Matsue Restaurants - Part 1: Ramen in Flying Fish Broth, Discount Wagyu Beef from Butcher

In Matsue we had the best Wagyu Beef dinner of our trip as well as one of our favorite bowls of Ramen, all based on recommendations from local residents. Out of the four restaurants we tried, three were outstanding including the two reviewed in this article.

Food Review: MENYA HIBARI (Matsue)
Address: Kitahoricho 189, Matsue-shi, Shimane Prefecture
Hours: 11:30-15:00 Daily; 17:00-21:00 only on Fri to Sun
Map: from Google Maps
Directions: Starting from the castle, make your way northeast and cross the moat. Cross the north-south bridge just northeast of the Matsue History Museum, and continue on the same street for half a block into the residential district. Menya Hibari is on your right.


Despite its easy-to-miss storefront, this place is known as one of the best Ramen-ya not only in Matsue but along the entire San'in Coast. Ignore the closed door and just slide it open during business hours. You'll thank me for this.

Well-hidden within a residential district and yet conveniently walkable from the castle, Menya Hibari is one of those rare gems that has remained largely undiscovered by tourists crowds. At the time of our visit we seemed to be the only non-locals -- let alone foreigners -- as the clientele were mostly students in school uniforms. With only 14 seats crammed inside the little shop, it would be wise to arrive early before noon hour.



What exactly defines Matsue-style Ramen? Fukuoka has its internationally-famous Tonkotsu (pork bone), Sapporo has its Miso-butter and Tokushima has its chicken broth. Here on the seafood-rich coastline of San'in, Matsue's Ramen-ya have developed their distinctive style based on a variety of fish and shellfish. Menya Hibari's claim to fame is a secret recipe Ago-dashi, derived from shavings of dried Flying Fish, sardines and Kombu kelp, and topped with a generous ball of chunky Kara-Miso designed to dissolve slowly into the soup. While the menu does include an assortment of soupbases such as Smoked Salt Tonkotsu and Sichuanese Dandan, the star attraction is the Ago-dashi Ramen starting at 780 yen (CAD$9.2).



Then there were various add-ons according to your own tastebuds: extra Chashuu for 200 yen, a soft boiled egg for 120, extra noodles for 150, extra green scallions or sesame oil for 100 each and so on. Pictured is my extra large Ago-dashi Ramen with added Chashuu and egg, for 1250 yen.



One sip of the Flying Fish broth and we knew ... this place was legit!

This was my first ever taste of Ago-dashi and its alluring Umami flavor, similar to conventional Katuso-dashi but slightly smoky and much, much deeper. That said, I was quite sure that the Ago-dashi was blended with a pork bone soupbase for that extra complexity in flavor and milky white colour -- dried fish shavings generally produce clear broths, as any Japanese housewife would know. As you can see I was busy analyzing that soupbase ... this was simply impossible to reproduce at home!



As I finished my bowl to the last drop, we chatted briefly with the Okusan who was quite amused that two Canadians had somehow found their way into this residential area of Matsue. I forgot to tell her that they're already quite famous on the Japanese side of the Internet, and with this first ever review in English, perhaps more foreigners would hit this authentically local but hard-to-find Ramen-ya.

Bill for Two Persons

Ago-dashi Ramen x 2	1560 yen
Extra Chashuu x 2	400 yen
Soft Boiled Egg x 2	240 yen
Extra Noodles x 1	150 yen
TOTAL	2350 yen (CAD$27.6)

My fond memories of Matsue had a lot to do with its exceptional restaurants at every price range. After a cheap lunch of local Ramen, we went for dinner at one of Matsue's top Yakiniku restaurants for some high end Wagyu Beef ... at a serious discount!


Food Review: YAKINIKU KITAGAKI (Matsue)
Address: Nishicha-machi 58, Matsue-shi, Shimane Prefecture
Hours: 11:30-14:00, 17:00-21:30 Daily
Map: from Google Maps
Directions: Starting from the castle, walk south to the Prefecture Hall on the main road. Keep walking south for a couple blocks, crossing the small canal then one more block south. Kitagaki's meat shop and Yakiniku restaurant are both on the left side.


