Essay 1: The PUK Area in Kumamoto
The area around the Prefectural University of Kumamoto is quite a nice one for shops and eating places. Here are a few, in order of distance from PUK.
Just across from the west gate of PUK is a small restaurant called Little Kitchen. It serves many kinds of food, though Mediterranean is perhaps the main type. It has a lunch set at 740 yen. It's a little expensive, but it includes soup, salad, a main dish, a dessert, and a drink. Drinks you can choose from include not only tea and coffee but also homemade ginger ale, which is very good. The best thing about Little Kitchen, though, is the drinks menu. It has about 20 kinds of foreign beer, including many English beers. This is very unusual in Japan.
One of my favorite coffee shops is Karan, on the opposite side of PUK from Little Kitchen. It is in Nagamine, near Hello Green and the Yamaha music shop. They sell coffee beans as well as serving coffee in the shop. I like their cappucino best.
Mos Burger is a little expensive for a meal, but I like the cafe latte, which is quite cheap. Also, Mos Burger has a nice, quiet atmosphere outside of meal times. Sometimes, I go there in the late afternoon when I'm doing research but feeling a little sleepy.
One of my favorite shops is called Premier Cru. It is in the Takuma area, a little further from PUK than the other places. Its original name was Moshi Moshi Kameya, then it became Good One. A couple of years ago, it closed for about a year, and then returned as Premier Cru. Premier Cru is famous for imported food and drink.
