「ご馳走さん」

「ラーメンには人間社会の縮図がある。物悲しさから、小さな幸せまで何もかも」

『ゆげ福　博多探偵事件ファイル』

"Ramen is like a minature map of human society. There is sadness, a bit of hapiness and every else"

 "Yugefuku - The Hakata Detective Case Files"

I recently bought Columbo on DVD and even though I have seen most of the series, there are still episodes I've never seen, so that has been a fun way of spending my time lately. And then it hit me. A Columbo game like that Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo game where you play as the villain would be awesome. Slowly figuring out the perfect crime, and trying to get away from that pesky inspector. And just as you think you have defeated the last boss, he returns with his superspecialawesome attack "just more thing" (unavoidable, instant death). Make it happen!

And now for something completely different. It shouldn't be a secret by now that I love ramen. Especially Hakata's porkbone tonkotsu ramen. And it is probably also known that I love the town of Fukuoka. So you can guess my excitement when I first heard about Nishimura Ken's Yugefuku - Hakata Tantei Jiken File ("Yugefuku - The Hakata Detective Case Files"), a connected short story collection set in Fukuoka with a ramen theme! Yuge Takumi is a private detective operating in Fukuoka with a great love for ramen. His father once made Fukuoka's best ramen, but disappeared one day. Yuge (who is still called Yugefuku by his close friends after his father's ramen stand) is still trying to figure out what happened to his father, while also doing his normal business. Which for some reason or another, is often connected to that wonderful noodle dish.

I guess that this is what Cor Docter would have called a topographical mystery. The local culture of Fukuoka definitely comes alive in this short story collection, with lively descriptions of downtown Fukuoka and descriptions of many (actually existing) ramen restaurants, as well as copious usage of the local dialect. In fact, in the many years I've blogged, I've often talked about how I love 1) food-themed detectives, 2) usage of dialects and other speech patterns in fiction, 3) Fukuoka, so you'd figure that I'd be all over Yugefuku. So what is the 'but'?

Well, major part of it is just the (lack) of true mystery. I should have been warned by the phrase 'hardboiled detective': initially, it just seemed like a nice pun on the habit of al-dente noodles in Hakata ramen. But Yugefuku is indeed not a Great Detective, and the cases he encounters miss the complexities and structuring I so love. Not seldom we are given a story where Yugefuku has one, admittedly, bright idea about a certain case, which ends up like 'that brought me on the trail of that one person who never actually appeared in the story and was never mentioned to, who quickly confessed to the crime'. These cases aren't that baffling and most of the time, I was left unsatisfied. The storyline about Yugefuku's father's disappearence is also not of any real importance.

The way the stories connect to ramen are Yugefuku at his best and worst. When author Nishimura manages to present something good, the concept works. Like a certain little lady who likes to compare everything tot the happenings in St. Mary Mead, Yugefuku has the habit of comparing everything with the macroworld of ramen, from the history of ramen-types to how cooks work and customs like second serving. These insights into the world of ramen are interesting on their own, but they also provide surprising new points of view on the case, which lead to the solution. The story Ten to En ("Points and Circles", as a reference to Matsumoto Seichou's Points and Lines) for example has Yugefuku talking about ramen delivery, which turns out to be the key to the case. The moment you see how the two seemingly unrelated notions are connected, is really fun. But most of the time, the connection is mediocre at best. One story for example starts with an anecdote on the custom of kaedama in Hakata ramen, a second portion of just the noodles. The story itself however is about another meaning of the word kaedama, namely substitute/stand-in. So no real connection with the case on hand.

When the anecdotes on ramen and other Fukuoka customs and the main plot don't connect well, the stories kinda fall apart: they feel like a collection of random plotlines and comments, without forming a whole. There were sadly several times I had to ask myself why a certain subplot or comment was inserted in the story, only for me to find out that they had absolutely nothing to do with the main story. It is padding, which is something I am not looking for in a short story.

The pages is filled with love for ramen though, and you'll guaranteed want to eat a bowl of hot noodles when you read this, but purely from a mystery-reader's point of view, this short story collection is lacking. However, as you can hardly define me as just a person who loves detective fiction, without the above mentioned affection for ramen / Fukuoka / dialects, I'd say that people interested in ramen should definitely try it. When the ramen-mystery mix works, it works and you'll learn a lot about ramen anyway.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村健　『ゆげ福　博多探偵事件ファイル』: 「暖簾わけ」 / 「途上」 / 「点と円」 / 「学習」 / 「風吹きぬ」 / 「裏窓」「悪意 箱」 / 「絆」

「都合のいい奇跡だって…やればなんとかなるっ！」

「希望を求めなければ・・・絶望に襲われる事もないんだし」  

『スーパーダンガンロンパ２　さよなら絶望学園』

"If you don't wish for hope, you won't be assaulted by despair either"

"Super Danganronpa 2 - Farewell Academy of Despair"

It's been more than a year since my last translation, and I really want to do a new one somewhere in the near future again. Not sure whether people actually read them though. And I'd have to look for appropiate material. As fun as it would be to translate an actual novel, as long as I don't get paid for it, it would take too much time/effort to do anything more than a short story (and even then I tend to do little more than the bare minimum...) 

The story of the PSP game Super Danganronpa 2 - Sayonara Zetsubou Gakuen ("Super Danganronpa 2 - Farewell Academy of Despair") once again starts at Hope's Peak Academy, a high school which only accepts students of super class. Whether you're a super class gamer, or a super class cook, or just have super class luck, you need to excel at a field to be accepted at Hope's Peak. This time, a group of 16 students, including protagonist Hinata Hajime, can definitely remember they arrived at the school, but for some reason they all wake up on a tropical island. They are told by the rabbit doll-like Usami being that they are on a school trip and that their only task is to bond and become friends with each other. Of course, nobody has any clue of what is going on at the beginning, but the 16 students slowly get used to the idea and really start to have fun on the island.