If you love the luscious, melt-in-your-mouth texture of Kobe Beef but hate the inflated price tags, this place is for you.

But first a disclaimer ... this technically isn't Kobe Beef but the local equivalence of Shimane Wagyu, a competing brand of Japanese cattle raised in the rugged mountains of West Japan. While Shimane isn't as internationally famous as Kobe or Matsuzaka, prices are significantly cheaper for the similar grades of beef. And on top of that ... we managed to find a Yakiniku restaurant operated directly by a butcher shop!



Welcome to Yakiniku Kitagaki, located right next to Meat Shop Kitagaki just south of the castle. For decades the butcher shop has established its reputation as Matsue's premier outlet for everything from certified A5-grade Shimane Wagyu to handmade Beef Croquettes. For readers who have visited the excellent meatshop / restaurant of Steak House Satou at Tokyo's Kichijoji district, this is the West Japan equivalence.



As expected the menu featured a mesmerizing selection of everything beef: Premium Karubi at 870 yen (CAD$10), Beef Tongue (Tan Shio) at 970, Extra Premium Karubi at 1580, and top-of-the-line Extra Premium Rib Eye (Tokujo Shimane Rosu) at 2780 yen (CAD$33). In other words, 30% to 50% discounts compared with most Kobe Beef restaurants in Kobe!



So we splurged and ordered the most expensive item on the menu. This Extra Premium Rib Eye turned out as highly marbled as any A4-plus Kobe or Matsuzaka steak, though the fat content was a little high for my preference. It had been 8 years since our last visit to a steakhouse in Kobe and we had almost forgotten how impossibly succulent a properly charred Wagyu steak can get.



This was my favorite dish of the meal, and possibly of our three days in Matsue. Blessed with gorgeous, even marbling, these Premium Karubi short ribs turned out just as heavenly tender and juicy as the above Rib Eye but with a less oily mouthfeel. While the portion was smaller than the Rib Eye, we certainly appreciated the cheaper price of 1580 yen (CAD$18.6).



An even better deal was the daily Kiri Otoshi, literally odds and ends from their meat shop next door. On this day we lucked out with a large plate of tenderloin chunks, half of which had already been devoured in the above photo, for an impossible price of 880 yen (CAD$10.4). We're talking quality, branded Wagyu Beef at fastfood chain (i.e. PepperLunch) prices!



While examining the menu I grew curious about an unfamiliar item named Daki Chimaki, labelled here as an extremely rare cut with only 700g produced from each 500 kg cattle. For a cheap 680 yen (CAD$8) we took a chance on this mystery meat, which turned out to be ...



... Wagyu Beef Shank! These tendon-rich slices of bicep muscles combined the soft succulence of Wagyu with the crunch of beef tendons and, despite the dirt cheap price, turned out to be my second favorite after the short ribs.



The seductive aroma of charred meat and grease completely filled our tiny private enclosure. What we loved the most was the steel mesh grille, which didn't stick to the meat as much as the dome grilles used in many Yakiniku restaurants.



Aside from beef we also ordered a plate of scallops and this ginormous Omakase Salad. Our friendly server warned that this might be too large for the two of us to finish, but it turned out to be the perfect palate cleanser after a greasy mouthful of Wagyu.



At last, the final bill. Two plates of premium A4-plus ranked Wagyu Beef, some Wagyu Beef Shanks and Tenderloin, four scallops, a large salad plus two medium bottles of Kirin, and it came to 8090 yen (CAD$95) including tax. Wagyu is never cheap, but I suspect that we would have paid upwards of 12000 yen if we were in Kobe. For any reader contemplating a visit to Matsue, these two restaurants would top my list of recommendations for their price-to-quality ratio.

