Akitamachi is the only place that comes into life at night in Tokushima-shi (city). It seems out of place at first because most places in Tokushima will be out of business by 8 pm. If it is weekend, either Friday or Saturday night, then the numbers of visitors around the area are increasing and turned to be our own ‘little Kobe’. Thus, the choices for good restaurants can be found here. So, for a few times we have had came here for some celebrations with the lab members. The latest and the best one was on the last 21st August.
That day was Hiroshima-san birthday, Yuka Hiroshima, my friend. She is a dentist who wished to be a full fledged scientist and had finished her PhD training early this year, March. The dinner was a last minutes plan and she had found a good place for the 6 of us. Being a true Tokushima blood, she knew quite well places around this city and that was one of the best things having her to arrange the dinner.
Initially, we were supposed to have a dinner celebrating the success of organizing the symposium but the Prof was not keen to have it as yet. He has a few health issues at the moment and is very worried about it. Even his diet now consisted of only fishes and more vegetables compared to his normal lunches and no more in between snacks like instant noodles. As for that, we decided to have a dinner on our own, and at the same time to celebrate Hiroshima-san birthday.
The restaurant has no name-plate in front of the shop as any restaurant will normally do. And only Hiroshima-san knew the place. Thinking of the two things had made the dinner seemed special, even before we had the dinner.
Hasegawa sensei and I went to the Acty area of Akitamachi by bicycle. After waiting for 10 minutes, the rest of the gang arrived. Like a herd of chicken, we just followed Hiroshima-san. It was only 4 minutes walked from the Acty building. And there was really no signboard of the shop. The door is secluded in between two shops. We had to walk through an alley that only allowed a person to go through at one time to get to the door. The whole things were like entering an underground society house or something. The first thing that catches my eyes when I reached the front door was next to the door, there was a decoration where the water was flowing through a half sliced bamboo into a big ‘buyong’. It gave a sound of serenity. There was also a small bamboo tree. Everything was simple but made me realized that I was in Japan.
It was a small restaurant; two storeys building that can provide dinner to the most around 30 people at one time. The interior designs were definitely having some aura of Japanese styles with dim light to bring out the exclusiveness. The foods were presented in a way that really emphasized Japan cultures of eating. The meals came with small dishes of mix cuisines that have some elements of east and west style of cooking. The sashimis (slices of raw fishes) were undoubtedly fresh. Most of the dishes were seafood, only one contained chicken which I opted out. All were delicious meals that came with great presentations each time. It was not too much to say that besides food, we were also paying for the presentations, which I am glad to do so. Above all, it was a night to remember.
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