Until the evil Monokuma, a bear-like doll, appears on the scene, violently usurping the control of the island from Usami. He reinstates the system we already from the first game: students are only allowed to leave the island if they succeed in committing murder and getting away with it. After a murder has happened (and Monokuma makes sure a murder happens by giving incentives and motives for the students), the students have to hold a classroom trial, in which they have to figure out who the murderer is. If they guess correctly, the murderer is executed by Monokuma and the murder games continue, if they guess wrong everyone but the murderer is executed.

The set-up is the same as in the first Danganronpa: a closed circle situation with 16 students, with them having to solve the murders they commit among themselves in a courtroom setting, whilst also trying to figure out why they are being held captured by Monokuma. But Super Danganronpa 2 is an improvement in practically all aspects compared to the first game. First of all, the cases you have to solve are much better. In the original Danganronpa, anyone of reasonable intelligence could solve the murders (including all the 'surprise twists') during the investigation parts of the game, that is, the sequences where you collect the clues you would use in the classroom trials. The clues were so obvious and the plots were so simple, you could figure out everything there already, making the actual classroom trials rather boring: every plot-twist had been telegraphed long in advance because of the clumsy clues.

In Super Danganronpa 2 however, the murder cases are structured much better, meaning you can't solve the cases completely before entering a classroom trial, because some essential hints are only made known during the trial. Sounds unfair, but that's part of the suspense: the students are forced to hold classroom trials by Monokuma, with their own lives at stake. They know one of them is the murderder, but not who. They have to be careful with sharing information, sometimes only bringing things up if it is essential for the current topic of discussion.

This is reflected in some new game mechanics. It's still an action-packed variation of the Gyakuten Saiban games and you can read the Danganronpa review for a more detailed explanation, but it is essentially reacting on statements made by other people. This is usually done by pointing out contradictions with the help of evidence, but one new mechanic is to agree with statements made by other people: sometimes a person makes a suggestion or a guess which actually warrants back up from you (and evidence). It seems like a simple improvement, but it adds a lot to the idea of all students working together through way of discussion to arrive at the truth. On the other hand, another new system introduces specific one-on-one discussions, once again strengthening the atmosphere of having a group of differently thinking students whose really have nothing else but words to get them out of these cases.

There are also some other improvements in the mechanics that make Super Danganronpa 2 a lot more easier and more fun to play, though they aren't related to the plot: there are some shortcuts that make it a lot easier to interact with your fellow students and there are some minigames included for some extra replay value, making the package indeed look like a Super version of the original Danganronpa.

But to get back at the game's story. as mentioned above, you can look at two parts of the story with Super Danganronpa 2. One is the overall story, which deals with the question of how the 16 students are going to escape from the island and finding out what Monokuma is planning to do. Two is the seperate murder cases that occur among the students. So, it's much like a connected short story collection. What makes Super Danganronpa 2's story so great is the high meta-conciousness it has of the genre and itself as a game sequel. For one, a lot of the characters and events that happen over the course of the game are actually references / subversions / inversions of the first game. You sometimes get the feeling you're looking at the original game through a laughing mirror when playing Super Danganronpa 2, but the writer makes great use of this trick, collecting seemingly familiar tropes and archetypes to play with your expectations, but letting them engage in completely different ways. This way the sequel interacts with the original game is really something special.

Where the game doesn't seem to take its cues from the original, it still manages to shine. One case for example is an excellent example of the mansion murder case as often seen in Ayatsuji Yukito's yakata series, which was strangely something not really present in the first game. Also, one student who appears as a twisted version of the protagonist of the first game because of his belief in his fellow students, creates some of the most interesting situations I've seen in detective fiction in years. There is no way you'd see such a character in conventional detective fiction, but I'd recommend him as a sort of character study for any fan of the genre, as an example of a great new type of character in detective fiction.

But Super Danganronpa 2 doesn't interact with the first game just on a meta-level, but also on an explicit level, meaning you'll probably won't understand most of the ending if you haven't played the original. The story of Super Danganronpa 2 can't be seen seperately from the first game and a lot of the game works because it is a subversion of the expectations created in the first game, so one should really see the two games as one set. The sequel is better in both story and game mechanics, but one should not skip the first game, as you'll miss out on a lot what makes it so good.

Oh, and like the first game, Super Danganronpa 2 is full of references to popular culture, from an ingame- horro game called Twilight Syndrome to Monokuma using special moves from various manga to beat up Usami.

In short, recommended material. But you'll need to play the original Danganronpa to get everything out of it. It takes some time, 20+ hours times two, but the reward is great and for fans of detective adventure games certainly, but also for detective fiction fans in general, I'd even say that it is required playing.

Original Japanese title(s) 『スーパーダンガンロンパ２　さよなら絶望学園』

『犬のみぞ知る DOG KNOWS』

"Je had van die typische wijkmoorden, met een merkwaardige beslotenheid als in the boeken van John Dickson Carr of bij een treinmoord van Agatha Christie. Dikwijls voelde je bij het begin van het onderzoek de sfeer al aan: die van een bekrompen moord in de enge ruimte van een wijk, en dan moest je daar ook de dader zoeken, of de moorden, waarbij meteen de namen van personen uit andere steden of geheel andere delen van de stad opdoken. Dit leek zo'n gesloten wijk-moord, gebonden aan de onzichtbare wanden van het rayon"

"Droeve Poedel in Delfshaven"

"There are those typical neigbourhood murder cases, with a weird sense of 'closedness' like in those books of John Dickson Carr or a train murder by Agatha Christie. Usually, you'd sense the atmosphere at the start of the investigation: that of a cramped murder in the narrow space of a neighbourhood, where you'd have to find the murderer, or that of those murders, where names of people from different cities or parts of town pop up immediately. This however was one of those closed neighbourhood murders, bound to the invisible walls of the rayon"

"Sad Poodle in Delfshaven"

Because this is a review on a Dutch mystery novel on a blog that is usually mostly on Japanese mystery novels, I predict that this post will have a horrible view count.

