Come Away with Me

Fukue getaway

Today is a public holiday in Japan, being the 'Coming of Age Day' or 成人の日. Over the weekend I went to the biggest island called Fukue in the Goto chain of islands for a short getaway. From Narao, there is a direct ferry to Fukue which only costs ￥740 for a one way trip and the journey is just slightly over an hour.Riddhi, an ALT from India picked me up from Fukue terminal when i reached there last Saturday afternoon.

As expected, Fukue in Goto-shi(五島市, the blue part in the simplified map of Goto island) wasn't that much different from where i am in the upper island of Shinkamigoto-cho (新上五島町, the green part). As the name suggests, in the Japanese system of town planning, Fukue actually has a city status as compared to Shinkamigoto which has a town status. So in a way, the little city of Fukue does have a fair bit more in terms of shops and restaurants when compared to here. But it's worth noting that 'city' in the Japanese sense does not mean the usual images of big bustling cities that most people have in mind. In Japan, cities, towns and villages are established according to population figure in each area. Any area with just over a population of 30,000 people will be qualified to apply for the 'shi' or city status. To illustrate with some figures i found from online sources, the lower island is a city of over 47,000 people whereas the upper island is a town of about 25,000. In short, be it 'city' or 'town', Goto island is essentially still very much countryside or inaka area as the Japanese themselves call it.

The weather was very bad when i visited Fukue (the ferry was tossing in the sea due to the huge waves and hence delayed by almost 40min)so we did not do as much sightseeing as we planned to. The strong wind made it difficult to walk along the streets so we simply drove around the island as she showed me the various sights and places from inside the car. I was thrilled when we drove past a little Mos Burger joint (yes! the 'city' has one but not my little town you see) and unabashedly suggested if we could have it for dinner. It's quite hilarious isn't it considering that here i am at the birthplace of Mos Burger and yet i hadn't had any since arriving. I am not a fastfood fan but i always make an exception when it comes to Mos. And so it was Mos Burger for dinner that night, woohoo! :P

This is Riddhi preparing an authentic Indian curry meal for me. Though several years younger than me, she is more mature than most of her peers and we got along really well right from the beginning when we met each other at the prefectural orientation in Tokyo. She is an extremely easy going and chatty girl hailing from Bombay. Through her, i probably learnt and understand more about India than i ever did the past 20 over years :p We chatted about so many things under the sun, the education system in India, the great literate-illiterate divide problem existing in the country today, Bollywood and Hindi movies, Singapore and her muliti-racialism, Japan and some of the weird antics that we witnessed and experienced while working with the locals :p

Being a vegetarian, the curry consisted of only onions and potatoes (which suited me just fine really) and i was surprised to learn that they actually put chopped tomatoes or tomato puree inside their curry besides all the usual spices thus the slighly tangy flavor.
And this was my Sunday brunch before i hopped on the ferry back to Narao. Now what are the chances of having authentic real SPICY Indian curry on a remote island in the middle of nowhere in Japan? :)

posted by テレサ @ 3:36 PM