WB087: An "Off-Season" Notice
A family-run neighbourhood soba (Japanese: そば, English: buckwheat noodles) restaurant that we frequent - Sobadokoro Hoteiya (Japanese: 蕎麦処ほていや) ("Hoteiya") - is sadly closing for an indeterminate period of time.
Hoteiya has a history of 100 years and is very popular with locals. Each time we visit for a meal, there is always a steady stream of customers patiently waiting their turn.
The restaurant's booking system is old school: just a clipboard where you write your name, along with group size and preferred seating area. Though it is not a big restaurant, there are both table and zashiki (Japanese: 座敷, English: tatami mat) seats.
Hoteiya is neither the fanciest nor cheapest place for a bowl of soba. I wouldn't say it is conveniently-located either, being situated off the area's main shopping street. So what makes it a popular spot for soba ?
Long history aside, I feel Hoteiya is one of those homely and unpretentious places where you're sure to have a wholesome meal. Adding to the character of the place is the lively atmosphere created by customers who always seem to have many things to laugh and talk about.
Moving forward, the future of Hoteiya is less certain.
Last month, a hand-written oshirase (Japanese: お知らせ, English: announcement/notice) was pasted to the restaurant's entrance.
I had a bad feeling as oshirase are usually put up prior to the Japanese holiday season in spring (May), summer (August) and winter (January) to inform customers of a business' operating hours.
Case in point, a few months ago an oshirase was pasted to the front entrance of a sentou (Japanese: 銭湯, English: public bath) I had just started to frequent. It had a history of at least a 100 years and sadly the business announced that it was closing its doors.
Sure enough, Hoteiya's "off-season" oshirase was to announce that the restaurant was closing temporarily because the family matriarch - an elderly lady in her 90's - was unwell and needed to be cared for.
Despite being a little frail, this elderly lady is always in the restaurant during business hours greeting customers - both regulars and newcomers.
She always wears a jovial smile, and the restaurant's walls are adorned with photos of her and her family celebrating her birthday, which is in the last week of December.
We visited Hoteiya a few days before its impending closure. As we ate our soba set, we could not help but feel weighed down by worries whether there would be a next time.
Customers around us, however, did not appear to share our worries.
It was business as usual as they ate, laughed and chatted like old times. Perhaps, they have come to terms that the past is history, the future is an uncertain mystery, and living in the present moment is the path of least worries.
--Ends
