I was invited by JPassport a week ago to attend Tottori Night at Japan Rail Café. Japan Rail Café is located at Tanjong Pagar Centre and easily accessible via Tanjong Pagar MRT station. It was my first time visiting Japan Rail Café although it has started operating since last year. The café has 3 sections which include retail corner, café area and also JTB counter. Japan Rail Café is operating by East Japan Railway Company gives buyers to purchase exchange orders for JR passes before their trips.
Enough about the café, moving on is the Tottori Night event. I decided to attend the session because I wanted to know more about Prefectures of Japan.
Tottori City (鳥取), the capital of Tottori Prefecture, is located in western Japan along the coast of the Sea of Japan. Tottori is most famous for its sand dunes, the largest in Japan, which cover over 30 square kilometers of coast to the north of the city center.
Tottori City has been the regional seat of power since the era of warring states, and the ruins of the former castle can still be found at the northeastern edge of the city center. A variety of museums and Kannon-in Temple are also located around central Tottori.
More information on this website.
Misa Miyagawa who is the host and also the ambassador for Tottori did a presentation and shared her recent trip to Tottori. There are quite a number of attractions including Tottori Sand Dunes, Mizuki Shigeru Road, Mitokusan Sanbutsuji Temple, Gosho Aoyama Mango Factory and the pink train at Wakasa Station. She also shared Tottori 20th Century Pear Museum and at the same time we get to try it on that night. The pear was juicy and sweet. I can’t help but to have second servings.You can read more about Tottori on Tottori Tourism website if you are planning to travel there.
While we are listening to Misa-san presentation, we are served with Tottori Kani Chirashi Don S$25.00nett for our meal. The chirashi don ingredients include lotus root, salmon roes, tamago and Tottori Matsuba crab meat. There are two ways to enjoy chirashi don. First is to eat it as it served. Secondly is to pour the broth over together with the condiments (sesame, wasabi and seaweed flakes) into the bowl before mixing all together. I would say it is superb comforting meal.
During the event, we also get to sample the Tottori’s Pink Curry. It was my first time hearing and seeing pink curry! The pink colour was achieved by using beetroot and this is also one of Tottori specialty. That’s explains why the train and train station is in pink too. And this pink curry is available at Oenokian(大榎庵). Oenokian is a cafe that is a renovated old, Japanese-style house. The Pink Curry Lunch Set is 1,500yen along with salad, soup and drink. There is also retort curry to go for souvenir.
Apart from sampling food and learning about the attractions, invited guests are given goodie bag to bring back. It was insightful event learning about Tottori, Japan.
Read about my Japan travelogue here.
Japan Rail Café
Address: 5 Wallich Street, #01-20
Tanjong Pagar Centre
Singapore 078883
Tel:+65 6385 5422
Website: http://www.japanrailcafe.com.sg/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Japanrailcafe/
Opening Hours: 11:00AM – 9:00PM