Haruko's surprise

Yesterday's plan for the day was always going to be "Haruko's surprise". We still weren't sure where we would end up when we met up for a coffee at Haruko's new apartment near the railway station at Karume, a half hour train journey from our hotel at Tenjin in Fukuoka.

Her apartment is on the 5th floor (just visible in the pic below).

 After coffee we set out southwards on the motorway in Haruko's little car until we reached the turn off to the mountain side village of Miyame where Haruko had booked our lunch at this tiny restaurant - Sabon.

 Chiho, the chef and owner is a friend of Hiroko's. She only takes bookings of 6 at each lunch time session so you have to make bookings months ahead to get a table. Haruko made our booking early this year when we first told her of our plan to visit her in Kyushu.

This was our first course. The whole meal was an ode to Autumn, all sourced from local produce and all vegetarian.

 Chiho explained each course - her attention to detail and incorporation of hand crafted elements in the setting and tableware is just exquisite.

 Second course was a beautifully flavoured mushroom soup served in the finest quality red lacquer ware (a wedding present for Chiho!)

 Third course was the yummiest potato croquette you can imagine served on a persimmon sauce flavoured with matcha.

 Even the salad was full of unexpected flavours (and stands of fried gobo - a root vegetable we have never seen anywhere before).

 The main course was mushroom rice, a gobo concoction in a delicate broth and hard tofu fried with ginger - all so delicious.

 Chiho lives in nearby Yame (a tea growing region on Kyushu) so she went to a lot of trouble to serve us beautiful Yame tea .......

 with our dessert: various flavoured rice based sweets.

 We were astounded at the quality and flavours in this exceptional meal. Chiho does it all on her own - to an exacting standard that I'm sure she would have difficulty finding in others. Rob declared it the best meal has ever eaten, which is amazing considering his natural bias is not vego. Back in Australia Chiho could easily teach Peter Gilmore a thing or two about extracting flavours from simple sources I would say!

This perfect meal was actually very filling so we went for a walk after in the bamboo forest adjacent to Sabon.

 Bamboo forests are nothing special here but to us they seem quite exotic and mysterious.

 We saw some of the leaves and flowers that Chiho uses in the presentation of her dishes.

 and quite a few Buddhist burial sites.

 Back at Sabon, Chiho had finished the lunchtime service so we were able to have a lovely chat and learn more about her artistic family and the link she has to the Barossa Valley (!). She wants us to visit her in Yame next time we are on Kyushu so we can see her husband's studio - he's a wood worker. Haruko's Sabon surprise was just a perfect experience!

 It was after 3.30 before we were on the road again heading further south, this time to the small town Nagomi Matchi (in Kikisui) where a collection of traditional old Japanese farmhouses is being redeveloped as quest stays, craft studios and coffee houses on parkland adjacent to the river. It's a favourite stop of Haruko's on her way to Kumamoto and she has made friends with one of the families who run a coffee shop here.

 It was fun to watch the Japanese families camped for the weekend by the river. Their campsite looked so well organised, clean and tidy - no messy trees or leaves or any dirt at all!

 Haruko's friends had invited us to the opening of their new gallery. Mr Korzuma is a sculptor (in wood) and this was the opening of "Museum Korzuma".

 It was such an interesting experience for us as Haruko introduced us to quite a few of the guests who were a very friendly and interesting lot as you usually find at artistic events.

 Japanese party food.........

 Apart from Mr Korzuma the most interesting person we met was definitely Tsuyoshi Ogawa, a traditional roof thatcher (Kayabuki) originally from Kyoto but now based in Kumamoto. With Haruko translating it was fascinating to hear how he got into this ancient craft and the kinds of jobs he works on now.

What an extraordinary and surprising day for us!