Because summer calls for soba

What we learned from our homestay in Fukuoka, a film recommendation and a dipping sauce recipe.

After our Tokyo wedding, my husband and I decided to spend our honeymoon travelling around Kyushu, the third largest island of Japan, located in the south. The allure of tonkotsu ramen, hot springs and beautiful scenery made it the trip of a lifetime.

Our first stop was the city of Fukuoka, because our dates coincided with the Hakata Dontaku festival, which attracts over 30,000 participants each year. Having hired a car for the duration of our honeymoon, we decided to stay a little bit outside of the city, to experience rural Japanese country living.

The house where my mum grew up in Kamakura was an old school, traditional Japanese-style house. Sliding shoji doors, big tatami (woven straw) rooms, enclosed by an engawa (covered corridors that go around the building). My summers were spent piled into a tatami room with my sister and cousins, the seven of us folding away the futon mattresses in the morning so we could cause chaos during the thoughtfully designed, multipurpose rooms throughout the day.

After my grandfather passed away, my grandmother downsized to an apartment with all the ‘modcons’. While lovely, I really wanted my husband to experience a proper, family-style Japanese home, the kind I grew up in.

So it seemed serendipitous when I found a listing for a room in a countryside homestay, with a family of soba noodle makers. How could I resist?

I can’t imagine many people would be game to spend the start of their honeymoon in a guesthouse with a strange family, but luckily for me, I married an extrovert who will pretty much go anywhere if you lure him there with the promise of good food. (As my grandmother Motoko might say, “ibukuro wo tsukamu” - you attract your partner ‘through the stomach’).

Our homestay host, Hideko, and her husband have been making soba for over 25 years. When the conversation turned to our mutual love of New York, Hideko shared the ambitious dream that took her there two decades before - to open an authentic Japanese soba restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Her reason against it, in the end, was the quality of the water - the hardness of it resulting in a brittle final product she didn’t want to put her name to.

It was a theme that resonated, not only because of the issues we’ve been dealing with water quality in the UK, but in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest film ‘Evil Does Not Exist’. The Oscar winning director’s (of ‘Drive My Car’ fame) new offering is an anti-capitalist parable, but a heartfelt monologue from an outsider talking about the importance of fresh, clean water for soba, and the pride local residents have towards it seemed to be playing out for us in this charming and quaint home surrounded by Japanese maple. It was a stunning film with a powerful message, and I urge you to watch it (and anything else by Hamaguchi, if you haven’t already).

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JAPAN FILM FESTIVAL WEEK (ONLINE)

I’m very passionate about Japanese cinema, so if you’re not that familiar then it’s a great week to get this newsletter. Japanese Film Festival Online is available in many regions with a selection of films available to be streamed for free here.

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We had the privilege of making our own soba noodles with the help of an expert who had all the gear. Sadly, we don’t have the privilege (OR the space) to recreate the dough at home, but for those who attempt, I leave you with one piece of advice - to use bottled water for it (cause its softer).

For those who want a quick and simple 10 minute recipe for a hot summer day, there’s one for you below - a dipping sauce for ‘zaru soba’.

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RECIPE: ZARU SOBA