A crying poodle with traces of blood in his mouth attracts the attention of the local beat cop, which in turn leads to the discovery of its owner's home. Note that they only discovered the owner's home and not the owner himself, who seems to have disappeared. And probably not voluntary, because there are definite signs that a fight had happened and that blood had been shed. The dog's owner, Vledser, is/was a money lender, which is a fairly dangerous occupation within the world of fictional crime, so commisioner Vissering of the Rotterdam police fears the worse. The only clues? The testimony of the neighbor who overheard some kind of conversation last night and some pages with handdrawn maps left in the room.

'A topographical mystery', is what Cor Docter calls this novel, a detective novel set in a particular region, where the local characteristics, history and culture are to be an integral part of the plot. In Droeve Poedel in Delfshaven for example, this concept comes alive because the story introduces the reader to several places that are related to the local history. I myself know next to nothing of Delfshaven and Rotterdam, so this 'topographical mystery' has a function not unlike the Japanese genre of the travel mystery: mysteries that are set in a particular region with plots strongly related with local folklore/history. In fact, these travel mysteries are usually relatively light on actual, orthodox mystery, but they work a strange mixes between mystery, tourist guides and history books (see also reviews of novels by Nishimura Kyoutarou and Uchida Yasuo). Note that travel mysteries do imply travel, ergo, the detective is usually not at work on home ground. And in a less positive note, travel mysteries also imply fairly easy mysteries of dubious quality. Matsumoto Seichou's Ten to Sen for example features an inspector travelling all over Japan with the local infrastructure playing a big role in the plot and is strictly abstractly seen very close to a travel mystery, but both historically (as it predates the term) as well content-wise, you'd have difficulties finding anyone who would typify as a pure travel mystery.

And as for the contents of Droeve Poedel in Delfshaven, I like it! Readers might have noticed that I don't really read Dutch mysteries, and even then they're set in the Far East (see van Gulik and Aafjes), so it was kinda strange to follow a Dutch policeman investigating a disappearance (which, yes, does turn into murder), but I had fun reading this. Docter has a pleasant way of writing, by which I don't just mean his choice of words, but also in the way he structures the developments of his story: every chapter you're given some new hint, some new events that piques your interest, tempting you into that feeling of 'well, just one more chapter then', until you realize you're at the end of the book already.

The way Vissering works is also one of the more memorable points of the story: he and one of his men Grijphand discuss the case, basically one proposing a deduction while the other acts as the devil's advocate, thus using each other as sounding boards. It works, because different from the Great Detective (TM) a policeman has to work with his colleagues in principle, thus such discussions are what you'd expect. But what makes these discussions good is that Vissering and Grijphand work on an equal status here, with rank playing no role here. It is probably in the big picture just something very small, but it was definitely one of the factors that made this book good for me.

The ending features a nice twist on a familiar trope of the genre, but I especially like the hint Docter left pointing to the solution. So simple, staring you in the face at at least two places, but I had no idea. It was at that moment that I really started to love this book: at first it felt like a Dutch police procedural which was written great (on a linguistic-structural level), and then suddenly every suspect is gathered in one room and Vissering reveals a solution which show this book is definitely part of the Great Tradition.

There are two other books in this series it seems, so I am definitely going after those in the near future. 

Original Dutch title(s): Cor Docter "Droeve Poedel in Delfshaven"

Murder in Three Acts

「好き好き大好き　好き好き大好き

好き好き大好き　愛しているって言わなきゃ殺す」

『好き好き大好き」(戸川純）

"I love you, I love you, I really love you 

I love you, I love you, I really love you

I love you, I love you, I really love you

If you don't say I love you, I'll kill you"

"I love you, I love you, I really love you" (Togawa Jun)

My first encounter with Abiko Takemaru was probably with the fun Tantei Eiga, but I mostly associate him with games. He is strongly connected with Kamaitachi no Yoru and Trick X Logic, excellent detective games and while not a detective game per se, I have been having a bit of fun with his newest game. Besides the above, I've read his Hayami siblings series, which is a light-hearted, orthodox detective series which usually goes through the familiar and loved motions, but occasoinally has trouble really setting it apart from the crowd. At any rate, these works of his all feature a humorous tone to them, which is why I always associated Abiko with humor. Which might have been wrong.

Abiko Takemaru's 1992 novel Satsuriku ni Itaru Yamai ("Illness Into Massacre") starts with the arrest of Gamou Minoru, a serial killer who had been killing and raping women (in that specific order) in Tokyo. Like the famous Jack the Ripper case, this serial killer also had the nasty habit of cutting off breasts and other body parts from his victims. The story then rewinds and we are told how this horrible case started from the viewpoints of three people: Minoru, the serial killer who has finally found 'true' love by embracing necrophilia; Masako, who lately has started to suspect her son from being the infamous serial killer and Higuchi, an elderly ex-cop, who lost a friend to the serial killer and wishes to find the murderer.