Bill for Two Persons

Extra Premium Rib Eye	2780 yen
Extra Premium Karubi	1580 yen
Daki Chimaki (Beef Shank)	680 yen
Kiri Otoshi	880 yen
Scallops Plate	410 yen
Omakase Salad	680 yen
Kirin Medium Bottles x 2	1080 yen
TOTAL	8090 yen (CAD$95)

Matsue - Underrated Gem on Japan's Left Coast

Featuring some of Japan's best seafood and a plethora of spectacular sights nearby, this little-known city could have rivaled Hiroshima as West Japan's premier tourist destination -- if only it were located on the Shinkansen route.



To the Japanese themselves remote Matsue evokes many images. To photographers it boasts the nation's most dramatic sunset. To history bluffs, one of Japan's most majestic castles with a Samurai quarter built along its moat. To foodies, Matsuba-gani snow crabs and time-honoured Wagashi sweets. To others, gateway to the world's top Japanese garden and the nation's second most important shrine.



Impressive isn't it? But Matsue is located on the secluded San'in Coast, nowhere near a Shinkansen and thus largely ignored by international tourists shuttling between iconic Kyoto and Hiroshima. Over 3 nights in town we saw less than 10 foreigners, which was night-and-day compared with our previous homebase of Kurashiki, let alone Kyoto in the popular autumn season.



In fact foreigners were so preciously few that numerous discounts were offered to anyone producing a non-Japanese passport, from half-price entry to the castle to 30% off sunset cruises to a staggering 1150 yen discount for the gorgeous Adachi Museum. The local government was desperate to put San'in on the international traveler's radar.



But the absolute best deal was JR's San'in Okayama Area Pass, the cheapest JR Pass anywhere in Japan at a ridiculous 1125 yen (CAD$13) per day for 4 days, including Express Train privileges! Showing my pass to a local resident on the final day made his eyes green with envy -- I must have racked up 13000 yen's worth of train rides with it.



It all started on Day 5 of our 16-Day Circle Route when we activated our pass at Kurashiki, stopped by Bitchu-Takahashi's mountaintop castle and arrived in the late afternoon at Matsue, a sprawling city of bridges, winding castle moats and one of the smallest populations among Japan's 47 prefecture capitals. This would serve as our homebase for the next three nights as we day-tripped to Kurayoshi, Adachi Museum and Izumo Taisha.



The next morning we started exploring Matsue and its imposing 400-year-old stronghold, surrounded by a willow-swept moat now entrusted with holding back onslaughts from legions of elementary school students on field trips. The 5-storey citadel was much larger and more sophisticated compared with Bitchu-Matsuyama, though not quite as extravagant as World Heritage Himeji, the ultimate benchmark of all Japanese castles.



Once the seat of the local Daimyo during the Edo Period, Matsue Castle still affords a sweeping panorama of the former feudal domain from Lake Shinji to the west, tracing the Ohashi River and leading into the inner sea of Nakaumi in the east. Most popular among visitors was the southerly view towards the enigmatic island of Yomegashima, Matsue's most recognizable landmark after the castle.



After the castle we continued north, passing the red Torii gates of Jozan Inari Shrine and crossing the moat to Shiomi Nawate, formerly a neighborhood of mid-class Samurai and now home to several small museums and traditional Soba restaurants. Compared with the brilliant red maples at Bitchu-Takahashi the previous day, branches were already bare in mid November here on the wintry San'in Coast.



A key attraction at Shiomi Nawate was the little Machiya of Matsue's favorite adopted son, writer Lafcadio Hearn who married into a prominent local clan in the 1890s and published several influential books on Japanese culture. Between Hearn's house and memorial museum, the nearby Samurai Residence and the 18th Century teahouse of Meimei-An, this 500m stretch of the castle moat was quite enough for a busy morning's sightseeing.



