I went to Tsuruya, a horse meat specialty store in Hiyoshi-cho, Kurume City. My goal was to try their liver sashimi. The location was a bit hard to find, but once you turn into the side street, you'll see the sign. I ordered the liver sashimi for 1380 yen, horse sashimi for 780 yen, and tongue sashimi for 980 yen. The liver sashimi had a chewy texture and rich flavor, it was amazing! The horse sashimi was decent with a good amount of meat. But the real surprise was the tongue sashimi, it was incredibly rich and delicious! They have a wide variety of sweet potato shochu, which was great. I ended up enjoying it on the rocks. The atmosphere inside the restaurant was calm and I was able to enjoy my meal at a leisurely pace. I really love the horse meat and prices you can find in Kurume. It was a fantastic night that made me realize how much I love Kurume. I will definitely be coming back to this restaurant. Thank you for the delicious meal! ♫

On a Sunday evening, not feeling very hungry, I wanted to have a light meal by having a drink. I remembered hearing about a delicious gyoza restaurant in Rokumon. When I arrived, they were already fully booked despite just opening. It seems like the situation for restaurants varies. So, I headed to "Tsuruya" as my second choice, a rare horse meat specialty restaurant in Kurume. The restaurant is located along Meiji Street, in an area where retro-style buildings are clustered. Upon entering, a well-built owner greeted me. With only two staff members, I was seated at the L-shaped counter on the first floor. I ordered the following items (tax included): Mega Beam Highball for 650 yen, Horse Yukke for 880 yen, Salad for 580 yen, Horse Hormone Yaki for 880 yen, Kiraku (shochu) for 500 yen, and a complimentary dish whose price was not specified. I had to try the Horse Yukke, and I thought about pairing it with shochu, but decided to start with the Mega Highball. The complimentary dish turned out to be quiche, which was fine, but I wish they had informed me in advance. It would be helpful to know about the complimentary dish, as it can affect the choice of alcohol pairing. I also ordered a salad to get some vegetables. The portion was larger than expected. However, the Horse Hormone Yaki could have had a bit more volume for the price. After enjoying the Horse Yukke and shochu, I paid the bill. I had expected to spend in the 3000 yen range, but ended up paying 4160 yen, exceeding my budget. They also serve lunch, which seems to offer good value. Overall, it was a satisfying meal.

I had a solo lunch on a regular day. Horse meat hamburger set for ¥950. I had visited before for a horse meat dinner and the dishes were delicious. When I found out they had horse meat hamburgers for lunch, I had to go (laughs). As expected, it was delicious. The portion was generous and the price was reasonable.

Daily solo lunches are enjoyable. It's a pleasure to be able to eat what you like without any hesitation, a place I learned about through SNS information. I had been planning to go there for lunch the next day since the previous night. It's a horse meat cuisine specialty store located in Hiyoshi-cho, Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, about 23 kilometers away. Due to heavy rain for several days, I've heard news of some parts of Kurume City being flooded. The store is in the city center, so it should be okay. I set the navigation to go there, but couldn't find the store. I called to confirm the location. It seems that I can't go by car and have to use CP to get there. I parked the car at CP, walked with an umbrella, and finally arrived at the store. The old building in the drinking district atmosphere gives off a nice and historic vibe. It was around 11:30 on a weekday when I entered the store, greeted by a male store owner in his 50s and another staff member. I was seated at the counter and ordered what I had decided on the night before - horse meat hamburger set for 950 yen including tax. The store owner immediately started cooking. He put the hamburger in the oven, fried eggs and vegetables on the iron plate with a gas stove, and placed the cooked hamburger on the iron plate. The 200g hamburger on the large iron plate was big. It was accompanied by fried eggs, broccoli, potatoes, and corn. The onion sauce on the iron plate warmed up and emitted a nice aroma. The lean horse meat is finely ground, like 100% beef, so there is no meat juice coming out. You can even see the shape of finely chopped onions. Being 100%, you really feel like you're eating meat. The light taste goes perfectly with the onion sauce. The miso soup was plentiful with wakame seaweed, and you could taste that it was homemade. The rice was delicious, slightly firm, perfect for eating with the meat. A vegetable salad that I don't usually eat, with a lot of lettuce and tomatoes. I managed to eat it all, so I'll report that. After eating everything, I was full. I was able to leave the store feeling satisfied with my first taste of horse meat hamburger. The store owner, who looked tough, was actually a very pleasant person.

