Kazu and Kappa.
Are they….
- The current, undisputed, Tag Team Champions of the WWE.
- The latest movie by Dreamworks, about a pair of washed up Clowns from Belarus. Scheduled for release this summer. OR
- Two eateries in a little known corner of Japan that I frequent and want to write about.
Kazu is a tiny little set up in
Kiinagashima, Kihoku Town in Mie Prefecture.
It’s so far off the beaten tourist track, that it’s rarely presented
with an opportunity to feed a hungry foreigner, unless of course, said
foreigner lives in the next town over.
A dear
friend brought me here to sample what she described as the best Yakisoba this
side of Osaka, and I wholeheartedly concur with her sentiments. Kazu serves two main dishes only. Yakisoba and Ramen. One kind of Yakisoba and one kind of
Ramen. Up to you what you do with the
various condiments on the counter. Season
it how you want. What is initially put
in front of you though, is already flavoursome and absolutely delish! Why mess with perfection?
There is a meal
quota set each day (and when I mean set, I mean set in the kind of concrete
they use to make highway bridges), that runs out well before 6 o’clock each
evening. People rush there in the late
afternoon for an early dinner, and some of them unfortunately are turned away
because the allotted number of meals for the day have all been cooked and eaten. You might be thinking how is turning away
customers with chunky purses and fat wallets good business sense? Well I guess, when you know you’ve got
something really special, you can afford to politely shut your doors when
there’s nothing left to serve, confident in the knowledge that people will keep
coming back. Anyway, there’s only the one
nice old lady doing all the cooking and I’m sure after 8 hours of being stuck
in a cramped kitchen with little ventilation, she’d be a little tired.
People who
are disappointed to find that they’ve missed out, are momentarily discouraged,
eyeballing the lucky few sitting on the stools, slurping on what could have
been their bowl of Ramen, or chopsticking through a hotplate of Yakisoba that
they could have been enjoying had they come in earlier. No one is cursing the nice old lady behind
the counter who owns and operates the business.
People thank her, bow out, determined to improve on their time tomorrow.
I’ve had the
good fortune of sitting on one of those stools, as wannabe patrons have been
turned away. It’s a great feeling. You
feel very little pity for them as you turn your attention back to your steaming
hot, mouth-watering dinner. First in,
first served I say!
The place is
set up like a bar (minus the alcohol of course). There is a long counter which sits
approximately 10 people at any given time.
It separates the nice old lady taking orders and cooking the meals, from
her devoted but ravenous customers looking on.
You watch her move around within her space, opening the fridge, gassing
up the stove, grabbing her ingredients, tossing this, sprinkling that,
stirring, simmering, her hands becoming a blur as steam rises from the element,
and a lovely aroma that causes you to salivate fills the air. In no time, your Yakisoba or Ramen is ready,
and plopped on the counter in front of you.
You sit there grinning like a toothpaste model who’s still on the clock,
as you throw out the one phrase in Japanese you can say just as well if not better
than the locals, ‘Arigato Gozaimasu!’.
The bonuses
are that you can order a bowl of rice to go with your meal, or a side plate of
Gyoza (Chinese dumplings with a lot of garlic).
But these meals really don’t need any more propping up. They’re heaven on their own. And it’s all so affordable! 
Whatever loose change you might have in your
pocket, is more than enough to cover your meal.
In terms of atmosphere, there’s no mood music or dimly lit candles. The décor is forgettable. But that’s not the reason why people flock to
this small shack of a place. It’s the
food, which is how it should be. A
feature wall or resident DJ is hardly going to make up for dinner being shit. I’d happily eat Kazu’s Ramen or Yakisoba, on
the roof of a condemned building, they’re that good. I mean, Kazu is near a rickety old railway
line and pretty much located in the middle of nowhere, far from the main road. You have to actually be heading for it, as
there’s virtually zero chance of you finding the place by accident. And yet it remains popular, current and above
all profitable.
