Recently, Mizushima has apparently begun attracting attention as a “town of yakiniku.” In particular, local residents each seem to have their own favorite restaurants.
I had been thinking that I’d like to visit Mizushima for yakiniku someday, when I came across the “Mizushima Yakiniku Map.”
I spoke with its initiator, Murakami Yuichi.
The information shown was current when this article was published in March 2024. Please note that it may differ from current information.
What is the Mizushima Yakiniku Map?
The Mizushima Yakiniku Map features 10 yakiniku restaurants in Mizushima selected by Murakami, who serves as a Community Revitalization Cooperator in Mizushima, Kurashiki City.
The Community Revitalization Cooperator program is a national government initiative, based on a system established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Local governments accept people from urban areas, including the three major metropolitan areas, and support regional revitalization through activities such as developing and selling local products, while encouraging them to settle and establish roots in the region.
Excerpted from “Kurashiki City Immigration and Settlement Promotion Office: What Is the Community Revitalization Cooperator Program?”
The map is a two-page spread pamphlet featuring information about each restaurant, comments from local residents recommending the restaurants, and “Murakami MEMO” notes by Murakami, who handled planning and editing.
The back cover also includes a map of Mizushima, so you can get a sense of the locations.
When you think of yakiniku, you want to enjoy a good drink, too, so I was glad that many of the restaurants can be reached using public transportation.
For more detailed information, check MIZUSHIMA NAVI
The Mizushima Yakiniku Map is a printed map, but with 10 restaurants featured across its two-page spread, each restaurant has only a few lines of description and four photos.
There’s enough information to make a list of restaurants you’d like to visit, but you may also want more detailed information, such as menus and food reviews.
In that case, check the website (MIZUSHIMA NAVI). The website includes information about the restaurants, as well as “visit blogs” written by Murakami after he visited them in person.
The reports cover not only the menus and flavors, but also the staff and atmosphere in great detail, making it easy to picture who you might go with and when.
The Mizushima Yakiniku Map also includes a QR code that takes you to the website.
How the Mizushima Yakiniku Map was created
I interviewed Murakami, who handled planning and editing, about how the Mizushima Yakiniku Map came to be.
What inspired you to create the Mizushima Yakiniku Map?
Murakami (surname only)
After moving to Mizushima as a Community Revitalization Cooperator, many people recommended different yakiniku restaurants to me. When I actually went in, they were all delicious. I wanted to share that wonderful experience with others.
Around that time, a city employee who had read “Our School, Urihakkyo” on Mizushima Memories asked me, “Would you like to try making a yakiniku map?”
What is “Urihakkyo”?
Murakami
It refers to Korean schools.
During the war, Mizushima was a major aircraft manufacturing area, and many people came from Korea to work there. Even after the war, many people with Korean roots continued to live in Mizushima.
After the war, these people opened tonchan and hormone restaurants in Mizushima, and many yakiniku restaurants still remain in the town today.
So the history of Mizushima and yakiniku are closely connected. Were there any particular points you focused on when creating the yakiniku map?
Murakami
I made sure the map would cover all of Mizushima.
Mizushima is broadly divided into three districts: Mizushima, Fukuda, and Tsurajima. Fukuda was originally part of Bizen Province, while Tsurajima was part of Bitchu Province, so each district still has its own activities.
But as someone who had moved here, I wanted people to know about the many restaurants I genuinely found delicious, without being limited by district. So I made a map that covers the whole area.
Did you create the entire map by yourself?
Murakami
No. I was only responsible for planning and editing.
I worked with members of the Mizushima Revitalization Team to select the restaurants and conduct interviews. The map also features photos and comments from the residents who introduced the restaurants.
I also asked Hotoku Printing, based in Mizushima, to print it. They gave me design advice as well as handling the printing. I’m truly grateful that they turned my rough ideas into something real.
As a Community Revitalization Cooperator, I met many people who feel passionately about Mizushima. I think this yakiniku map is truly a “collaborative work” created together with the people who have been involved with me.
How would you like people to use the Mizushima Yakiniku Map?
Murakami
First and foremost, I want people who live in Mizushima to pick it up.
That’s because people who live in Mizushima take it for granted that there are so many independently owned yakiniku restaurants, and they don’t recognize the number and quality of these restaurants as one of the town’s attractions.
So when people who live in Mizushima are asked by someone from another area what makes this town special, I hope they’ll take out this map and proudly talk about the many yakiniku restaurants.
Kurashiki City is experiencing population aging, and Mizushima is no exception. That’s why I wanted older people to be able to pick up the map, so I released it as a printed publication.
However, I expect that the people who actually go out to eat yakiniku will be the children and grandchildren who receive the map from local residents. So I created a hybrid map, with detailed restaurant information available on the website.
Finally, do you have a message for our readers?
Murakami
For people in Mizushima, yakiniku restaurants are not just places to eat as much meat as they like; they’re also bars and places to belong.
Please visit Mizushima’s yakiniku restaurants, too, as part of a trip to see the night view of the Mizushima Industrial Complex.
From the Writer
You see independently owned yakiniku restaurants around town, but it takes courage to go into one for the first time.
At times like that, having the Mizushima Yakiniku Map with you may make it feel as though someone has recommended the place by saying, “I found this place on the map,” and help you step into a new restaurant.
Why not compare the restaurants you’d like to visit on the Mizushima Yakiniku Map website, then enjoy yakiniku in Mizushima with the printed map in hand?
What would you like to know about Kurashiki?
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