Komorebi Okonomiyaki

Gourmet okonomiyaki -- YES!
Let me just state for the record: hen I make okonomiyaki, it's anything but gourmet: Mix some okonomiyaki flour and water and shredded cabbage in a bowel, throw in any leftovers sitting in the fridge, and vaguely try to copy the pancake-pizza hybrid I last saw either at a crowded festival stall or on a countertop grill in bustling Osaka. Teppan Okonomiyaki Komorebi is the antithesis of the okonomiyaki that come out of my kitchen.

The river is so clear it's easy to miss!

A handful of restaurants have opened in the past couple years, but Komorebi stands out. First, the mood of any visit is set before you even walk in the door, because Komorebi is located next to the gorgeous river that flows down from Shiratani Unsuikyo.

The interior has a very personal feeling, with ambient lighting and a very limited amount of seating.

I've never seen okonomiyaki made like this lady makes them!

I'm happy to notice there are two women working the grill, and on the wall I notice a sign for drinking party prices: One price for all-you-can-drink alcohol, and one price for free soft drink refills. According to their website, Komorebi also uses local products as much as possible. YES. Komorebi is this girl's kind of restaurant!

The menu looks pretty reasonable, except for the specialty: Tomato Okonomiyaki. We order a Cesar salad, a tomato okonomiyaki, and (lest we be actually healthy) a deluxe mix.

The salad is great. Fresh with lots of meaty bits and a big runny egg. It's half-gone before I remember to snap a photo.

When the okonomiyaki with the deluxe is brought to our table, it looks like pretty standard fair. . . but the first bite proves otherwise. The sauce is incredible. It's kind of citrusy and with a pureed texture, and it includes hints of locally caught and cured mackerel.

Thehead chef/owner explains that when she first left Yakushima as a young woman and tasted okonomiyaki in Kyoto she was blown away. For decades, she thought about opening her own restaurant, and for years she experimented to create that sauce. And yes, you can ask for extra sauce.

Have you ever seen an okonomiyaki like this?
Check out the detailing on those tomatoes!

The highlight, of course, is the tomato okonomi yaki, for which the chef brings out the torch and sears the pile of succulent tomatoes hiding the okonomiyaki underneath. Exquisite, and exquisitely delicious!

Location: Miyanoura 2560-27, on the road that goes to Shiratani Unsuikyo Park. (30.4145,130.567)
Hours: 11:30-13:30, and extra dinner hours on Fridays and Saturdays from 18:00-20:30. Closed on Mondays.*
Website: http://komorebi.lolipop.jp/

*Hours of business may change, so please check the website or call ahead.

Yakushima Gelato Solaumi -- Gelato and Sorbets on the Sunny(er) Side of Yakushima

Until recently, Yakushima had no speciality ice cream stores. I mean, you could find ice cream at a few cafes or restaurants, but the only real way to satisfy a sweet tooth was to go to the grocery store.

Until 2014, when TWO completely independent ice cream stores opened.
1.) Just north of the airport in the town of Koseda, Cafe Mori offers soft-serve vanilla made from Jersey milk.
2.)Near the town of Mugyo, right next to Pension Echoes and Mori-no-Ferry Cottages, Sola Umi spoons out a variety of gelatos and sorbets.

At Solaumo, I always get a double cup so I can pick two flavors -- something exotic like papaya or avocado(?!) or my favorite coconut, and something more traditional like chocolate. A small double-cup costs a little less than 500 yen. They also serve coffee.

Then comes the best part of the experience: Indoor hammock chairs. After a couple days in Yakushima, you may understand why this is such a brilliant idea, even in one of Yakushima's sunnier towns. The name of this ice cream parlor translates to "Sky Sea," and sometimes I wonder if that's a reference to sun-and-fun or to incredible rainfall! On rainy days, bring a book or some headphones and watch the sky poor down outside as you lounge in one of six individual hammock chair.*2019 Edit: I hear the hammocks have been replaced with something just as cool.


I advise you call ahead though, because they keep some unusual business hours.

Yakushima Gelato SolaUmi
Location: Mugio (30.262792,130.6045482)
Business Hours: 1pm to 5:15pm, closed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the first Saturday of the month*
Website: http://ameblo.jp/yakushima-gelato/

*Hours of business may change, so please check the website or call ahead.