First thing that has to be mentioned: the text can be quite graphic at times. Really graphic. In fact, I really do wonder why it is so graphic. It only seems to be there for the shock-factor. I mean, OK, we have a necrophiliac murderer, so it is already a bit nastier than your regular serial murder mystery, but you really don't have to go into every detail of how and when and especially how. I get it's a horrible murder without pages on how Minoru is getting sexually aroused and how he did this and that to his victims. It's something completely different from the actions we seen taken by romantically clumsy protagonists of Kamaitachi no Yoru and the Hayami siblings series!

Written several years after the infamous little girl murder case (where Miyazaki Tsutomu killed several young girls and sexually abused / ate parts of their corpses), Satsuriku ni itaru Yamai touches upon sensitive parts of the society at the time. And I won't go into that in detail, because I figure there are probably reviews out there that discuss that better than I could and there is probably a lot of material out there that are more informative on the issues of families growing apart, the father as a male role model to the son, etcetera etcetera, but for those interested in the topic, you might want to check out Satsuriku ni itaru Yamai and vice versa.

So is there value in reading Satsuriku ni itaru Yamai, besides the graphic descriptions of the murders? Yes, and no. If you can make it through the murders and manage to get into the tales of the psychopathic Minoru, the paranoid mom and the self-blaming Higuchi, then you'll be served a neat surprise at the end of the story. At the end. After going through all the gory and disturbing murders. It is a fun thing Abiko did here in regards of the plot (though, strictly speaking, it seems to serve no other real function than just being a surprise aimed at the reader), but people might give up halfway through the story, never reaching that special moment. Of course, if you're into slash-horror, than you'll have no problem with the novel and than it's definitely a great read, but don't expect clean blows with blunt instruments and polite, dandy suspects in a country house.

Satsuriku ni itaru Yamai is often counted as one of Abiko Takemaru's best, if not his best novel, which probably depends heavily on your taste in mystery novels. I defintiely like the classic 8 no Satsujin a lot better than this novel,  though it definitely is a memorable one, even if mostly for the gore.

Original Japanese title(s): 我孫子武丸　『殺戮にいたる病』

『ゲームの館殺人事件』

渇いた叫びがくじけそうな胸を突き刺す

君を誘って世界を見たいな

「渇いた叫び」（Field of View)

This yell of thirst stabs through my dispirited heart

I want to invite you to see the world with me

A Yell of Thirst (Field of View)

Am I writing about the wrong topic? The post on Kyoto ramen got more hits in just a week than...well, practically all other posts on this blog. Anyway, I am not in Japan anymore (though my sleeping rhythm still is), so it's back to business for this blog. A lot of my Japanese reading material is still somewhere on sea somewhere between Japan and here, but I'll fill in the time somehow until those boxes arrive.

And because this month has been weird anyway with a post on a game, a book and ramen, I figure I might as well finish off March with an audio drama. Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken ("The 'Castle of Screams' Murder Case") is the fourth adaption of Arisugawa Alice's Writer Alice series by Kikka Mystery, following 46 Banme no Misshitsu, Swiss Dokei no Nazo and Yaneura no Sanposha. Like the latter two stories, Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken was originally a short story featuring the detective duo of the mystery writer Alice and his criminologist friend Himura. This time, they're after the so-called Night Prowler, a serial murderer operating in Osaka who has been killing women at night. What makes the case 'special' is that the Night Prowler is actually a fictional murderer from the horror video game Castle of Screams. The real-life murderer seems to be copying the game, from using the same name to operating with the same modus operandi and targeting the same kind of victims. Can our duo avoid a game over and catch the Night Prowler?

I only read the earlier material in the Writer Alice series, with one reason being that the series' quality dropped quite quickly. I loved the first novel, but the stories become very simple afterwards and the interaction between Alice and Himura make it seem like Arisugawa is just aiming at a certain public with this series (the same public a company as Momogre/Kikka Mystery would aim at). Which also makes Arisugawa a marketing genius, making money with the easy and carefree Writer Alice series and just once in a while releasing a Student Alice novel to keep his more orthodox fans happy.

But I haven't read the original Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken, so I am not quite sure whether my thoughts about the audio drama also hold for the original story, but to start with the conclusion, it's an OK story, nothing more, nothing less. The first thing that one should note is that this is a hunt for a serial killer, which brings a different dynamic to a detective novel than you'd usually see. Sure, even in good old safe Country House Murders (TM), the main dynamic is one of the detective hunting for the murderer, but the change from a (semi) closed circle environment to an open one, from the Country House to the Anonymous City brings so much uncertainty to the game that it feels different. The change from a search among a group of known variables to a unspecified group of unknown variables, the invisibility of it all makes such novels much more thrilling.

At least, in theory. In Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken, the story is narrated by Alice, but this takes the listener away from much of the excitement. In the first half of the story, Alice isn't even involved with the investigation into the Night Prowler, because he's being held captured by his publisher (to finish a book). Most of the killings are already over when Alice finally joins the police and Himura, but that's just too late. Compare to The ABC Murders, Cat of Many Tails! Narration from the point of view of the people close to the victims, from the start of the investigation, from the reaction of the common people to the murders, that is what makes these kind of novels fun to read. And none of it here.

This is an orthodox mystery, so you know that Himura will deduce who the Night Prowler is and stuff, but I don't know whether this was something they did in the audio drama or whether it was like this in the original too, but the hints pointing to the murderer come 1) late, and 2) too obvious, meaning you can't really solve it until the end, but you will solve it. Which makes me think about the meaning and usefulness of all the story up until that point.

As a gamer, I did think the premise of the story was interesting. Every time people get killed videogames get blamed for everything and nothing, so why not a story about someone who might be copying a videogame? The story naturally features a bit of discussion on that, but it is nice to see that a large part of that is also done from the point of view of developers. The themes between Castle of Screams as described in the story actually also sound very interesting and I wonder whether it's based on an actual horror videogame.

