July’s summer was hot. The sea at Akune was full of life. The wind against me while cycling was refreshing. And under that blazing sun, my skin got completely burned.
That hot sun set in the west along the Sunset Road, and night came to Akune, a small port town.
Yes, that’s right.
On my trips, the nights matter more than the days.
This post is about the hours I spent at night in Akune.
:: The Neighborhood Men’s Regular Spot, Amami
Looking at the map, Akune’s downtown seemed to be around the south side of the Takamatsu River(高松川). That’s where the izakaya and restaurants were clustered. And it happened to be close to my hotel — just one bridge to cross.
While searching for restaurants on the map, one place caught my eye. This is it: Amami(あまみ).
Honestly, I didn’t go there expecting fancy or delicious food. I was drawn to it because it looked like a hideout for the local men, somewhere tourists wouldn’t bother to find.
And my guess was exactly right.
Shochu bottles with names written on them, stacked up in one corner of the shop. That’s the proof this is a hideout for the local men. Tourists don’t keep bottles here to drink. The more bottles like that, the more popular the place is with the men.
Looking through the menu, the dishes are ordinary, but that’s exactly what makes them feel familiar. Even the slightly crooked handwriting feels warm.
The first thing I ordered was the sashimi platter. Nothing remarkable as sashimi goes, but this was unexpectedly quite good.
The fish at the top left that looks like tuna resembles akitaro(秋太郎, shortbill spearfish). The taste was similar too. But it’s summer now, so it can’t be akitaro. In that case it might be mekajiki(メカジキ, swordfish) or makajiki(マカジキ, striped marlin).
To its right, the oily-looking blue-backed fish is kanpachi(カンパチ, greater amberjack). I keep running into kanpachi all over this trip. It’s good, as expected.
Honestly, good sashimi isn’t common in summer, right? In the middle of that, farmed kanpachi not only has guaranteed quality, but with that distinctive crisp texture and enough fat, it’s a really delicious fish.
At the bottom there’s madai(マダイ, red seabream), salmon, and octopus. For how cheap it was, it’s a pretty well-rounded set.
And above all, what surprised me at this place was that the soy sauce was good. They must be using store-bought soy sauce, so did they do something special to it? Pick up a piece of fish, dip it generously in the soy sauce, and the umami explodes. Thanks to that, I finished the plate happily.
One plate of sashimi wasn’t enough to fill me up, so I ordered yamaimo teppan(山芋鉄板) as something light.
This one confuses me every time I order it — you’d expect a whole yamaimo(山芋, mountain yam) grilled on the iron plate, but it’s grated yam that’s then cooked.
As I ate, I found they’d grated the yam and mixed something into it. I can taste vegetables, shrimp, and pork too. It almost feels like eating okonomiyaki.
It’s hard to find in Korea, but it’s an easy menu item to come across at Japanese izakaya. Each place has its own slight variations.
:: Craft Beer and Barbecue with a Young Feel, B.B. Smoke House
After a pleasant dinner at Amami, I wandered around the neighborhood. Should I go for a second round at Yakitori Otone(やきとり大利根), which is said to have a range of nihonshu? I went as far as the front of the shop, but it happened to be their day off, so I turned back.
I wandered Akune’s downtown again, now dark after sunset. Then a place caught my eye: B.B. Smoke House. It’s a place that serves craft beer and barbecue. The atmosphere feels a bit young, too.
I had two beers whose exact names I don’t remember. The first was a white ale and the second was a West Coast IPA.
And I ordered a smoked sausage as a light snack. This sausage was really good. It even makes me think it’d be worth coming here for a proper barbecue dinner.
And the unusual thing about this place was the taps attached to the refrigerator. I asked the owner, Taichi Oyama, and he said he converted the refrigerator himself. Since the kegs have to be kept cold anyway, he put the kegs inside the refrigerator and drilled holes in the door to attach the taps. He boasts that this is probably the only refrigerator like it in the whole country.
:: The Place That Takes Care of Late Nights, Mokuren
I chatted with the owner at Smoke House for a long while. And I got a recommendation for a place to go for a third round. It’s Mokuren(もくれん), right nearby. The sign says bar, but the system and the atmosphere look closer to a snack(スナック).
Bar, snack, stand… I’ve mentioned before that these categories are vague enough that even Japanese people can’t really tell them apart, right? So I just sort them out however I like. Haha.
The system here is 3,000 yen per hour for nomihodai(飲み放題, all you can drink). I couldn’t check whether there’s a separate charge for singing. I didn’t sing today.
I chatted with the owner and the other customers while drinking Akune’s shochu with soda. I think I had a Kakubin highball somewhere in the middle, too.
The owner, who is very tall, is kind and fun. But on the day I visited, of all things the air conditioning was broken, so it was a bit hot inside. So I drank for exactly one hour and went back to my hotel.
And so, my one and only night in Akune passed.
I think I might have bought something at a convenience store and drunk a little more back at the hotel. The hotel is nice and cool, after all.
Akune is a really small town. What passes for a downtown is only a very narrow street. But I get the feeling there are interesting places hidden here and there. And seeing that there are a fair number of hotels for a town this size, it doesn’t seem like a place with no tourists at all.
Anyway, the day in this small town was a pretty pleasant time. I could feel both the brightness of summer and the plainness of a country town.
