Sweets and Green Tea

The food served at my friends wedding in Kyushu was outstanding.  It seemed like it would never end, there must have been 5 or 6 courses.

Hand made soba noodles and Bungo beef were featured along with soba noodles, mochi, green tea (matcha), tofu, sunomono... All the food served was made from local produce from Oita-ken.

They made fresh soba in the restaurant!

The meal started with several types of namasu and / or sunomono, tofu, konnyaku, and citrus.

Next was beef tataki salad.

Then vegetable tempura.

Homemade soba.  I chose cold rather than hot soba.

Mochi and Matcha with red beans and crushed peanuts.

There was wedding cake too!!!

Kyushu... One night in Beppu (Part 2)

Here are more photos of restaurants from my evening walk in Beppu.  The first is a garlic restaurant.  The smell attracted my attention before the lanterns and the norin with the garlic headed character.

One of the signs on the side of this ramen restaurant indicated that their specialty was Yokohama style noodles.

Kyushu... One night in Beppu (Part 1)

I was in Oita-ken on Kyushu over the weekend to attend friend's wedding.  I was asked to take photos and even though I was working the event I had a blast. 

I stayed Saturday night in Beppu and took some photos of their quiet central shopping and nightlife area.  It seemed very quaint, natsukashii or forgotten Japan feel.  The shops and restaurant facades look as if they were taken from 1950's or 60's movies in Japan.  It was like stepping onto a movie set or stepping back in time...