Oct 23, 2009

Drinking with Ittanmomen, a Cartoon Character of Kitaro

Recently, my friends and I visited Kyushu island (the southernmost one of the Japan's four major islands), stayed Nagasaki, Fukuoka, and Higashi-beppu, and spent one night in each city.

In Nagasaki city, we met members of the Nagasaki Kimono Study Circle and enjoyed the night of Nagasaki together. First, we visited a decent Japanese restaurant and enjoyed foods and some sake in a tatami-floored room in an elegant atmosphere. However, sake lovers from Tokyo as well as those in Nagasaki wanted more sake. So, we went out for some local sake to a drinking area.

This time, we appeared in Shianbashi Side Street, where many bars, restaurants and karaoke places are found.

My keen sense to locate places of good sake led us to a snug-looking izakaya, Sake Bar Ittanmomen. The name of this izakaya "Ittanmomen" is the name of a funny specter of the famous cartoon "Gegege no Kitaro." Wherever I am, I can locate whereabouts of good sake.


A cramped dark environment like the room in this video is very comfortable to me when drinking sake.

This time, I enjoyed the Nagasaki's local sake Rokujuyoshu Honjozo and Nokomi Junmai Ginjo of Saga prefecture.

Rokujuyoshu was sweetish with a dry aftertaste, exhibiting a quite characteristic taste. It seemed to be paired well with salty-sweet foods of Nagasaki.

Nokomi had mild and clean taste with a good ginjo aroma.

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