Whenever you talk about Kagoshima,you can’t avoid talking about shochu. And when you talk about shochu in Japan,you can’t avoid mentioning Kagoshima. That’s how deeply connected this city is with shochu —“Shochu means Kagoshima, and Kagoshima means shochu.” So for a Kagoshima trip, shochu is essential.It’s one of the biggest reasons why I travel to […]

I often travel to Japan,but strangely I don’t eat sushi much during trips.I’m not sure why — it just happens that way. Maybe because many good sushi restaurants require reservations,while I usually decide where to eat on a whim.So I end up in izakayas for dinner and drinks, rather than sushi counters. I also tend […]

When people think of Kagoshima, the first thing that comes to mind is kuro-buta — black pork. I usually prefer to eat it as shabu-shabu, but there’s another famous Japanese dish made from pork: tonkatsu. If you search for restaurants while planning a trip to Kagoshima,you’ll soon notice that the most common type of restaurant […]

It had been a while since I travelled, and maybe because of that, on the first night of the trip I drank much later than intended. Thanks to that (or because of that?), the second day of the trip became a full rest day. I soaked in the hot spring, and lay on the bed.I […]

One of the biggest reasons I travel to Japan is, honestly, for drinking. Whisky, wine, sake(nihonshu), shochu – almost every kind of alcohol except Korean traditional liquor is cheaper and more varied in Japan. And for someone like me who usually drinks alone, Japan is heaven.There are so many bars that serve wine or sake […]

As I mentioned in the previous post, Kagoshima is known for its rich local ingredients and its shochu. There are many shochu bars here, and this one – Shochu Bar ROKU – is one of my favorites. It’s located in Tenmonkan, along Nikanbashi-dori. The first kanji in Kagoshima means “deer,” pronounced roku in Japanese. And […]

Kagoshima is famous not only for its meats – Kurobuta(black pork), Kuroge Wagyu(black-haired beef), and Jidori(local chicken) –but also for its seafood such as Katsuo(bonito), Kibinago(silver-stripe round herring), Madai(red sea bream), Saba(mackerel), and Ise-ebi(spiny lobster). Among all of these, I think the most famous product of Kagoshima is shochu. The distilled spirits made from Kagoshima’s […]

It was the first evening in Kagoshima. I wondered what kind of place and what kind of meal would be good for dinner. Of course, the main reason I came to Kagoshima was to eat Kurobuta(pork from Kagoshima black pigs) shabu-shabu. But now it’s autumn, the season when fish get fattier. Kagoshima is famous not […]