One of our highlights at Matsue was an excellent lunch of Ramen in Flying Fish Broth at the locally renowned Menya Hibari (see next post for details). After a lazy afternoon break at our rental apartment, we paid a visit to the Shimane Art Museum searching for its crowd favorite bunnies, without realizing that we could have done this for free as they were installed as a free exhibit outside of the museum!



Like the majority of Japanese visitors, we visited the museum not for its exhibits but for its strategic location on the shoreline, a front-row seat to one of Japan's most famous sunsets. The shallow brackish waters of Lake Shinji nurture some of West Japan's best seafood year round, as this blue heron would concur.



What makes the Lake Shinji sunset special to the Japanese is the silhouette of the revered Yomegashima, an uninhabited sanctuary of a few pine trees, stone Jizo statues and a Torii gate. The island was off-limit during our visit, and generally would be aside from several days a year when the locals would tie a long rope between the shore and the island for a bizarre hike through the 1.4 m deep water.



I took this picture amidst several hundred Japanese who amassed along the shoreline despite the frigid temperature -- and this likely happens every day of the year. As the sun descended upon the horizon, latecomers made their mad dash towards the designated sunset-watching spot, 400m south of the Art Museum. Mother nature did not disappoint on this day.



While we did take Matsue's local buses a couple times, most of these attractions were within walking distance from our rental apartment, 5 minutes west of the train station. It was your prototypical pint-sized Japanese flat with a 6-jo Tatami room, a living/dining area, kitchen and bathroom crammed into 25 square metres of space.



Our first ever experience with Airbnb turned out slightly disappointing due to the lack of cleanliness in our apartment, which I find rare in Japan compared with most other countries. While track noise was an issue as disclosed by the landlord, it was manageable as trains stopped running before midnight and were quite infrequent in the early morning.



While the kitchen was quite functional with an induction stove top and the Japanese essential of rice cooker, the owner failed to clean out the residual garbage from the previous tenant. On the positive side, I ended up learning the local rules for garbage disposal and recycling.



The one truly indispensable feature turned out to be the Japanese combo of washer-dryer, a life-saver for any independent traveler on a long cross-country journey. Japanese coin laundry shops are NOT cheap, and we're quite thankful for the washing machines in this apartment as well as at our next homebase of Yunotsu.



One of our favorite pastimes in Matsue was to sample its nationally-famous tradition of Wagashi sweets, pictured here with seasonal offerings from two of the city's revered confectioneries, the 200-year-old Keigetsudo and the 140-year-old Saiundo. To understand its appeal one needs to look no further than the orange-coloured Yuzugomoro, a truly meticulous piece of artwork in which a whole Yuzu citrus had to be candied, hand-scraped clean and refilled with a jelly of sweet Azuki beans ... and available at a peasant-friendly price of 280 yen!



While the candied Yuzu would traditionally be accompanied by strong Matcha, it also went exceptionally well with the local dessert wine of Kumo no Yuzuzake, a sweet concoction of Yuzu citrus from nearby Izumo. That's just a foretaste of local flavors at this fascinating corner of Japan -- the restaurants reviews are coming, in the next two articles.

Bitchu-Takahashi - Mountain Top Castle in Blazing Autumn Foliage

This was a last-minute addition to our 16-day trip that we're glad we didn't skip.



In retrospect this might have been the most vibrant autumn foliage we have ever encountered. And this comes from a Canadian -- trust me, I have seen plenty of autumn foliage in a country sporting a red maple leaf on our national flag. There's even a row of maples near my house, but this was something special.



We're up in the mountains of West Japan, at a historic castle often shrouded by mist and known to locals as Castle-in-the-Sky. Without realizing the effect of higher elevation on the ripening of foliage, we walked straight into the peak of fall colours.



Starting from the planning stages, the timing of our 16-day West Japan trip had been designed to coincide with the highly anticipated season of Koyo, or red leaves in Japanese. This was the time of year when domestic Japanese tourists swarm every major temple in Kyoto, which was precisely why we chose the road less traveled, especially on our way to Japan's Sanin Coast.



