I slowly awoke on our last morning in Nagoya. Unfolding myself from the futon....man; it had been awhile since I've slept on the floor and my body really wasn't used to it. Plus, we'd put in some mileage over the last two days. Still, falling into an exhausted sleep really helped since our apartment was pretty small and the train tracks were literally outside our window.
We got our things together, cleaned up the apartment, showered, closed up, and basically crossed the street to the JR Nagoya Station where we checked out some of the shops featuring local snacks....the ever present Nagoya Teba, in gift boxes for your enjoyment!
Anyway, we headed up to our tracks. We were about an hour early, our Shinkansen wasn't scheduled to leave until around 0845. There was a reason for this. If you recall, the Missus really enjoyed the Kishimen at Kaburaya and I promised Her we'd get another bowl of this Nagoya specialty. But where? Well, on our return trip from Tsumago, I pointed out this little booth between tracks 10 and 11.
This is one of the shops of Nadai Kishimen Sumiyoshi, there's another between tracks 3 and 4 as well. I'd read a bit about this tiny, stand up noodle shop; where you eat standing up, before catching your train. I told the Missus that folks had even recommended making a stop here just to grab a bowl on the train tracks before transferring to the next passing train. The Missus was fascinated with these type of shops, so She was totally game!
Of course ordering was by ticket machine and the Missus being to read Kanji helped a bit. We put our money into the machine and got our tickets. The shop opens at 0730; it was almost 8 and the only other customer in there was finishing up already. We surrendered our tickets and the woman went to work. It was a tidy little shop; a one woman show here....she was super organized and even communicated via sign language to let us know that there already was an egg in what the Missus ordered and did we really want another? The answer of course was yes.
The Missus had ordered the "Shop Special", only for this shop; the Shrimp Tempura Version, 500¥, think a bit over $4.50, with an additional 79¥ for an extra egg.
I got the "Seasonal Special", a vegetable tempura version for 500¥.
Boy, the soup, which tasted like a sweeter, stronger, dashi forward Kitsune Udon broth really had that "aaah" appeal. Very comforting; it was the beginning of April, but there was still a chill in the air. In fact, I'd read and Kat had mentioned to me that it had snowed in several parts of Japan just he previous week. The Missus of course loved mixing in that raw egg...or in Her case, the raw eggs. It's really the noodles that appealed to the Missus, flat and slightly wide, these noodles had a really nice "stretch" to them; what my Taiwanese coworkers would call "QQ".....enjoyably chewy and toothsome, but not hard. No spoons here....you drink from the bowl! Man, this was good!
Nadai Kishimen Sumiyoshi (名代きしめん) - Between Tracks 10 and 11 JR Nagoya Station
1-1-4 Meieki
Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
As our train arrived, I went to the ever present vending machines....one could write several blog posts about these; and bought some hot coffee and tea and we boarded.
And we were off. Our reserved seats were right behind the Engineer and I really enjoyed watching him. Taking note of he various hand signals and how he sped up or slowed down.
As we got closer to our destination; there it was....snow!
The Missus and I looked at each other and smiled....whatever was waiting, we'd make the best of it.
And as we had learned during "Typhoon Day" several years back, from Kat and others. When there's a possibility of unknown weather ahead, an important step is to.........have snacks!
So, at least we were prepared for that!
Thanks for reading!
snacks for sure! kishimen sounded great!
Posted by: kat | Sunday, 23 July 2017 at 08:46 PM
Hi Kat - Yes, snacks for sure! The kishimen really hit the spot.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 24 July 2017 at 07:11 AM
Yamachan will be at the Torrance Mitsuwa Nagoya Fair this weekend. I went last year but the line was literally out the door and into the parking lot!
Posted by: Junichi | Monday, 24 July 2017 at 11:13 AM
Man, Yamachan....they have shops everywhere in Nagoya Junichi.....to bad the Missus is not a big fan of Nagoya Teba.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 24 July 2017 at 11:24 AM