Category: 酒 / Liquor

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan. Compared to Samarkand or Bukhara, it is a city where is somewhat lacking in tourist appeal. Most travelers probably stay here just to transfer between the airport and trains.

In Tashkent, there is a hotel called “Hotel Uzbekistan.” My wife’s co-worker knows a lot about “Stan” countries and says the building has a distinctive Soviet-style charm, apparently it is worth seeing.

It was easy to imagine that Soviet-style charm would not necessarily go hand in hand with comfort. However, I started thinking that if I was going out to see the hotel, I could stay there. Surely it would be more comfortable than that charming monastery in Bulgaria.

I had planned to stay in Tashkent on the day of arrival and the night before departure. Both stays were for connection with trains, I booked the two nights at a mid-class hotel near Tashkent Central Station. I decided to change the booking for the night before returning Japan to Hotel Uzbekistan.

Given its Soviet-era charm, Hotel Uzbekistan must be a large hotel. I expected to find availability easy, but booking turned out difficult. Whether it was because many travelers sought Soviet-era charm, it actually managed to balance comfort, or the hotel heavily discounted for group tours — I could not tell — but no vacancies appeared after several searches.

A week before departure, one room became available on a booking site, priced at around JPY25,000 per night. That was highest-end rate for a hotel in Uzbekistan, besides it was more than double of its regular charge. I had no choice but to pass. Vacancy might have been an error on the booking site anyway.

In the end, I gave up staying at Hotel Uzbekistan.

Since I could not get a high-speed train ticket back from Bukhara to Tashkent, I rode a regular express train for nearly six hours. By the return trip, my Silk Road sentiment had faded, and I just slept the whole way.

I woke up just before arriving at Tashkent Station, I tried to use my iPhone. However, it did not respond. Apparently, the train did not have WiFi, so that the iPhone kept searching for a phone signal in the middle of the desert while I slept. The battery had drained completely without I noticed about it. Since I did not have a portable charger, regretting that I should have kept the iPhone in airplane mode on the train was too late.

Not being able to use my iPhone in Uzbekistan meant I could not hail a car via ride-sharing app. Without map app, the subway was practically unusable too. My only choice seemed haggling with taxi touts.

However, this was the timing that turned misfortune into fortune. Since I could not book Hotel Uzbekistan, I simply had to return to the near-station hotel where I had stayed on the arrival day. I had taken a taxi to the station, but it was walkable distance even with a suitcase.

Though Uzbekistan is an Islamic country, I heard they produce beer, vodka, and wine. Being a fan of distilled spirits, I hoped that they would distill grapes and produce brandy. I even brought packing materials for bottles.

I researched that there was a winery in Samarkand, so I anticipated finding brandy there. However, I spent too much time photographing in Samarkand and unable to visit the winery. Moreover, even though the culture is relatively tolerant of alcohol drinking, it is fundamentally Islamic. I could not find liquor stores in Samarkand nor Bukhara.

Considering packing, I wished to buy fragile bottles before hotel checkout. The liquor store, where I bought beer on the day I arrived in Uzbekistan, was located on the walking route from the station to the hotel. When I bought beer, I checked they also sold brandy. I also confirmed the store was opened for 24 hours. My life is full of oversights, but I am thorough in moments like this.

When I went to the liquor store, perhaps for security reasons, I had to order through a window on the door during late night. I could not read the Cyrillic labels, besides I could not use translation app since my iPhone was not working. I was only able to judge by the age and price written in numbers. I pointed to the brandy with the highest age and bought it.

After returning Japan, I brought the brandy to a bar and it was delicious. I would just have to ignore the fact that it was made in Ukraine. In the times like these, I had no idea how the logistics system worked, but I would think of it as unexpectedly supporting Ukraine.

Tashkent was not a city that went exactly as expected, but it was also a city that went as expected. I suppose all’s well that ends well.

Besides, I am now fully sure that my life is full of oversights.

Back in June, I had to visit Hiroshima Prefecture. It was during the rainy season, so I was not fully excited, but it was fixed. Still, I made a small room to adjust my itinerary according to the weather.

There is an old town called Tomonoura in Fukuyama City, east side of Hiroshima, where I had been interested in visiting. It is a small old port town with an old lighthouse.