Zekkyoujou Satsujin Jiken has an interesting premise and it is easy to listen to as a mystery, but it does miss the finesse some of the more famous serial killer hunt stories have.It might be because the story was originally a short story, but it does seem like a missed chance.

Original Japanese title(s): モモグレ、有栖川有栖 （原）　『絶叫城殺人事件』

『麺類を喰いつくす！』

"And now for something completely different"

"Monty Python's Flying Circus"

Don't worry: you're probably still on the right blog. But no detective stuff today.

Before this was a blog solely focusing on detective fiction, it was just a blog about life in Japan. Which naturally also touched upon food at times. And people might have noticed that I developed a love for ramen while I was in Fukuoka. Even now, nothing beats a bowl of Fukuoka's characteristic Hakata tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen in my opinion, so I had a bit of trouble adjusting when I first arrived here in Kyoto. The standard soups here are mixes of pork bone soup, chicken stock and fish stock, resulting in less stronger taste. On the other hand, they tend to add pork back fat to every bowl and the soup is usually on the thickish (what they call kotteri) side of the spectrum, resulting in somewhat greasy and quite filling ramen.

But on the other hand, I was lucky enough to end up in the Shugakuin neighbourhood of Kyoto, which is right next to Ichijouji, an area also known as ramen street because it probably features the highest density of ramen restaurants in this area of Japan, resulting in a relatively high standard of ramen. The main street of Higashi Ooji, which crosses through Ichijouji ending at Shugakuin is full of restaurants and the branch streets are just as interesting. Note that Ichijoji is known as both ramen street, as well as a ramen gekisenku, an area of fierce ramen competition where weak restaurants will die fast.

And so, in the spirit of and now for something completely different (and because I want to use the food tag again!), an introduction to the ramen restaurants in Ichijouji, Kyoto. Lovers of ramen who are going to visit Kyoto, skip the ramen restaurant floor at Kyoto Station and take the bus to Ichijoji! 

Yokotsuna

The biggest restaurant here, especially as it moved three buildings next door last month, doubling its size. It's a chain restaurant and they serve what I can only describe as a very, very bland pork bone /chicken stock soup. It's not bad, but there are so many better restaurants nearby, with much more interesting tastes than what they serve at Yokotsuna. You should only come here when you can't handle the strong taste of real pork bone tonkotsu soup, or the distinctly thick, kotteri soup of Kyoto. Yokotsuna does serve absolutely delicious black pork gyouza though.

Taizou

Located close to Yokotsuna and quite small with just counter seats. They do feature a very wide variety of ramen though, variating from standard pork bone stock ramen to fish stock ramen. While most of the restaurants in this neighbourhood have soups that consist of a mix of pork bone, chicken and fish stock, I'm pretty sure that Taizou was the only one that served a ramen where fish stock is the main flavor (until Tsurukame's arrival). It's a nice, slightly soury ramen, and quite a difference from what you'd normally get in ramen street, but Taizou's best has to be their Garlic ramen. And Garlic should be written with a capital G, because it's really Garlicky. They add garlic to the soup, and roasted garlic cloves and a mountain of chopped scallions and it's delicious. And incredibly smelly. But oh-so-delicious.

Tsurukame

One of the two new restaurants that opened during the year I was here. I think it opened just after the summer and when I finally decided to go there, I found out it was closed. For a long time. I knew that competition here was fierce, but to close in just two months? It turned they had closed to get the shop redesigned etc., and it finally reopened in February. It's still an immensely small shop with just about ten counter seats, while the kitchen part of the store seems to be almost double the size. They serve a variety of  ramen and I tried their fish stock based ramen, which was a bit expensive for just one bowl, but it did feature a lot of fillings and it tasted great, so I was content. Definitely one to stay in this neighbourhood.

Harada

The other new shop. This one serves Hakata tonkotsu ramen like Ryuu no Suzu, but with relatively high prices for the ramen they serve (the amount of men is rather small, meaning you do want to get another serving), their geographical position with much more direct competition and the not particularly special soup, I can't see this shop going on for long to be honest. The most surprising was when I saw the cook checking the menus himself when someone ordered a set menu: apparently he hadn't memorized his own menus!

Chinyuu

One of the bigger restaurants here and I quite like it! I think they use a chicken stock based soup, with some added fat and soy, but it's a surprisingly taste soup and their men is quite good though. It's a bit of a standard ramen though, but it's done right and Chinyuu is a nice place to visit occasionally because the price of a small ramen is really reasonable and the taste is good.

Enaku

Specializing in tsukemen, this is one restaurant you don't want to miss. It's a bit more near the residential part of the neigbourhood, next to an videogame center, but it's just as important a part of the ramen street as the other restaurants on Higashi Ooji. Their thick, yellow soup is fish/porkbone stock based (with a bit of curry powder it seems) and goes perfectly with their men, which are also thick and yellow, and full of elasticity too. You have the option of both warm and cold men, and an experiment with my partner in dine (who has the habit of ordering the non-optimal choice), resulted in the conclusion that you should always go with the warm men to accompany the soup. After eating all the men, you can ask for a soup-wari, where they add some stock to make the soup less thick. Which is another experience on its own, because the soup changes taste because of the fish-based stock, adding another layer to the dish.

