (4). (We are getting lots of grandparent practice this trip.) We met Rie in 2007 through Evan, when he was in Japan as a JET. She visited us in Australia in 2008, and we spent a couple of days with her during our 2011 trip. She’s a lovely young woman, with, like Madoka, a delightful sense of humour and an openness to the west along with a joy in sharing her own culture.
So, our real Niigata visit started when she picked us up at that dog statue meeting place and took us to her place, where we chatted until the rest of the family arrived. We were intrigued to see a low-roofed (as in around 140cm high) room in her house. She explained that you don’t have to pay tax (aka rates, we presume) on rooms under 141 cms high! The things you learn!
Anyhow, as had been negotiated in advance, they took us to a yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku means “grilled meat”, but commonly refers to a Japanese style of cooking bite-size meat (including offal) and vegetables on grills over charcoal (in this case), or on a gas/electric grill, that is set into the table. It’s very similar to Korean barbecue, and while there is debate about its origin, most believe it to have been inspired by the Korean form. I’ll leave it to you to research, if you are interested in the complexity of cuisine, culture, and the Japanese-Korean relationship. All I can say is that it was delicious, and, regardless of origin, Japanese in style and flavour.
How it works, for those unfamiliar with the style, is that you order the pre-prepared raw ingredients which you then cook on the grill. Once cooked, you dip the food into selected sauces, or tare. In our case, each diner was given a three-part dish containing three sauces – miso, lemon, soy sauce. Our hosts also ordered rice, and a really delicious simple salad of greens, with thin straws of apple, and a wonderful light sesame-flavoured dressing. We had a tasty meal of “normal” meats (including high quality wagyu) and various intestinal meats, which were as delicious as the more traditional cuts. The names of the cuts included karubi, harami, and horumon (various intestinal bits!)
The children, like Madoka’s, were very shy to start with, but by the end of the evening seemed to accept us. Tomorrow will tell! Rie has a whole weekend of activities planned for us, focusing in particular of course on Niigata, and its seasonal specialities (grapes and chestnuts, not to mention sake, and a festival or shrine or two). If you don’t see a post tomorrow night you’ll know why.
News
We are, generally, keeping up with the “big” news, such as what our various stellar world leaders are up to, but that is not what I want to mention here. Rather, it’s sport! Yes, I know, but read on …
I don’t watch a lot of sport, but there are some I love, even if I follow them more sporadically than slavishly … tennis, ice skating, and gymnastics. One of the current big stars on the gymnastics scene is the American Simone Biles. I’m struggling to keep up with my emails at present, but I was surprised to see this morning’s email from The conversation headlining her. She’s one impressive young woman.
And some Stills…
I apologise for the paucity of photos today, in quantity and quality. It was not a good day for pictures – for many reasons.
And some Movies and Audio…
Click here to view today’s video clips
Today’s Challenges …
- Coping with the weather … we’ve been too spoilt.
So – WAS it a typhoon ? Musta been a mild one. 🙂
I am sort of pleased that the Japanese eat every part of an animal (almost); for the Chinese habit of taking sharks’ fins and leaving the animal to die is utterly abhorrent. I say ‘sort of’ because the innards do not appeal as food- although my family used to eat “lambs’ fry” and brains and heart and kidneys.
And that little fire doesn’t seems to be do a whole big lot of cooking … Mais chacun son goût. :}
Well done for finding an hotel that broke them rigid rules !
Apparently the typhoon killed 6 people in Korea, M-R, but the weather map seemed to show that in the end the worst of it skirted Niigata, so we got lots of rain and wind but not the full fury.
Yes, I agree that the Japanese do a great job at not wasting any food. They even serve chicken cartilage – nankotsu – which I love as I have always eaten it myself anyhow (that bit at the end of the breast bone, for example). I like pretty much all offal at home, except tripe, but I think that’s more due to the anglo way of cooking it.
Nice to see a bookish moment!
Are the Japanese great book readers, do you think, based on what you’ve seen? Or have they switched to screens?
That’s a good question Lisa. Last three times we were here we saw a lot of people reading on public transport, but it’s now eight years since the last time and not so much. However, that bookshop where I took the pic was in a station complex and was very big and packed with books and magazines, but a lot of books, so my guess is that reading is still big. In both families we’ve visited, the kids have pulled out books. So, I’d say reading is till pretty big here.
I’m curious about your favorite hotel chain and that you like to mix it up with traditional ryokan and business hotels. It has been a while since I traveled around in Japan on my own, but I’m guessing that business hotels are predictable with their laundry facilities and are maybe comfortable with their anonymity. Staying at a ryokan certainly adds more local charm, but they usually include dinner and breakfast and perhaps more pressure to interact with the proprietors? No doubt you thought through each stop and what you wanted. Anyhow, how wonderful that you have stayed in contact with Rie and family. They took you out for a very special dinner. It seems that the Japanese have grills and coals while Korean barbecue is more on stainless grills, or at least that has been my experience. Oh, my friend Barbara is in Niigata right now. I think she is in a place called Jooetsu. Do you know it?
Our favourite business hotel chain, Carolyn, is Toyoko Inn – which cost (for a double) between Y7000 and 10000 per night, mostly I’d say around the Y8500. They include a basic Japanese breakfast, and laundry. So, I try to make sure we are at one every 4 days or so. They are, as you say, pretty anonymous and predictable. No charm.
As you say, ryokan and ryokan hotels have charm but more responsibilities as you say, particularly the straight ryokans which we’ve done before but not this time. Most, though, we seem to be able to just do breakfast though many offer dinner as well.
For this trip, the business hotels seemed sensible on the weekends we were going to be spending mostly with Madoka and Rie’s families, and also for our one night into and out of Wakayama City. It also spreads the cost a bit as we don’t feel the need to spend up big on accommodation all the time when our main thing is to be out sightseeing.
There are other chains – like Dormy Inn – which we tried this time too, but Len is a member of Toyoko, since last trip, so that provides some extra benefits. We see very few Westerners at Toyoko, though in places like Kanazawa, we tend to see a few, but we always feel welcome.
No we don’t know Jōetsu, but Rie did and said it’s a couple of hours from Niigata City (Wikipedia says 133kms, but that could be two hours driving in our experience.)