I decided to make an overnight stay at Tomonoura, take a boat to Onomichi, and from there take a scenic train on the Kure Line along Seto Inland Sea to Hiroshima Station. Although it was initially a short weekend trip only from Saturday to Sunday, I would be able to enjoy much of Seto Inland Sea if the weather is good.

As usual, I looked at the weekly weather forecast many times and found that the weather for Friday was supposed to be good but the weather for the weekend might not. I considered to forcefully change the original plan and started with a visit to Itsukushima Shrine in the afternoon on Friday.

Except for a short visit to a bar in Onomichi about 20 years ago on my way to Shikoku Island, this was my first visit to Hiroshima Prefecture in about 40 years. I remember seeing the Atomic Bomb Museum and Itsukushima Shrine and looked forward to riding “Blue Train,” a sleeper train, back to Tokyo when I was in elementary school. Even after digging up those memories, I have a few recollections, including the oddly long ride on the streetcar from Miyajima-guchi to Hiroshima City.

Anyway, for this time, I found that high tide at Hiroshima Port would be around 2:00 p.m. on the Friday. This was matched to the time of my visit. With expected sunny weather and high tide, besides I was in Hiroshima Prefecture anyway, I decided to go to Itsukushima Shrine.

The Itsukushima Island was full of tourists. When I looked the famous torii gate on the Sea, there were many buildings behind, on the other side of the Inland Sea. Not sure what I really expected, but Itsukushima Shrine was in a suburb of Hiroshima, which was a big city. Still, the view of the large torii gate on the sea was spectacular, and the background buildings could be removed by Photoshop.

As I was sitting on a bench and looking the torii gate, I imagined that my family had not checked the tidal condition when I first visited here. It might be difficult to completely forget the beautiful scenery at high tide. On the other hand, I heard that I could walk to the torii gate when the tide is low, which would have left me with some strong memories. From the fact that I do not remember any at all, I must have come here at a halfway time. As a result, all I recall in Hiroshima were that horrified memory at the Atomic Bomb Museum and long streetcar ride, but nothing on Itsukushima Shrine.

With these thoughts in mind, I paid my respects at Itsukushima Shrine and took pictures and then headed to Tomonoura.

It was cloudy in the early evening at Tomonoura but cleared up just before sunset. The entire sky turned pink just after sunset and gradually became dark blue. Because it was on a weekday, there was no tourist, locals do not seem to care. I enjoyed very colorful yet quiet evening.

I took a bus back to Fukuyama City center and visited to an old bar “Akatsuki”, which I had visited its Onomichi branch about 20 years ago. I recalled they had operated two bars back then. I have heard that the Onomichi branch was closed few years ago, but the Fukuyama branch was still in business. To my surprise, the bartender was 80 years old running his bar day-by-day.

It was a very satisfying day.

The next day was cloudy as predicted, and I continued my trip as planned. I drank sake while eating sushi lunch in Onomichi, drank cocktails on a scenic train which had a bar, and ate okonomiyaki with whisky highball in Hiroshima City. They were what I could not been achieved as an elementary school student. 40 years are long time. Some of years may have been wasted in my life, but I am glad to become an old man.

Although there are no Blue Trains anymore, I was able to fully enjoy Hiroshima Prefecture after the 40 years.

Times listed are the timetables at the time of the visit.

Day 1

Tokyo Haneda 0900 (Japan Airlines JAL507) >> Sapporo New Chitose 1030
New Chitose Airport 1106 (Rapid Express Airport 111) >> Otaru 1222

Lunch: LeTAO

– Otaru Canal

Dinner: Ise Sushi

Bars: Nikka Bar Rita, Bar HATTA, BOTA

Overnight stay: Hotel Nord

Tips for the 1st day
– We went to the Rita Bar before sushi restaurant, and started with Nikka whisky with water. Although I usually prefer single malt, Super Nikka is surprisingly tasty with water or highball. After the dinner, tried few glasses of old Nikka single malt whiskies at Bar HATTA and BOTA.

Day 2

Otaru Station 0900 (local bus) >> Yoichi Station 0935

– Nikka Yoichi Distillery

Yoichi 1231 (JR Train) >> Otaru 1255
Otaru 1319 (JR Train) >> Naebo 1409

– Sapporo Beer Garden

Dinner: Shikisai

Sapporo 1924 (Express Airport 194) >> New Chitose Airport 2003
Sapporo New Chitose 2105 (Japan Airlines JAL 528) >> Tokyo Haneda 2245

Tips for Dat 2
– You can take both train and bus between Otaru and Yoichi depending on schedule availability, bus stops are in front of stations. The distillery is a walking distance from Yoichi Station.
– We took the Sapporo City Tram and went to “Shikisai”, which we had heard about from a person living in Sapporo. It is a popular izakaya (Japanese style pub) among locals. It is interesting because there are many local fish that we have never heard of.