Takayasu

One of the two immensely popular restaurants here. On any given day, it's quite likely to see about 50 persons standing in the line in front of the shop. In the weekends, it can become worse. The main attraction is probably the restaurant's interior, which is nothing like what you'd expect from a ramen restaurant. Sure, chains like Ippuudou also go for a stylish interior, but Takayasu is bright, features chairs with fancy designs and TVs that show old Tom & Jerry cartoons for some sinister reason. I've seen groups consisting of only females eating here, which is a sight you very seldom see in ramen restaurants. Hip and stylish, but how is the ramen? Well, not very interesting. It's a bit like the one at Yokotsuna to be honest, bland and not interesting (challenging?) at all. Takayasu looks quite revolutionary for a ramen restaurant, but its taste is boring. Which is why instead of a photo of their ramen, I added one of their karaage. Which are something to write about, because they are gigantic (compare to the toothpick). They feature delicious juicy chicken meat and there is a bit of curry powder sprinkled on top of them for just that little kick. But they are really big, so order with caution. I went twice to the shop, both times accompanied with a partner in dine, and sharing one plate of three karaage between the two of us was still providing a challenge.

Tentenyuu /  Hirumaya

During the day, the shop is called Hirumaya, at night Tentenyuu. The selection of dishes is different, but I am pretty sure that the cooks are the same. At Hirumaya, their special ramen was fantastic. A bit expensive, but with a great variety of fillings like an egg and even hosotake, something I had never even seen in ramen (I have no idea what it's called in English and I can't seem to be able to find the proper translation...). A slightly thickish pork bone based soup, but you can choose your own type of noodles to go with the dish (thin noodles or wavy noodles), and thick soups always go great with wavy noodles.

Tentenyuu has the strange habit of opening at 19:00, instead of 18:00, which meant I always had troubles visiting it (because I would just go to a restaurant which would open earlier), but I finally managed the restaurant several months later than I had originally planned. And I was a bit disappointed. Their chashu men featured a lot of delicious chashu, but I wasn't a big fan of the soup, which wasn't nearly as tasty as when I ate at Hirumaya. It seemed liked a slightly watered down version, which made it less tasteful. Tentenyuu is way more popular than Hirumaya as far as I know, but I would definitely recommend Hirumaya over Tentenyuu.

Yume wo Katare

One of the two Jirou-kei ramen restaurants. Jirou-kei ramen is almost a genre on its own: as a shop, they operate on a system where customers have to get their chopsticks, towel and spoons themselves, and you're supposed to clean up your counter yourself after you're finished. The ramen themselves are almost monstrous if you have never seen them before: thick noodles, very greasy soups, copious amounts of vegetables and chopped garlic and gigantic slices of chashu. And I really mean gigantic. You don't go to a Jirou-kei restaurant unprepared. An empty stomach is really needed to be able to get all of that through your throat and you might die because of clogged veins during the fight. But it tastes oh-so-good. Yume wo Katare is the more famous of the two Jirou-kei restaurants here and has a lot of shops spread over Japan (and even in the States), though they all feature different names. Their link is in their strangely ambitious names: Yume wo Katare for example means talk about your dreams. This was the first Jirou-kei ramen I ever ate and I liked it quite a lot. But once again, not for the faint of stomach.

Ikedaya

The other Jirou-kei restaurant. They're actually quite similar, so I am not sure why there are so close to each other. I liked the taste of Ikeda a bit more than that of Yume wo Katare though and it always seems full of students whenever I pass by. Except for that one time I visited the shop, when I was the only customer there and the cook suddenly started a conversation with me. I am not sure whether I really wanted to know that he was a hired cook and not the owner of the shop, that he's married (his wife was in his home prefecture) and that he tries his hand at the international exchange markets at times, nor am I sure whether he really wanted to know about the cycling culture in the Netherlands, but he did serve a very fine bowl of Jirou ramen which was enough food and fat for me for more than a day.

Ichijouji Boogie

Another shop specializing in tsukemen, but while Enaku seems to go for a more sophisticated taste, Boogie goes for a healthy mix of pork bone soup with added fat. Which isn't a bad thing! Sure it's a greasy and salty dish, but it tastes wonderful! Not a shop to visit every week, but a shop you should definitely visit if you love pork bone based soups and tsukemen. Also, you get an enormous amount of men for the money. And the music selection, is like the restaurant's name suggest, quite good.

Tenka Gomen / Mugen no Chikara

One of the two shops here that utilizes two formulas: during the afternoon, this shop is called Tenka Gomen, while at night it operates under the name of Mugen no Chikara, even though the cook remains the same. The restaurant is located quite far from the competition, which might explain why there are so few customers every time I passed by. It's definitely not a small shop, as they have a long counter and two tables, so I always wondered about that. Anyway, I first visited on an afternoon, where I was lured by the name of snowwhite ramen, which was exactly what I ordered. And it was white! The soup was a thick, chicken-stock based one, which explained the name. What was even more surprising was that the men were placed on top of the soup fillings (it's usually the other way around), meaning you can't see what's in it. Which was a fun game on its own, as it made you curious to what you would find next time. Visually, but also... tastily... tastewise a fine ramen.

And at night, it turns into something completely different. I passed by it one night and I wasn't that hungry, so I thought I would just go for the standard chuuka soba, which is just another name for ramen. You would expect them to serve their basic, default ramen. What I got was a ramen which looked nothing like ramen. I thought I was being served gyuudon. But beneath the beef, onions and the egg, there really were men. I can really only describe it as a mix between gyuudon and ramen, which isn't a bad thing, but definitely not what you'd expect when you order a chuuka soba. It's very cheap for the volume though and definitely worth a try if you're nearby and need something filling.