The height of the so-called Koyo-Zensen, or Red-Leaf-Front, was supposed to start in Hokkaido in October, gradually move south and reach Hiroshima by late November. In fact Hiroshima's Shukkeien garden always schedules its annual Momiji illumination festival in the third or fourth week of November. We half-expected the climax to be around November 25 upon our arrival at Hiroshima, but it came 10 day early, right here at Bitchu-Takahashi.



And we almost skipped this gorgeous little gem. Just a few weeks prior to departure I debated skipping Bitchu-Takahashi and opt for either Kibi Plain's ancient shrines or Fukiya's historic town, but the lure of a mountaintop castle was simply too tempting. That said, getting to the castle was rumored to involve either a 1.5 hour hike or a potentially expensive taxi ride. As we found out, there's a much easier way that the Japanese themselves take, but is seldom mentioned on the English side of the Internet.



You see, the town's tourism office organizes a shuttle service between their office in front of the train station and the castle, four times a day, every day. This cost 500 yen per person per way which is reasonable for saving an hour's time for sightseeing, and on the way back it's possible to ask the driver to drop off in front of the famous Raikyuji Temple and the nearby Samurai Residences. If this sounds too good to be true, you are right ...



Now here's the caveat. Reservation is mandatory and must be made prior to 17:00 the previous day, only by calling the Tourism Office -- as of 2017 they still do not take reservations by email. I managed to reserve using my dreadful Japanese, and I'm not convinced that their English is much better. But even without reservations, if you're visiting on a weekend you may be able to catch the popular 09:50 departure booked by Japanese visitors. And if that doesn't work, a private taxi cost about 1500 yen according to fellow blogger YTSL, who can also advise readers on how to hike down from the castle.

If you're interested, check the Tourism Office's official website (in Japanese) for details on the shuttle departure times.



Our shuttle dropped everyone off at the Fuigo-toge parking lot alongside a couple busloads of Japanese seniors from Kansai, still a 20 minutes hike from the castle compound through some shaded woods and slippery steps from last night's rainstorm. Walking sticks were provided for free, and would become handy on the way down.



Our first wow moment came after 15 minutes as we reached the castle's first line of fortification, menacingly perched upon a 15 metre stonewall and crowned by flaming maples at the height of their seasonal brilliance. The famous Koyo-Zensen had thoroughly arrived when we least expected.



This was less than 24 hours after our visit of Okayama's 300-year-old Koraku-en garden, where most of the maples were at least a week away from turning fully red in the mild climate of the Seto Inland Sea. But here at Bitchu-Takahashi, 400m above sea level, one more week would see the end of Koyo season.



Amidst dazzling fall colors we made our final ascent to Bitchu Matsuyama-jo, a 300-year-old citadel regarded as one of Japan's Three Great Mountain Castles. In fact this place is so famous for its mountaintop scenery that the local tourism office organizes yet another shared taxi service to chauffeur early morning visitors to a neighboring mountain just to see the castle floating above a sea of clouds. If you fancy getting here at 08:00 and don't mind spending 1500 yen, call the tourism office a day ahead and ask for the Unkai Taxi.



At last we reached Matsuyama-jo's final ring of fortifications at the mountaintop, 25 minutes after starting our hike from the parking lot. While the citadel itself had fully emerged from the morning mist that coined the nickname Castle-in-the-Sky, the town of Bitchu-Takahashi below was still enshrouded behind a layer of mist and clouds.



After a brief 20 minute stay and a final panorama from the top of the castle, we had to hurry back to the parking lot to catch the return shuttle at 11:40. We could have stayed a little longer in retrospect as the bottom half of the return path was a paved vehicle road, cutting the descent to less than 20 minutes even with photo stops along the way.



On the way back we asked the shuttle driver to drop us off at Bitchu-Takahashi's charming Buke-Yashiki, or Samurai Residences. To our surprise none of the Japanese visitors wanted off at our stop, and we were able to enjoy these immaculate 180-year-old mansions essentially all by ourselves.



