Food lovers traveling through Japan can now enjoy one of the country's most famous dishes without ever leaving their hotel.
Udon House is a cooking school and guesthouse in Kagawa, Japan's smallest prefecture, on the island of Shikoku.
Beyond its scenery, the region is so renowned for its thick, chewy udon noodles that mail addressed to "Udon Prefecture" will be delivered to Kagawa without a second thought.
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Bed and Breakfast, Plus Lunch and Dinner
Guests at Udon House take cooking classes with Japanese masters on the ground floor, then sleep in shared rooms upstairs. But don't worry, there are plenty of chances to get out of the house too, including trips to local farms and paddling by canoe or stand-up paddleboard on the nearby Seto Inland Sea.
The Udon House project is a partnership between two entrepreneurs, Hima Furuta and Kanako Harada.
Although neither of them is originally from the Kagawa area, both quickly fell in love with it during their travels.
Harada is a consultant who works with travel agencies to promote Japan's lesser-visited regions. Furuta is the CEO of Umari, a design company focused on socially meaningful projects.
Before investing in Udon House, Harada founded Peace Kitchen, a Japanese culinary project that brought communities together through cooking classes, talks, and interactive dining events.
From a House to a Home
The timing was right.
All across Japan, especially as the country prepared for the huge wave of visitors ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a major push was underway to raise the profile of its less-visited regions.
Part of that effort draws on Japan's mascot culture, where small towns or regions adopt a cute character as a tourism PR campaign. Udon House got in on the trend with a mascot that has udon noodles in place of a brain.
And Udon House is far more than just a place to stay.
As much of Japan's population ages and many young people move to bigger cities in search of work, abandoned houses known as akiya are falling into disrepair across the country.
One of these houses has now become Udon House. Furuta and Harada chose it because it had a solid foundation, plenty of space, and sat right next to a train station. From there they set about renovating it, adding new appliances and other conveniences such as Wi-Fi to make it more comfortable for guests.
Beyond the Bowl
It isn't only foreign visitors who benefit from Udon House. There's also Udon Plus, a creative incubator for local business owners with udon-related ideas they want to test out. Recently a coffee startup came by to experiment with ways of blending coffee grounds and udon broth.
Demonstrations and occasional events are held there as well.
Udon House hopes to achieve a few goals: to teach the art of making udon noodles so future generations can enjoy them, and to draw tourists to a lesser-known part of Japan.
And if you've ever been so full after a big meal that you could barely get up from the table, here's some good news: Udon House won't make you go far to sleep it off.
Udon House, 1651-3 Okamoto, Toyonaka-cho, Mitoyo City, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan 769-1507, +81 (0)875-89-1362