Located in a quaint drinking alley with a strong Showa era atmosphere, this horse meat specialty restaurant is nestled in the village of Hiyoshi. While Kumamoto is famous for horse meat in Kyushu, the southern Fukuoka region of Chikugo is also a hidden gem for horse meat, with quite a few specialty butcher shops. However, there are only a handful of horse meat specialty restaurants. It's strange. While there is a tradition of eating horse sashimi at home. All the meat dishes at night are made with horse meat, and there are various original menu items. Some dishes can only be enjoyed here, making it a paradise for horse meat lovers. The must-try dish that you'll want to eat over and over again is the Sakura hot pot, which requires a reservation. First, only the meat is served, and you start by eating it as sashimi. It's surprisingly tender, with no gamey taste and a slightly sweet flavor. After enjoying about a third of it, the rest is added to the hot pot. It's like sukiyaki, with a refreshing taste compared to beef sukiyaki. Despite the low fat content of horse meat, it's surprisingly chewy and delicious when cooked. You might find yourself wishing you had saved more meat to savor. The special horse meat steak can sometimes be a bit sinewy, but it's served with a rich Japanese-style sauce. When made with high-quality meat, it's a heavenly experience.

From a trip to Kagoshima, I took the Shinkansen down to Kurume and decided to have yakitori, gyoza, and oden. However, I arrived in Kurume just before 3 pm, which was an awkward time. So, I decided to walk from JR Kurume Station to Nishitetsu Kurume Station where the downtown area is located. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily. I found a convenient resting place called KURUMERIA Mutsumon, located in a building with a supermarket and various facilities in Kurume City. It had restrooms and a coffee space, which was very useful. As I was heading to Yakitori Benkei, I found out that it was closed due to a public holiday. By this time, my shoes and clothes were soaked, so I bought new shoes at ABC Mart inside Nishitetsu Kurume Station. The yakitori place I usually go to was also closed, and a gyoza shop was full, so feeling lost, I decided to head back to Fukuoka. However, on my way to Nishitetsu Kurume Station, I saw a sign for hormone sashimi and liver sashimi. I followed a suspicious alley and found a restaurant. I checked on Tabelog for prices and confirmed it wasn't a rip-off place. The atmosphere was even more suspicious than the Golden Gai in Shinjuku. Inside the restaurant, there was a cutting board with horse sashimi on display. The horse sashimi was fantastic, made from fresh horse meat from the Ban'ei horse racing. I started with the liver sashimi, which was chewy like heart meat, with sesame oil, salt, and plenty of green onions. Then I tried the hormone sashimi, which was long and thin compared to the finely chopped hormone at Yakitori Usabara in Kurume. I enjoyed it with garlic, soy sauce, and beer. Next, I tried my favorite, himo sashimi. Unlike the fatty himo from Kumamoto, this himo sashimi was lean like duck breast or beef rib meat. It was served with ginger, which paired perfectly. The horse meat tsukudani was sweet and savory, and I thought it would be amazing with rice. To my surprise, they had tsukudani mixed rice on the menu. I was skeptical about using mobile payment methods like PayPay, Rakuten Pay, Line Pay, or Origami Pay at such an old restaurant, but they had a PayPay QR code. The restaurant has been operating at the same location for 28 years, yet they are embracing the latest technology in this old shopping district.

After drinking quite a bit, I stayed at a hotel near Nishitetsu Kurume Station and decided to have a drink in Kurume. It was quiet on Sunday, but there were a few scattered shops open. When in Kyushu, you have to try basashi (horse sashimi). I heard there was a restaurant specializing in horse dishes, so I went to Tsuruya. They had counter seats, table seats, and even a second floor for parties. We were served mozuku vinegar as an appetizer. Even though I was already full, I ordered the lean meat and heart sashimi. The lean meat was 780 yen and the heart was 780 yen, served with sweet ginger soy sauce. The portions were surprisingly generous! And at this price, it's much cheaper than in Tokyo. The basashi was delicious. They also had items like futagoe (horse lungs), liver sashimi, tongue sashimi, hormone sashimi, himo sashimi, and tail sashimi (I'm glad I took a photo of the menu). After that, I ordered shochu and had some spicy moromi miso as a snack before paying the bill. Next time, I definitely want to try the cherry blossom meat hot pot. Afterwards, I wanted to go to karaoke, so I went to a bar with a hostess for about an hour.

