Once a month a local group of cycling enthusiasts from Imabari spends a Sunday biking in a nearby prefecture. This group included our boss, who invited my fiancé and I to join them. Being new to Japan and to Shikoku we jumped at the chance to explore this new area. Who wouldn’t want to spend a sunny day biking around a beautiful city and gorging yourself on some local udon? We were welcomed to the party of five experienced cyclists who kindly provided us with appropriate bikes and helmets. We piled into the car and headed towards Kagawa, known as Udon-Ken, the udon prefecture of Japan.
Despite being the smallest prefecture by area, Kagawa contains over 800 udon restaurants, specializing in Sanuki udon which is characterized by its thick flat shape and unique firmness. These types of noodles are replicated elsewhere in Japan but many believe Kagawa to be the best, so much so that there is an Udon Bus offering day tours for tourists to the top udon restaurants in the area, or if you’re feeling fancy you can take a Udon Tasting Taxi Tour with a private driver.
On this occasion, however, bikes were our choice of transport to reach these delicious spots. Each member of the cycling group takes a turn at being the leader and planning out the day, so we set off following this month’s designated guide. After a long drive from Imabari we were dying to get our hands on some udon, so we were very pleased when after biking for a mere ten minutes we arrived at the first restaurant.
You know it’s going to be good when there is a queue out the door! Many of the best restaurants require a wait, especially on the weekend, but luckily udon is quick to prepare and the shops are run with typical Japanese efficiency so you’ll be tucking into a bowl of noodles in no time. As it was breakfast time for our first udon of the day we opted for noodles topped with a raw egg and dashi soy sauce. As in most udon restaurants once you receive your bowl of fresh udon you move along to the condiments station where you can load up on spring onion, pickled vegetables, fresh ginger and my fiancé’s favorite, crunchy bits of tempura batter. Top that off with complimentary hot tea and you have yourself the breakfast of kings! I can see why udon is often referred to by the Japanese as soul food. I particularly enjoyed this first stop as the kitchen was centered in the middle of the restaurant so while you were enjoying your meal you could watch them make and prepare the noodles.
Next we headed towards another udon restaurant, this one out in the country with a beautiful view of Mt Iinoyama, a local volcano.
Despite the language barrier there was banter about who was going to be able to eat the most bowls of udon. Some ordered more than one bowl at each restaurant, but with five stops planned on our tour I was slightly concerned when I was satisfyingly full after my second bowl! Japanese eat their udon extremely fast due to the encouraged practice of slurping up the noodles. I was impressed at how much they could eat given their small stature.
Our leader had planned a great variety of stops, some smaller with simple menus, others large restaurants with a range of udon options. By the time we got to our fourth restaurant I was struggling, but the variety was enough to convince me to keep eating. This restaurant provided a communal bowl of udon so those with a larger stomach capacity took one for the team and ate the majority.
On the way to our final stop and feeling very full, the group kindly took a detour to show us Marugame Castle. We were grateful for the break from eating and got some great photos of the castle and the resident swans in the surrounding moat. We did not have time to go inside but the view from outside was beautiful.
At our last restaurant we were advised to try udon with beef, a particularly famous dish and the favorite of a few in the group. In a gallant final effort my fiancé and I ordered one each and found it to be one of the best udon of the day.
Luckily it was only a short ride back to the car as by this stage everyone was very weary. The sun had started to go down as we left Kagawa, satisfied and vowing to take a month or so off eating noodles.