The overall
experience probably takes only 30 minutes, and that’s if you’re a slow
eater. Japanese people are great with
time. They are efficient, expeditious,
and track time with the acuity of a Japanese Bullet Train. They exemplify themselves! So there’s definitely
no time to waste time. You eat, you
digest a little (the rest you can do in the car on your way home), you thank
the nice old lady for the lovely meal, pay her and you leave. That’s it.
Functional and practical is what I like about Japan. All the boxes have been checked. Great food, excellent service with next to no
waiting time. What more could you want?
Kappa is a café in Kiinagashima that is strangely
filled with indigenous ‘artefacts’ from all over the world. Perhaps these are pieces of a collection that
the owners had accumulated over years of globetrotting to wild and exotic
places? I don’t know. There doesn’t
appear to be any order to how they’ve been arranged, with a wooden maori
tekoteko carving from New Zealand leaning up against the wall next to a small
statue of Buddha from Thailand.
The
building looks more like a well lit log cabin with a high ceiling and big
windows. When you enter you have two
choices. Turn right and you sit with the
smokers who care little about their future lung capacity. Veer quickly to the left and you turn into a
side room made up of four tables separated by less than sturdy partitions. This is the space for recovering second-hand
(pre anti-tobacco laws) smokers. It’s cosy and although the partitions offer
little in the way of sound-proofing, you do get used to the sounds of other
people chatting and laughing around you.
It’s hardly going to put you off your meal, unless of course you’re one
of ‘those people’.
There’s
usually music playing in the background and interestingly enough, they’re
mellow English songs from the 60s and 70s.
You can enjoy a meal while Elvis serenades you with a ballad, or take a
short break from talking, knowing full well that the Beatles are going to fill that
gap in quite nicely.
I think in
Japan, the service is exceptional. The
baseline of service here is higher than most other countries’ five star treatment. I haven’t had any negative experiences where
people have been rude or insensitive, where I’ve been left waiting without
explanation, or been overcharged, short-changed, overlooked or ignored. It’s this level of attention that I’ll
definitely miss when I leave.
At Kappa,
like most other restaurants and cafes I’ve been to, any transaction between
customers and staff, begin and end with respect and gratitude. It’s such a delight to dine out in Japan,
because you can be assured of being treated well, whether you deserve it or
not!
One evening
I had gone to Kappa with a friend and we had each ordered a meal with
coffee. It was great and two hours later
we were still happily chatting and laughing away. The waitress had come to clear away our
dishes and asked us if we wanted anything else.
My friend ordered another coffee, but I instead wanted to have a hot cup
of green tea not realising that Kappa didn’t serve hot green tea. It wasn’t on the menu. When the waitress explained this, I quickly
apologised and asked for my water glass to be refilled instead. A few moments later she returned with a steaming
hot coffee for my friend and a hot cup of green tea for me. She had explained that the owner had overheard
our conversation (the partitions are very, very thin). He then instructed her to make me, my first
choice. And it was free! Being in Japan,
I’ve definitely had my fair share of random acts of kindness. But let’s break this particular one down for
a moment. I scored a free hot cup of
Japanese green tea, which is not on the menu.
There was no financial gain to Kappa for doing this for me. They weren’t bound or obligated to fulfil my
request. Instead they made a choice to
do this for me, because they wanted to, and because it seemed like a small
thing to do at the time, and because I asked.
I don’t really know why. But I’m extremely grateful at having been the
recipient of a good turn. I know that
you won’t get this everywhere in Japan, but I think to get it even once,
warrants some applause and acknowledgement.
I’d never get this back home, even if I offered to pay for it. You just can’t stray from the menu.
Evidently
‘straying’ is permitted here. Japanese
people are definitely not ‘flouters’ of the rules. They are a nation of structure and order and
very proud of it. But they are also a
country that is charitable and kind-hearted, and that shows more often than
not. Their reputation of such things
precedes them. Yes, businesses here want to generate dosh,
but I suppose they’re wise enough to know that serving a free cup of hot green
tea for a girl who didn’t bother to look at the menu, is unlikely to put them
in the red.
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