Today is the first day after New Year's, and I came with my family to Tsuruya, a restaurant I've been curious about for a while. I was worried if they would be open after the New Year, but I saw a sign and a cheerful flag saying they were open for lunch, so I felt relieved and went in. I wasn't sure if they had a parking lot, so I parked my car at a nearby coin parking lot. The lunch menu was priced at 680 yen each, which I thought was very reasonable. I ordered the shrimp and bechamel sauce croquette, while my companion ordered the simmered hamburger. The restaurant was surprisingly spacious, with some secluded spots that were not easily noticed. Maybe that's why there were many business people among the customers. The staff were friendly. It didn't take more than 10 minutes for our food to arrive. The dishes came with a plate of food, tea, and miso soup. Is this all-you-can-eat? It looks delicious. I took a bite of the croquette. The crispy sound was wonderful. The frying was perfect, even better than homemade fried food - crispy and juicy. The tartar sauce was also delicious. The cabbage with tartar sauce made the rice taste even better (which is not usually the case for me). There were also two slices of horse sashimi. The simmered vegetables had a nice flavor too. I also tried the hamburger, which was also delicious. The menu was varied, and they even had a limited edition roast beef bowl. As expected from a long-established restaurant, the food had a comforting and carefully made taste to it. The prices were about a quarter of what I usually pay for lunch, so it was very affordable. It's a shame that there aren't more customers, given how good the food is. The decline of Kurume is serious, but I hope they continue to do their best. I would definitely like to go back again. Thank you for the meal.

The horse sashimi platter was cheap and delicious!

The horse sashimi was excellent. The all-you-can-drink course had a wide variety which was great.

The horse meat dishes were delicious. The horse sashimi was average, so it was disappointing, but there were a variety of dishes which made it worth a visit.

Domestically produced horse sashimi is delicious. It's cheap.

Let's start with lunch. The Matsukado-style bento box meal is amazing, especially the rice. You can choose from a variety of main dishes, all of which are great value for money, and it comes with horse sashimi. The side dishes are like homemade dishes that change daily! Among them, the Sakura Donburi is a must-try... with a generous serving of horse sashimi topped with egg yolk (*´∀`*). If you order just this and the side dishes, you'll feel incredibly luxurious, but it's only 1360 yen... I think the satisfaction level is higher than a casual lunch set!

About a 30-minute train ride from Hakata to Nishitetsu, it feels like a little trip. On this day, I decided to visit a famous horse meat restaurant in Kurume. Although it may seem whimsical, my true purpose was to pay my respects at the grave of Takayama Hikokurou. There is a large statue of Takayama Hikokurou bowing towards the Imperial Palace on the east side of Sanjo Ohashi Bridge in Kyoto. His grave is located near this restaurant at Komyozan Henjo-in. For more details about Hikokurou, please visit: http://www.kurume-hotomeki.jp/hikokuro/about.html After getting off at Nishitetsu Kurume Station and walking about 5 minutes along Meiji Street, I found a sign for lunch menu in an alley. The area is a quiet drinking district with most shops closed during the day. I cautiously opened the door and found counter seats in front of a raised seating area. The lunch menu was quite ordinary, with no horse meat dishes available. I hoped for horse meat yakisoba, but it was not on the menu. I ordered the yakiniku set meal instead, along with a lunch beer. After a 10-minute wait, the yakiniku set meal served in a compartmentalized box arrived. It was delicious yakiniku with plenty of onions. However, I was disappointed that it wasn't horse meat. But there were 3 thick slices of horse sashimi, which had a juicy and flavorful taste when chewed. I wished there was more of it to savor. The side dishes included tamagoyaki, simmered shirataki noodles, pickled vegetables, and miso soup, all for the affordable price of 680 yen. Even with a glass of draft beer, the total cost was around 1100 yen, which was surprisingly good value for money. I have decided that the next time I travel to Kyushu for business, I will definitely stay in Kurume at night to enjoy the local cuisine.

I went to Kurume to see an exhibition of Kurume Kasuri! Kurume Kasuri is a cotton fabric mainly dyed in indigo, produced in the former Kurume domain area in Fukuoka Prefecture. It uses pre-dyed indigo and white threads to create patterns. Along with Iyo Kasuri and Bingo Kasuri, it is considered one of Japan's three major kasuri textiles. The technique of Kurume Kasuri was designated as an Important Intangible Cultural Property of the country in 1957, and in 1976 it was designated as a Traditional Craft by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. It's so colorful and vivid! Kurume Kasuri has a soft and light texture! I felt like getting a yukata. After that, I had a cherry blossom bowl (raw horse meat bowl). The horse meat had a firm texture. In Kumamoto, horse meat must be frozen once before shipping due to regulations, but in Kurume, it can be shipped fresh. That's why Kurume's horse meat is so delicious!

It's a horse meat specialty store, so delicious!! Sorry... I visited a delicious horse meat specialty store run by a tough-looking master. There is a counter and a raised seating area. The restaurant is larger than it looks, with even a second floor. They offer a wide variety of horse meat dishes, from horse sashimi to simmered dishes. It's my first time encountering such a delicious and extensive menu with horse meat. And it's reasonably priced! The restaurant is located in a narrow alley, so I'm not confident I can find it again without looking at a map. I'll definitely go back for more!