So, anyone that goes to Karatsu (and is comfortable with their bank account) NEEDS to eat at Caravan. But definitely call and make a reservation, because otherwise you might not get in.
Now, when I say you need to be comfortable with your bank account, I mean it. This might be small town Karatsu, but the food is so good that this restaurant has earned a Michelin Star, and thus, the prices reflect that. If you get the high quality Saga beef, Imari cattle rank A5, the smallest portion you can buy is 4 oz. at ¥7000 (current Google exchange puts that at ~$61.96 USD). Now, you don’t have to get the Saga beef, and it the prices will be lower, but 4 oz. will still be ¥2500.
But half the fun of coming here is because Chef is a HUGE YOI fan.
When you’re seated, he’ll put the YOI people on one end of the bar, and regular customers on the other end. And while everything is being prepared, he invites you to behold the glory that is his YOI collection.
And here’s some pictures if the video doesn’t want to load.
He even has a TV in that sectioned off part of the restaurant, and will play all the episodes while you’re there, so you can either focus on the normal background music playing, or you can listen to YOI while you eat.
And because I’m American, he brought this out and placed it in front of me.
(*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))
But let’s get to the food.
It was phenomenal. The beef melted in your mouth. The veggies were grilled to perfection. Even all the small sides were delicious. I could’ve eaten so much more if it wasn’t so expensive.
Now, you may or may not be wondering “hmm…what is that bottle I see in the background of that last picture?”
Well, it’s part of a YOI collection of course.
So in the show itself, you see it briefly in the background in Yu-Topia Katsuki, and it’s the food you see as the small break in episode 3 (if I remember correctly), and it’s even the label for the small bottle that comes with the Casual Yuuri Nendoroid.
Even the shot glass I used for the shot of sake Chef gave us was from the same place.
It’s a real life company in Kyushu called (資)光武酒造場, or Google translated to (Mitsuaki) Mitsutake Brewery, located in Kashima.
It’s about 3 hours away (by train) from Karatsu. I personally didn’t have the time to go to the brewery itself, but I was ok with it since you could still find it’s YOI products in several places in Karatsu.
They have 4 variations of the drink, three are YOI specific. Victor (pink), Yuuri (blue), Yuri (yellow), and regular.
When you order one, you get to pick whatever stir sticks you want and whatever color straw you want. I, of course, ordered all three over the course of my meal.
And then when you were done, you could take the bottles back as souvenirs.
And because Chef is so into YOI, he does a small ceremony when the first set of drinks are ordered.
Eventually we were done eating, but the 4 of us that were there because of YOI were still talking. So Chef cleared a table for us in the room of goodies, and brought us desserts and tea so that we could continue to enjoy ourselves, but would clear the counter space for the next customers.
Now this is when Chef went above and beyond.
As we were all definitely of age, when we were finishing, he asked if we knew where the real life Minako’s Bar was located. I said I did, and he said he has a bottle there, and that we could go and tell them that Chef sent us, and we could drink at Minako’s bar.
Let me put this into perspective with how big of a deal that was for us.
Minako’s bar, and it’s real life counterpart, is a snack bar. Now, snack bars in Japan are not what their names make them out to be.
A “snack bar” (スナックバー sunakku bā), or “snack” for short, refers to a kind of hostess bar, an alcohol-serving bar that employs female staff who are paid to serve and flirt with male customers. Although they do not charge an entry fee (and often have no set prices on their menus), they usually either have an arbitrary charge or charge a set hourly fee plus a “bottle charge”. (Customers purchase a bottle in their own name, and it is kept for future visits.)
So this isn’t some ordinary bar. This is: you buy a bottle, you put your name on it, it stays there, and they use it to mix your drinks whenever you go. Aka, not something you can just willy-nilly walk into for one night.
If that doesn’t make you pause, then think about this. A bunch of people have posted pictures of the hallway outside the bar, but how many pictures have you seen of the inside? Before my trip, I personally wasn’t able to find any.
But Chef gave us permission to drink the alcohol he had already purchased. He gave us his name to give at the door so we could enjoy this rare experience.
So without further ado:
Minako’s Bar!
Chef’s very distinct bottle.
They brought out a white paint pen so we could add to the bottle.
They even let us behind the bar to take pictures.
I spent the rest of the night wondering how my life ended up like this, but also thanking ever deity that it still happened. I’m also 100% convinced that if I had been the only YOI person at Caravan that day, with no one that spoke Japanese that could act as a translator, that the offer wouldn’t have been made.
Moral of the story: If you’re going to do a YOI trip, learn Japanese!!!!!!!