As my friends often tease me, my life is full of routine. In fact, I try to live my daily life with a few limited restaurants and bars, rarely try new places. Part of this is because I wish to avoid to make erroneous choices selecting where I eat or drink, but I would rather have places where I feel comfortable. I do not want to bother the restaurant chefs, but I hope them to make slight adjustments to the dishes because I have many dislikes in terms of food ingredients. I also wish to leave them to decide brand of whisky or sake to because it is too much trouble for me.

As for the bars, I visit three bars every week, one each by day (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). One of the bartenders, who I visit on Saturdays (tentative name: Saturday bartender), was going to visit Nikka Yoichi Distillery, so he would close the bar on Saturday only once in last November.

Visit days in a week are fixed only in my mind, there are no legal or physical restrictions except all three are closed on Sundays. Therefore, it is possible, for example, to swap the bar I go on Friday and on Saturday for one particular week.

However, human beings get caught up in habits. Just because we can theoretically do something about a problem, it does not mean that we actually do it. One usual case is, even though you know that eating breakfast is good for your health, you do not (or cannot) get up even a few minutes early. You may not take the underlying problem seriously, so you may get carried away by the habit.

Similarly, it is difficult for me to visit my Saturday bar on Friday. It could be because the trains are more crowded on Friday than on Saturday, or because there is a chance that more regular customers I know visiting the bar on Saturday, but no concrete reasons. Even though it would be easy to take an action, I am bound by my habit and hard to make even a minor change.

Still, the bar will be closed on a Saturday in November. I can physically go in front of the bar, but its door will be closed, so I have to do something about it although I am now a slave of my habit.

Then, on one of Saturdays, the Saturday bartender asked me if I knew any restaurants in Otaru, nearby city of the distillery. I had visited Yoichi Distillery a few years ago and liked one sushi restaurant in Otaru.

The rest was just a usual story in a bar. As we talked about airline tickets and hotel arrangements, we ended up getting drunk and I said I was going to Otaru and joining him from his 2nd day.

In general, such travel plans are unmaterialized. It is a typical case that just because you can do something theoretically, it does not mean you actually do it.

Yet, I try to take travel seriously. It happened that there were seats available on frequent flyer award ticket from Tokyo Haneda to Sapporo Shin-Chitose and back. If out-of-pocket expense is one-night hotel stay only, I can take it seriously without being so serious.

We have heard that there are several good bars in Otaru, and we planned to visit three if possible. We would surely have sake at the sushi restaurant, so we would have four drinking places in total. As a middle-aged man whose ability to get alcohol out from my system is weaken as getting older, this is theoretically possible, but it is extremely ambitious.

The plan was that we would meet at the first bar in the evening for an aperitif, before going to the sushi restaurant. I was free until then, so I would arrive Otaru by noon on Saturday, and have a piece of cheesecake at LeTAO where is famous for it. If the weather is nice, I would love to see the Otaru Canal and Otaru Port.

I headed for Otaru without much to think, but it was already winter in Hokkaido. With the first strong chill came for the season, the first snow was falling it Sapporo/Otaru area on that day. The temperature was 2 degrees Celsius at the time of arrival and the wind speed was 6 meters per second, effective temperature must have been below zero. Contrary, a few days back, Kanto area had first November “summer day (daytime temperature above 25 degrees Celsius)” in last 44 years.

The unexpected weather did not discourage me. I had a lunch and cake at LeTAO, strolled along the Otaru Canal and Otaru Port despite the freezing cold weather, and enjoyed Otaru night by drinking at one sushi restaurant and three bars all as initially planned.

Putting all other things aside, I can take a travel seriously. When food or drinking plans are added, it is further intense. After all, just because something can be done theoretically, whether or not an action is actually taken depends on one’s perception to the fundamental issues. I am a type of person who try something only what/when I like to do.

Looking back to it, I was told something similar when I was in elementary school. I have not changed in 40 years owing my perception to my own underlying problem.