Top Eleven Misconceptions about Yakushima

Top Ten Eleven Misconceptions about Yakushima.
Deciding to outdo everyone on the top-ten bandwagon, I've put together the first eleven misconceptions about Yakushima to pop into my head this morning.

11. It rains all day everyday.

Ukigumo, the movie

Of course not! Hey, we get snow, too!

There's a famous saying that, In Yakushima, it rains 35 days a month, which was supposedly penned by Fumiko Hayashi. In fact, when she was researching for her 1950s romance novel, Ukigumo, Hayashi visited Yakushima for only a few days. Apparently, it was a rainy, cold visit. But she's not the one to come up with this phrase! This was something people who lived on the island already said.

In truth, the weather is quite changeable. Especially during the monsoon, there can be days of rain, but drive around the island, and you're likely to find a patch of sun. While some parts of the interior are known for getting nearly 10 meters of rain in a year, some coastal areas see about the same amount of annual rain as Kyushu.

Not a care in the world. . .

10. The animals are friendly because people feed them.

Please, don't feed the animals!

There are definitely a few individuals that ask for handouts, but most of thewild animals here do not know the taste of human food, and we'd like to keep it that way. The reason they don't run at the sight of people is that they have no natural predators and are pretty used to seeing people. This is especially true in popular hiking areas away from the lower forests where they are hunted.

9. Logging stopped when Jomon Sugi was discovered.
Points for positive thinking, but wrong on several accounts:

First, people in the Edo period knew about Jomon Sugi. They even logged its neighbors. And then Jomon Sugi was relegated to the status of legend until 1966 when it was rediscovered.

Replanted sugi forests
must be thinned.

Until around that time, the idea of hiking for recreation didn't exist, but the 1970's were a decade strewn with changes in ideology. Environmentalism. . . Preservation of traditions such as mountain pilgrimages. . . . Even so, logging was the means of life for many of Yakushima's residents, and it continued through the decade. It took the persistent voices of youth returning home from the mainland and leading officials by the hand into the forest, as well as a big typhoon that washed out an area cleared by logging, devastating the town below, before logging came to an end.

That said, certain kinds of logging still continue in Yakushima, which leads me to. . .

8. There is no logging on Yakushima.

Waterfalls

Torrential rains interfering with your visions of Princess-Mononoke hiking? Then it must be time to go on a waterfall hunt! I can't list all the waterfalls in Yakushima, but here are seven of the most easily accessed!

1. Oh-ko no Taki （大川の滝）

This powerful waterfall with an 88-meter drop was selected in the  1996 list of Japan's top waterfalls. Located at the end of the bus line in the southwest, it takes some time to visit, but it's worth it after a good rain shower! It's a popular destination among folks who arrive in Yakushima in the early afternoon and are planning to buy a multi-day bus pass, but have nothing on the agenda for the remainder of the first day. From the parking lot or bus stop, you walk up deeper into a steep gorge, where the waterfall fills the valley with a misty wind. The illusion that it's breathing makes for a spiritual experience at night. In the daytime, you can approach the water as close as you dare, but be aware that the rocks are slippery and every once in a while someone gets injured or even falls in. The grandeur fades during dry spells, but after typhoon-style heavy rains, the gorge fills up and the waterfall is unapproachable.

2. Toro-ki no Taki (トローキの滝)

This waterfall is at the mouth of the Tai River, the same river that forms Senpiro no Taki, and it dumps directly into the ocean. To get a good view you'll follow a short path and look back from the end of a cliff that juts out toward the ocean. To get a better view you'll have to hire a sea kayak guide.

3. Ryuujin no Taki (龍神の滝)

This waterfall is also located on the Tai River, between Toro-ki and Senpiro. The view isn't so great, but if you're driving to Senpiro no Taki, you ought to make a point of driving past this one on the way.

4. Senpiro no Taki (千尋の滝)

The impression made by a smooth cascade of water over a fall into a V-shaped granite valley is both tranquil and stunning. When I say that Yakushima is literally a clump of rising granite, this is what I mean. You'll immediately understand what makes rivers in Yakushima so dangerous. Unfortunately, you cannot go close to the waterfall for that reason. If you're lucky, a bit of rain and sunlight will produce a rainbow in the mist at the bottom of the fall. This waterfall is located in the southeast, a couple kilometers uphill from the main road. Oh, and you're advised to see the Toro-ki and Ryuujin first, because they'll fail to impress you once you've had a glimpse of Senpiro!