岡山 cafe moyau

Don't let the aging architecture deter you - cafe moyau is a cafe/restaurant in Okayama prefecture that embraces its antique look to create an almost dreamlike atmosphere, evoking both familiarity and nostalgia. Even if we don't all live in a picturesque shack right by a river it's hard to not think of it as feeling like home - or at least establishing what home is supposed to feel like.


The cafe faces the Asahigawa river, lying on the outskirts of downtown Okayama, positioned right between the office buildings and skyscrapers of the business district the two biggest tourist cultural tourist attractions a bridge away: the Korakuen Garden, one of Japan's best, and Okayama Castle. Moyau's location in between the tourism and business sectors feels symbolic, offering an escape both from the concrete jungle to its left as well as the busy commercial tourism and sights on its right.

The wooden entrance door rattles as it moves into place and the steep wooden stairs to the second floor loft creak underfoot with even the most careful step. The chairs and tables look slightly worn but are obviously clean and well kept. The furnishings lack the uniformity of most restaurants and cafes in favor of picking and choosing what looks to be the most comfortable over the most symmetric. The lights are dim and you call the servers, all whom looked to be at home here as well while dressed in their own attire, with a small bell placed on your table. The menu is made of bound, decorated cards and is hand written. The smell of stewing curry filled the room from the first time I opened the door and  conversations were short and sweet among the men getting off work and the woman with her two children sitting across the way. The mood seemed to always hover just slightly above the ground, being neither too gloomy and quiet nor too festive and rowdy. It was just right.

A small library with shelves of books is located just to the side of the cafe in a separate room where you can also enjoy your drinks or lunch, with windows facing the river. The sun was just setting when I was there and I saw a girl enjoying her lunch outside the window on a chair she pulled up by the small road in front. I chose a short story collection by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo and skimmed through a novel by Ryu Murakami. There are a variety of drinks and food on the menu and the whole place smelled of delicious home stewed curry, but what caught my eye the most was the azuki coffee. It arrived at my table with a topping of whipped cream and the expected red beans fashioned on top.

One of the reasons I was so inclined to go to cafe moyau when a friend suggested it was because the name sounded familiar: Oomori Seiko stopped by just a few weeks before I was there to give an intimate acoustic concert in the event space located in the basement of the cafe. They seem to do a variety of interesting events besides live shows, too. I spotted a signed vinyl record of singer-songwriter Shibata Satoko's EP on the way out.

If you ever find yourself looking for a nice place to relax off the beaten path or after a days worth of sightseeing in Okayama city, cafe moyau is a convenient place to unwind. Okayama is a city best explored by bicycle, the transportation of choice for most of the city's inhabitants, and rental bicycles for non-residents are available from a number of places. Cafe moyau is a short bicycle ride from Okayama station, although it can be a little longer on foot. For directions and more information, check out the cafe's official website as well as this handy google map location or the map posted on their homepage.
-
Chris

Yamamoto Nizo Exhibit - Okayama City Museum 8.13.2013

When I went to Japan in 2013, the one place I was set on going to was the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. I had tried to go on my last trip around New Years of 2013, but the museum was closed for the entire time I was in Tokyo. During this next trip in the summer, I had ample time in Tokyo and  had a good feeling I would have time to go.
Unfortunately, a few hours after stepping off the plane in Osaka I went to a Lawson to get the tickets and after getting frustrated with the messages that kept popping up on the Loppi machine, I realized that the tickets were completely sold out for every single day I was trying to attend. It wasn't a great way to start a trip but thankfully there was still so much left on the itinerary that I would soon shelve the idea and focus on the exciting events ahead.

After a short stay in Osaka with my aunt, it was off by bus to Okayama. When I arrived, I noticed a sign up at the station with a scene from Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky that said "Okayama City Museum." I was only staying a day or so in Okayama at that time and already had plans, but I decided to look it up for when I would return after a few days in Tokyo for Comic Market. I did some research and found out that it was for someone named Yamamoto Nizo. I had no prior knowledge to who this person was but when I looked it up I discovered that he did a lot of artwork for Studio Ghibli's greatest film. The exhibit seemed perfectly timed with my visit and it was too good to pass up this opportunity to get to see some Ghibli artwork during the trip, especially after missing out on the Ghibli Museum. So since this was conveniently located a stone throw away from the station and would be so easy to get to, I decided to make it a priority on the evening of one of the days I would spend in Okayama following the Tokyo excursion.