Shinshintei

A small shop that's never open when I want it to be open, but it has a very nice atmosphere being run by an old couple. Most of the clients seemed to be regulars and everybody chitchats. Their default ramen is a miso-based ramen and it's definitely worth looking up the actual opening times of Shinshintei to try their ramen. A very rich soup and the bowl is full of fillings like vegetables, meat balls and chashu slices. There also chili flakes in the soup, adding that extra little punch. In my mind, a perfect ramen for in the winter.

Ramen Gundan

Located right next to Shinshintei, but specializing in tsukemen. Another thick chicken/fish stock based soup, but very tasty. What I particularly remember of my visit to Ramen Gundan, beside the somewhat cold reception of the cook, was that the difference between the temperature of the soup and the men was perfect. It's hard to explain, but with tsukemen, you eat the noodles by dipping it in the (thick and hot) soup and them slurp them up (together with some air to cool down the soup). Cold noodles and hot soup is the default form, like at Ichijouji Boogie, but my visit to Enaku had made me realize that it's much better to have warm noodles with thicker soups, as a big difference in temperature cools down the soup too fast. And at Ramen Gundan, this difference was precisely right. The soup cooled down to be eatable, but was warm enough to convey its great taste. Might have been a coincidence (as one should also consider the temperature in the store and the body temperature of the customer), but it was just right that one visit.

Ichizou

Not sure whether this is a new restaurant or not, as it is located a bit seperated from the other restaurants (though in the same street as Ramen Gundan and Shinshintei). The interior is stylish, which was why I was quite surprised to see they served a very thick, and very peppery soup with loads of scallions and grilled meat: I had expected to be a bit like Takayasu, to have a more bland and universal soup. I am personally not a very big fan of the super thick soups so typical of Kyoto (like they serve at the famous Tenka Ippin chain), and the cook threw way too much pepper seeds in the soup, masking all other tastes, but not a bad dish at all.

Butanchu

Specializing in tonkotsu pork bone soup, though not of the Hakata variety. The difference lies in the cooking time and the strength of the fire: with 'regular' tonkotsu pork bone soup, the soup is boiled to extract the basic pork bone taste, leaving you with a brownish soup. With Hakata tonkotsu soup, the soup is boiled with a strong fire for a long, long time, resulting in the fat and collagen from the bones to also melt into the soup. Hakata tonkotsu soup is thus white. Anyway, Butanchu does offer a tonkotsu ramen that is boiled over a long time, but not at a strong fire, resulting in a very different kind of tonkotsu soup. Tastewise, it has that distinct strong pork bone taste I love and I actually love that I can also eat this with wavy noodles, but the salt amount in the soup is incredible. Hours after eating at Butanchu I was still in need of water. Tastewise OK, but you need to buy a two-liter pack of water for the aftermath.

Bishiya

A restaurant serving a porkbone tonkotsu soy soup. The soup is slightly on the thickish side and really tasty, great men and a wide variety of fillings. I was surprised to have been served slightly al dente men, which is usually something you have to ask for. Not sure whether that was the standard at Bishiya or just some mistake on their part (not that it would have mattered, I actually do order al dente as a default if I have the option). The atmosphere in the restaurant is great too, very clean, with a slick design and they have a great sense in music.

Tsuruhashi

A shop with one table and a long counter run by an elderly man and he serves what I can only describe as a decent ramen. I found the soup better than Takayasu and Yokotsuna's soup,  though it does change every day (the man writes down what the soup consists of every day on a board in front of the shop). It's mostly chicken stock based, but it is a troublefree soup that somehow manages to escape the sheer blandness of the two restaurants mentioned before. It's a bit like the ramen you'd expect from restaurants that don't exactly specialize in ramen, but do offer it (like a lot of the Chinese restaurants here). Well, it's a bit more tastier than that, but I wouldn't say that this was a fundamental corner of ramen street.
 
Gokkei

The other super popular ramen restaurant here, together with Takayasu, also easily featuring lines of 50, 60 people in front of the door every day. Which is also because it is super small. They serve a super thick chicken based soup here. And with thick, I mean that your spoon won't sink if you place it on top of the soup. With pieces of chicken in the soup, the dish is really filling and it tastes great, but you have to be a fan of the typical Kyoto thick soups to really appreciate the ramen, I think (which I am not).  And true story: after having this for dinner, I wasn't in need of any food until around dinner time the following day.

Ryuu no Suzu

The most northern restaurant of what should be considered ramen street and probably the smallest one too. There are only about six counter seats and they only serve two dishes: tonkotsu ramen and champon. And with tonkotsu, I mean actual Hakata tonkotsu ramen and none of that tonkotsu with fish /chicken stock added to soften the taste business. They're fast and relatively cheap, but I wouldn't say that you really should visit this shop. Their ramen is OK (I like the chili flakes they add to the soup!) and I was glad I was able to get Hakata ramen nearby during my stay here, but there is no need to go out of you way to come here.

Isao

Is this still part of ramen street? From the most southern point of ramen street part of Higashi Ooji, you'd still need to ride your bike for about five minutes to reach Isao. The reason I visited the small restaurant, located in a residential area, was because it served a tai-based soup. The soup itself tastes very refined, and the hand-cut noodles add a bit of that rustic feeling to the dish, but the filling consist only of a little bit of vegetables and it's a bit little for the price. It's a very light ramen with a distinct taste that is definitely unique, but the cost/performance ratio isn't really optimal.

And I admit, part of the reason I wrote this post is because I don't think I will be able to post something detective-related this week, as I will be moving back to the Netherlands this weekend. And I aim at four posts a month, so this was sort of a cheat post. But hey, sometimes, you just need to write about food.

