Himeji · Kobe · a yearly habit
Making Kamaboko in Himeji, Then Coffee in a Hidden Kobe House
Fish cake in Yumesaki, ebi don at opening time, then a quiet house in Okamoto. Drawn on the rails we actually used.
- Nozomi
- Local roads
- Sanyo Line
- Nozomi
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On the mapTokyo Station
Nozomi outbound
Tokyo, then the Nozomi
We go to Himeji about once a year. This time the reason was fish cake.
We took the Nozomi out of Tokyo Station. Sit down in Tokyo, stand up in Himeji. That is the whole move: the Tokaido–Sanyo shinkansen doing what it is for.
Opening time in Yumesaki
Opening time at Yume no Soba
Yamasa Kamaboko sits out in Yumesaki, not in the castle-tourist part of town. Before the workshop, we ate just down the street.
夢乃そば is the soba shop attached to the Yamasa world, a short walk from the factory. We arrived when they opened. There was still a line.
Everyone ordered soba. I did not. The ebi don looked too good to skip, so I had that instead. I was right.
Yumesaki factory, since 1916
Making kamaboko
They have been making kamaboko there since 1916, and they will still put you in a room with seasoned surimi and let you make your own. That is what we came for. My kid and my wife followed the Japanese instructions without thinking about it. I did my best.
The workshop is simple in the best way. You show up, you listen, you put your hands in the surimi, and you leave with kamaboko and chikuwa you shaped yourself.
The instructions were in Japanese. I kept up as well as I could. The two of them did not need a translation. That was part of what made it a good day: a family activity where I was the one working a little harder to follow along, and nobody minded.
Fresh kamaboko you made yourself tastes different from the packaged stuff, even from the same company. That is probably not a rigorous finding. I still believe it.
Solo day trip
A day trip on the Sanyo Line
On this Himeji trip I also took a day for myself and went to Kobe. I rode the Sanyo Main Line along the coast, then hopped the Hankyu to Okamoto.
A friend used to run a cafe in Shinjuku. He and his wife moved into an old house near Hankyu Okamoto station, renovated it, and opened 珈琲茶房 園田邸. The building is the point. It looks like a house because it is one. The interior and the antiques are their own design, not a vintage look they bought. Walking in feels like being invited into a place that already had a life.
A house that serves coffee
Coffee in a hidden Kobe house
It is a 5 to 10 minute walk from the station, on the mountain side of the tracks, easy to miss if you stay on the shopping street. That is probably why some people never find it. The walk is worth it. The sign on the wall is one of the few things that tells you you are in the right place.
Then there is the iced coffee. The best coffee in Japan used to be in Shinjuku. It moved to Okamoto.
Nozomi inbound
Takeaway
Himeji is an easy habit: castle, station food, go home. This year was better because we did something with our hands, and because I got a quiet afternoon in a house that happens to serve coffee.
Then the Nozomi again, back to Tokyo.