There’s this really cool outdoor “museum” of sorts in Kawasaki City, the town where Yuki was born. I say town, it actually has about 1.4 million residents making it Japan’s 9th most populated city. For this museum they took old houses from various areas in Japan and rebuilt them the way an old Japanese village would be oriented. By old I mean houses from the 1600’s to 1800’s. So you’re walking around an old village in essence. If you’re into old architecture, you’d be fascinated. If not, you could still find excitement in the Soba restaurant they put into one of the restored buildings.
This wasn’t the same Soba you buy dried in a grocery stores Asian isle. This was top quality, fresh, hand-made Soba. The buckwheat was ground on site, the water is brought in from nearby Mt. Fuji, and everything is made right there. Some of the healthiest noodles you can get.
I ordered the hot Soba soup since it was a little chilly out. The broth was a soy-based dashi. Besides Soba noodles there were ferns, onions, bamboo shoots, shiitake, and shimeji mushrooms. It was unbelievable! Extremely delicious. Too bad you can’t find hand-made Soba like that here in Chicago, maybe we wouldn’t be so damn fat and unhealthy!
Dan Bites 