The Okayama City Museum is located right outside the West exit of Okayama station - a simple one or two minute stride along a walkway that connects the station with the neighboring building. An elevator to the museum is just beyond a window of the local NHK office, which is decorated with Domo-kun and friends in full on Momotaro costumes.

The City Museum was dead silent upon arrival with a couple other patrons purchasing tickets. At the start, the museum had a small explanation of how cel animation works and explained that Yamamoto had a big part in painting the background cels, while the characters would be in overlaying cels that moved in the foreground. To be honest, I had no idea this was how animation worked before seeing this simple explanation! It was quite informative. The rest of the exhibition comprised of these background cels that Nizo had done that were displayed chronologically on the walls. Sadly, because these were animation cels they were printed on pages that were about letter size and thus were very small when compared to museum art. Despite this, they were still very impressive and there was so much to go through. There was a good amount of people besides myself pinning through the work he had done on Ghibli's most well known films: Grave of the Fireflies, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke and most recently the Mamoru Hosoda film The Girl Who Leapt through Time. He also did some pieces for more obscure films I had never heard of and some early works included a few backgrounds of Miyazaki's little-known(at least, in the West) animated series, Future Boy Conan. It's pretty amazing to think the man had a hand in all these films and some of their most iconic and picturesque scenes yet I had never heard of him until this day!

The exhibit also hosted a small viewing section for a short animated piece Yamamoto was involved with and at the end had an area set up to view a short interview/documentary of how he went about his work. Unfortunately I didn't see much of it (there were, sadly, no subtitles) but by this time I was working up an appetite and had spent a considerable amount of time combing through the artwork in the exhibit anyways. Besides, what was more exciting was the photo taking opportunity with some of Nizo's most famous backgrounds: the forest in Princess Mononoke and the town's slope in the climactic scenes from The Girl Who Leapt through Time, complete with a bike to pose with!

At the end of the exhibit was an array of goods lined up on the table related to the exhibition. They had post cards and various other prints of Yamamoto's work in all shapes and sizes, frames, and a book chronicling pretty much all the prints in the exhibition. I picked up the book considering it was a pretty good price (and encapsulated everything I had just seen) plus some of my favorite prints.

In addition, since this is the Okayama City museum there was a small, permanent exhibition at the end on Okayama city and its history.  There was a section about the Hadaka-matsuri at the Saidaiji temple, which is one of Okayama's biggest attractions for both Japanese and a large number of foreigners. 

I had been hungry through the entire exhibition and now that it was over I absolutely had to get something to eat. On the opposite side of Okayama station, and not too far from the City Museum was a ramen place I used to frequent all the time when I was going to school in Okayama called Menou (麺王), which is located out of the East exit next to Bic Camera and along Momotaro-dori. It's a tiny placed sandwiched between two larger buildings that serves up a decent sized bowl of Tokushima-style ramen for a pretty good price(Tokushima is an island in Shikoku and also where Chatmonchy is from! Plus the Awa-odori festival...). If memory serves me correct, Tokushima soup is a deep color and just a little bit thick, but what makes it unique is the little bit of sweet flavor you get which I have a feeling is from miso added to the broth. It has a distinct flavor but isn't an acquired taste by any means. Besides the great location, the service is quick, they don't get too busy inside, you can add more noodles to your soup for just 100yen(kaedama, which is the best invention to come to ramen EVER), and there is an endless supply of spicy beansprouts at every table. Although this place is a chain-shop I highly recommend it if you're looking for something to eat right outside Okayama station: there are, I have to admit, a few local places that offer some good Ramen a little bit further away, but this one has to be the best in terms of location plus great value and flavor. 

Overall it was a pretty good day with the exception of a failed expedition to Osaka that happened after this one. Still, I was happy to get to experience a little bit of Ghibli in some form during this trip and it definitely made up for me not getting to check out the Ghibli Museum. Maybe next time!

P.S. Eustacia Tan also posted her thoughts on the exhibition when it made its rounds to Fukuoka last summer, and got me inspired to post my own (dated) experience to my blog. Check it out here!

~Hideki~