Originally developed during the feudal era as a community of local government officials and public servants, the old Samurai district still carries the name of Ishibiyacho, or Cannon Town. While only two of the mansions are open for public visits, this formerly prestigious neighborhood is still lined by striking earthen walls and mossy rooftiles from a bygone era.



We spent about 45 minutes between the Orii Residence and the Haibara Residence, resting on the Tatami floor and enjoying the view of the manicured pine gardens beyond the veranda. The curator of the Haibara Residence was even able to speak reasonable English -- which was very rare in rural Japan -- and guided us through some of the more interesting exhibits.



Aside from the history, the blazing red leaves above the town's earthen walls were simply some of the most colorful of our 16-day trip. One particular red maple on a side alley north of Raikyuji Temple produced the most beautiful autumn foliage I had ever seen.



One block south of the Samurai Residences we reached the town's star attraction, a 400-year-old dry landscape garden designed by one of Edo Period's great tea masters. Featuring artificial islands of greenery and a borrowed backdrop of local mountains, Raikyuji Temple's picture-perfect rock garden is a National Designated Scenic Spot and a perennial feature on tourism brochures.



An exquisite garden of such aesthetic quality would have been flooded with international armies of tourists if this were situated in Kyoto, except we're at little-known Bitchu-Takahashi. Even in the popular sightseeing season of autumn, the number of tourists during our visit was in the single digit.



Another block south of Raikyuji stands one of West Japan's famous historic churches, the 120-year-old Takahashi Christian Church established in early Meiji Era when Christianity was barely legalized. The church is situated on the bank of little Kouyagawa river, formerly an outer moat of the castle and now a popular spot for enjoying cherry blossoms in springtime.



With just 40 minutes left before our scheduled train, we stopped for a quick snack at the town's favorite takoyaki-joint of Gomangoku, famous for a local invention known as Yuzu Konnyaku Takoyaki. I have no idea how it tastes compared with regular takoyaki, as it's only available on Saturdays and Sundays after 14:00. If anyone finds out, please drop me a comment below.


Food Review: TENNINDO (Bitchu-Takahashi)
Address: Higashimachi 1877, Takahashi-shi, Okayama Prefecture
Hours: 09:00-18:00, Closed on Sundays
Map: from Google Maps
Directions: From the train station, walk west on the main road for one little block. Turn right into a shopping street. Tennindo is 400m down the street, on the right side, just before the next major cross street.


Our featured food review of Bitchu-Takahashi isn't a restaurant, but a renowned 200-year-old confectionery with a long history of supplying handmade Wagashi sweets to the feudal lord. While I did have this little shop on our itinerary, it was my wife's keen nose that tracked down its elusive storefront. I can't even describe the seductive aroma emanating from the wooden bucket of peeled Yuzu citrus at the front.



The little bag of yellow Mochi cubes on the left was my favorite Wagashi sweet of our entire trip. Period.

A timed-honored recipe of ground Yuzu rind and Mochi powder, the plainly named Yubeshi, or Yuzu Cake, has served as Tennindo's flagship product for seven generations with its chewy texture and the unmistakable perfume of locally harvested Yuzu citrus. For Yuzu lovers like my wife and I, it's a heavenly treat that we slowly relished one cube at a time, before the end of the short 3-day expiry period.



We finished this Yuzu Monaka, a traditional wafer sandwich with tiny nuggets of Yubeshi embedded inside the Azuki bean filling, at the train station as we awaited the express train to our next homebase of Matsue. We never saw Yubeshi on the store shelf again after leaving Bitchu-Takahashi. For any reader planning to visit Bitchu-Takahashi and its mountaintop castle, do your sweet tooth a favor and don't miss this elusive Japanese dessert.

Bill for Two Persons

Yubeshi (150 gram bag)	325 yen
Yuzu Monaka	125 yen
TOTAL	450 yen (CAD$5.3)