Even though we had an amazing time during our trip to Japan last year, our time in Kyoto was limited because of Typhoon Vongfong. That was among more than a handful of reasons we decided to head back; the Missus had always wanted to see the fall foliage and She had gained a real affection for Yakitori (and ramen – remember the Santouka effect?). Also, She needed a use for the $$$$ Burberry overcoat She had bought….. So we decided to head back to Japan. Our trip was scheduled for 17 days and we had a 14 day Japan Rail Pass, so we needed to figure out what to do with those extra days. Seoul seemed like a good idea and that ended up being the plan. We arrived at Narita Airport quite late in the afternoon……man, the sunsets here at like 445pm! I decided that we should just the evening in Narita, before heading to Seoul the next morning. We stayed at the Narita U City Hotel, which is a bit dated, but very close to the JR Station, has a friendly staff, and even a free shuttle to the airport.
After settling in, the first course of business was getting something to eat. Of course the place I'd been looking forward to eating at was closed, even though Tabelog said they were open on that day. So we passed through the JR Station and started exploring, up and down the somewhat confusing side streets of Narita. Until we came across this busy little shop.
And the Missus did want to eat a lot of yakitori on this trip, right? The place was a hoot; the young man who managed the front of house would loudly greet guests as they entered and shout to find seats for customers. In this photo he is shouting upstairs to find a table for some customers. The staff were friendly and quite boisterous. There was an English menu, but we decided to ignore it and take a walk around the counter to see what we wanted.
That combined with the Missus's ability to understand some Kanji helped us make some good decisions.
Of course we started with a couple of beers.
It seems like the place also did a bustling hot pot business, but we were here for grilled meats. In looking at what was being ordered we quickly noticed that pork was really popular here, so we ordered mainly pork influenced items, even though none of them were on the English menu.
The Butahorumon (pork intestine) was very tasty. Smoky, with a crisp exterior, it had that nice savory slightly musty intestine flavor I love.
The Missus favorite was the delicious Yamaimo (mountain yam) wrapped with Pork.
Crunchy, slightly sweet, the thinly sliced bacon added a nice touch of smokiness. Just the right amount of salt made this quite tasty.
The Renkon (lotus root) was also wrapped with bacon.
It wasn't quite as pleasing as the yamaimo though.
Veering away from swine, we just had to try the Tsukune (chicken meatball), which was just ok, too many hard bits, not too flavorful.
The Pork Skin was seasoned well and had a nice deep smokiness, but was a bit too rubbery, with hard bits for our taste.
I ended with a nice Yaki Onigiri, grilled quite well.
This ended up being a nice little meal to get us started. I recall the prices as being quite reasonable as well.
The Missus had wanted to eat a lot of yakitori, right?
Sumibinouttori
533-13, Hanazakicho
Narita-shi, Chiba, 286-0033