While having a glass of wine,
I heard about “yatai (屋台, street food stalls)” from the owner.
There is a yatai street right in front of Karatsu Station.
For someone who likes drinking,
a yatai street is something you just cannot resist.
And since this town doesn’t have as many tourists as Fukuoka,
it probably wouldn’t be like Nakasu’s yatai street—
expensive places just targeting tourists.
I quickly finished my wine and got up.
With high expectations, I walked toward Karatsu Station.
When you hear “yatai,”
you imagine carts with plastic tent covers, right?
But there were no “real” yatai like that here.
Instead,
the small bars under the elevated railway at Karatsu Station
were what they called yatai.
It felt similar to how in Korea these days,
instead of actual street stalls,
there are more “indoor pojangmacha”-style places.
There were about seven or eight spots,
each with colorful noren curtains,
open for business.
After looking around all the places,
I decided on this one.
Seeing “Hiroshima okonomiyaki (広島お好み焼き)”
made up my mind.
It was getting close to midnight.
Around this time,
I start to feel hungry.
Okonomiyaki with a glass of shochu—
it sounded like the perfect way to end the day.
People usually think of okonomiyaki as an Osaka dish,
but Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is also famous,
to the point of having debates over its origin.
The Osaka and Hiroshima styles are quite different,
and I personally prefer the Hiroshima style with noodles.
To be honest,
I expected it to be more run-down, darker and a bit messy.
I was even looking forward to that.
But the place,
while old, was clean.
It had that warm, familiar feeling
of an indoor street stall.
And there’s one more thing
that makes this place even more charming.
This place sits right under the elevated railway tracks.
So every time a train passes,
you can hear the wheels rushing over the rails.
It’s loud enough to make the entire space shake.
For someone who hears it every day, it might be a nuisance.
But for a traveler, even this feels romantic.
I found it a bit fascinating
that trains were still running
so late at night.
I started with a glass of imo shochu mixed with soda.
It’s like a highball—
sweet potato shochu with carbonated water.
I like shochu to begin with,
and for the first drink,
I prefer something easy to drink.
Then I ordered the most basic okonomiyaki.
I made sure once more that it was Hiroshima style.
The okonomiyaki arrived.
It was bigger than I expected.
You cut it into bite-sized pieces
using a metal spatula called a kote (コテ).
I’ve heard you can even scoop it directly
and eat from the spatula.
Overall, the flavor was a bit mild,
so adding plenty of sauce made it better.
As it got later, fatigue started to catch up with me.
I ate just enough to fill my stomach and left a bit behind.
I only managed to drink that one glass of soda wari.
It’s about time to head back to the hotel
and get some sleep.
To be honest, it’s not particularly delicious.
So it might be hard to recommend
if you’re looking for great food.
But the atmosphere—
you can’t find it anywhere else.
If you’re looking for the unique mood of Karatsu,
this is definitely a place you should visit.
Personally,
I prefer places that carry
the everyday life of locals
over places made for tourists.
This street clearly feels like
a gathering place for local drinkers.
If I ever come back to Karatsu,
I’d want to visit here every night
and try each place one by one.
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