Ubushina – A shrine’s Udon shop

When strolling in the Kagawa’ streets, you are more likely to find Sanuki Udon shops and restaurants instead of convenience stores and ramen restaurants so loved by foreign tourists. According to the statistics of “Sanuki Udon clap”, until the end of November 2019, the Kagawa prefecture owned 580 Udon shops, including the buffet style and classic ones, but not the one’s stores managed by noodles manufacturers.

Among all the Udon stores, Ubushina is a special store located into a shrine ground. Usually closed on Wednesday, strangely enough the store also closes on special festivals like Shichi-Go-San (Shintoist ceremony for children) while lots of visitors would come. For which reason?

Ubushina Udon shop is located beside the Ubushina shrine (宇夫階神社) in Utatsu, and its owner Mr. Miyamoto Nobushige is the Shinto priest of Ubushina shrine. Mr. Miyamoto was working in a nearby Udon store named Okasen for about 8 years for his training period. However, he is main job has always been to be a Shinto priest so he needed to arrange his schedule at the udon shop with everyone’s help. Besides, the Okasen’s business got booming and work increased, so Mr.Miyamoto decided to quit his job and opened his own small Udon store beside the Ubushina shrine where he could freely adjust the schedule with his main job.

In Ubushina, the decoration is cozy and quint. Only a single painting of the Ubushina shrine festival reveals the relation between the owner and the shrine.

The most popular Udon is called Miya Udon. In Japan, people are used to eating the offerings worshiped to the gods, so Mr. Miyamoto designed the Udon by adding the fried rice cake, mochi, which was worshiped in the shrine. The taste is simple but the portion quite generous, and the crispy fried mochi once it soaked in the soup got chewy and full of fragrance.

Beef burdock Udon is another famous meal of the store. Normally, the ingredients of beef Udon are sauteed with onion to increase its sweetness; however, following the advice of a regular customer, Mr. Miyamoto tried to add some burdock in the ingredients and make this salty-sweet sauce that people like to eat with rice after finishing the Udon noodles.

The Udon noodles of Ubushina shop are flat, absorbing easily the soup and people can swallow them without chewing. Maybe that is why it is said that people from Kagawa swallow Udon instead of eating Udon.

After finishing a great meal, it is good to take a walk in the Ubushina shrine with beautiful green nature.

Two special big rocks are in the shrine said to be remain of worship of the ancient time. There are also lots of small shrines located in different places encouraging visitors’ curiosity to visit them.

Going out of the shrine you still can see the low-profile signboard of Ubushina Udon shop. Actually, oden and tempura are also famous dishes in the store. It will be a good choice to come back and try some good meals again.

INFORMATION

Access: 15-minute walk from JR Yosan line Utatsu station.

• Address: 〒769-0210 香川県綾歌郡宇多津町1597-1
• Business hours: 11:00～15:00
• Closed on: Wednesday (closed on festivals and ceremonies of Ubushina shrine)
• TEL: +81-87-749-3837
• WEB: N/A
• Wi-Fi: N/A
• Language: Japanese
• Credit card: N/A