Tatsuno City

  

Tatsuno is a city that is just 20 minutes by car from Himeji. We visited Tatsuno on a day trip with some friends. Our first stop was an old samurai home that has now been turned into a museum to allow people to walk through the residence. Soon after the samurai residence we visited the birthplace of Rofū Miki. Rofū Miki was the famous composer of a folk melody called 赤とんぼ (Akatombo - The Red Dragonfly). One of the volunteers working there made red dragonflies out of red wire. She said it takes her about one minute to make one and ended up giving us a bag full of red dragonflies she had made. Afterwards we saw yet another castle: Tatsuno Castle! Tatsuno Castle is quite small, at least when compared to larger and more famous castles in the region like those in Himeji and Osaka. Today the castle grounds, a few outer walls, and a yagura tower make up most of Tatsuno Castle, with no donjon (keep) to be found. We were hungry and had a lunch reservation to make, so our visit to the castle was brief.

John no An (じょんの庵) is a restaurant that is run by John, who came to Japan to practice and hone his culinary skills many years ago. He had restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka before his place in Tatsuno. Blake ordered steak and given John's reputation as a great chef I ordered sashimi. Sashimi is thinly sliced raw fish. As an avid watcher of "Monsters Inside Me," a show with re-enactments of people infected with an unknown disease (usually a parasite), I still ordered the sashimi. I'm glad to say all is well and there are no parasites inside me that I know of, hahaha. Although maybe I should have asked what type of fish were included in the order BEFORE ordering. I asked after trying a piece of each one and was quite surprised. One of them was on our short list of things we planned not to eat in Japan, and it's not because of taste. The types of fish that were in my order were: yellowtail, flounder and fugu a.k.a. blowfish! Blowfish is extremely poisonous if not prepared correctly, and no antidote exists. That being said, incidents involving death by fugu at restaurants are extremely rare. I enjoyed my food and Blake even tried some fugu, which was his favorite of the three.

  

After lunch we went to Usukuchi Tatsuno Soy Sauce Museum. Tatsuno is famous for making soy sauce. I had never thought about how soy sauce was made. The museum covered how they made it many years ago. It seemed like a long, difficult process. To wrap up our day in Tatsuno we grabbed a drink at Nakagawatei Café. Today it is a quaint cafe shop, but it used to be a hospital a few years ago. 

I enjoyed being able to visit a city near Himeji and learn more about Japanese culture. I definitely liked learning about the history of the red dragonfly and how soy sauce used to be made. Getting to accidentally try fugu was also an unforgettable experience.