Original Japanese names: 横綱 / 大蔵 / 鶴かめ / はらだ / 珍遊 / 恵那く / 高安 / 天天有・ひるまや / 夢を語れ / 池田屋 / 一乗寺ブーギー / 天下ご麺・ムゲンノチカラ / 新進亭 / ラーメン軍団 / 壱蔵 / 豚人 / びし屋 / 鶴はし / 極鶏 / 龍の鈴 / 伊佐夫

The Scarlet Letters

「一人では解けない愛のパズルを抱いて」

『Get Wild』 (TM Network)

"Embrace the puzzle of love you can't solve on your own"

"Get Wild" (TM Network)

Note to self: books are heavy and it is expensive to send them back home, even by boat. And you should learn by now, because this is definitely not the first time you ended up with boxes full of books to be sent to the Netherlands.

Last year's Misshitsu Shuushuuka was a parade of great locked room murder mystery shorts and I was already a fan of Ooyama Seiichirou's scenarios for the PSP game Trick X Logic, so you'd figure I'd be a big fan of him. And I sorta am. And not. Ooyama actually has very few releases, just three books under his own name and a bunch of contributions to anthologies, which makes it hard for me to really get into an Ooyama mood. Also note that two of his three books have been out of print for quite some years now. Anyway, I finally got the chance to read his debut work, Alphabet Puzzlers, a collection of two short stories and a novellette that once again showcase Ooyama's talent for writing short but strong puzzlers.

Police detective Gotou Shinji, translater Narai Akiyo and psychologist Taneko Rie all live in the apartment building AHM owned by Minehara Taku. They have the custom of gathering at Minehara's quarters to engage in intellectual games, which usually means talking about unsolved cases (of Shinji, or ones they read about in the newspapers) and then trying to deduce the solutions. Alphabet Puzzlers starts off with P no Mousou ("The P Delusion"), where Akiyo tells about her acquaintance Akemi, a somewhat elderly lady who had the habit of having afternoon tea parties at her house. Had, as in past tense, because she has been saying lately that her maid is trying to poison her and thus refuses to drink any tea except for canned tea. Which makes for horrible tea parties. Akiyo suspects it's just a delusion and convinces to Rie, the psychologist, to attend to one of these canned tea parties to see whether Akemi is suffering from some delusion. Rie thinks it's likely, but is forced to rethink her own diagnosis when the old lady is really poisoned later that day.

A somewhat dubious start. Sure, the ending is surprising and I admit that there were clues pointing to it, but it seems a bit too hard to deduce from just those hints. As a story, it feels very bare-boned and artificual, really little more than a puzzle. Which is usually not a problem with me, as a fan of puzzles and in fact, a lot of the guess-the-criminal scripts at the Mystery Club usually don't go further than this level, but when the puzzle feels unfair because of vague hints, well, then there is a chance you'll hear me complain. It is not impossible to arrive at the solution, but you do have the feeling that the readers aren't given a completely fair chance at solving it themselves.

Which is luckily different with F no Kokuhatsu ("The F Accusation"). A murder of an art scholar at a sculpture museum is troubling Shinji. The corpse was found inside the storage room, which is locked with the so-called F (fingerprint) system. The logs show precisely who entered the room at what time, but it seems that none of the suspects could have done the deed because of various reasons (arm injuries preventing from them raising the murder weapon etc.). This story is definitely constructed as a very fair puzzler and the ending has you both surprised as well as nodding in agreement, as you suddenly realize what all those little hints in the text meant. Best story in the collection in terms of fair play, length-to-pleasure ratio and readibility. Definitely the material that foreshadows Misshitsu Shuushuuka.

Alphabet Puzzlers ends with Y no Yuukai ("The Y Kidnapping"), a novellette about the size of the previous stories combined. It starts with a manuscript written by a father whose son was killed after a ransom transfer went wrong. After his son's death, he had nothing but misfortune visiting him, losing his wife to an illness and he himself being diagnosed with a terminal illness too. His last wish is for his memoires about the kidnapping, which happened many years ago, to be published, in the hopes that someone will reveal what really happened then and find out who the kidnapper was. The four amateur detectives at AHM challenge this old mystery, but the solution is not what they had expected.

The first thing that I noticed: the novel takes place in exactly the same place I'm living now. I don't just mean Kyoto, or the Sakyo Ward, I mean literally the same neighbourhood. Heck, the child was kidnapped around the bus stop which is just out of the sight from my balcony. Familiarity however isn't a sign of a good story (nor the opposite though), so how does Y no Yuukai fare? Well, this might be a personal note, but I am usually not a very big fan of kidnapping stories in the puzzler/orthodox genre. They can be exciting yes, and they can be technically very well-constructed stories, but they have a tendency to be very similar. Which is something that happens a lot with orthodox detectives, but it feels more apparent with kidnapping stories, in my opinion. The trope of kidnappers sending the person holding the ransom money from one place to another for example is getting really old and when something goes wrong during this process, resulting in a cancelled exchange, it's usually actually precisely what the kidnapper wanted. Our genre is one where tropes are reused (in various ways, I admit) probably more often than in other genres, but it feels extremely repetitive when we get to the kidnapping puzzler. The ending of Y no Yuukai is thus both surprising and not surprising at all at the same time. A decent story on its own, especially as the final story as it ties up some storylines surrounding the inhabitants of the AHM bulding, but it doesn't stray much from the formula.

Alphabet Puzzlers is a decent volume: if you're into puzzler type of mysteries, it's definitely recommened reading as the stories are all well constructed puzzlers, but it can feel a bit too artificial at times if you're not a particular fan. My recommendation: go for Ooyama's more recent works.

大山誠一郎　『アルファベット・パズラーズ』:　「Ｐの妄想」 / 「Ｆの告発」 / 「Ｙの誘拐」