Food trips to Japan with Huh's special travel guide

Cartoonist Huh Young-man holds “mozuku,” a type of seaweed, while travelling Okinawa in Japan. / Courtesy of Gadian Publishing

By Baek Byung-yeul

In the past, many Koreans regarded Japan as a “close yet far neighbor” due to the nation’s colonial history. But nowadays, the neighboring country has emerged as one of the hottest travel destinations for Koreans.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, 4 million Koreans travelled to Japan last year, becoming the second most-visited country following China ― China topped the list with about 5 million tourists.

With more Koreans visiting Japan, many travel guides have been released, but veteran cartoonist Huh Young-man’s travel book, “If Japan Is This Delicious,” is noteworthy because it presents a different way of enjoying the country.

The cover of “If Japan Is This Delicious” / Courtesy of Gadian Publishing

Co-written with freelancer Lee Ho-joon and published in Korean, “If Japan Is This Delicious” introduces “hidden” restaurants and tourist destinations in 10 small Japanese cities with the authors’ travel memos, cartoons and photographs.

Rather than visiting well-known cities like Tokyo or Osaka, the authors said they visited cities ranging from Okinawa to Miyazaki more than 50 times during the past two years to do research for travelers seeking a more personalized experience.

Divided into 10 sections each focusing on one city, the 288-page book scans the larger but lesser-known charms of the Japanese cities. In the Okinawa section, readers can learn about Okinawa’s signature pork cuisine. In the section for the central prefecture of Ishikawa, which is famous for beautiful gardens, readers are recommended to try “notodon,” a kind of donburi (rice bowl dish) made only from local crops and products, including the water used for cooking the rice.

Huh’s pictorial explanation of traditional Okinawan foods. / Courtesy of Gadian Publishing

For “crisp and dry” sake lovers, the book recommends a visit to Niigata Prefecture, the setting for Nobel laureate Kawabata Yasunari’s novel “Snow Country,” because there are 93 breweries.

“Unsavory dishes make you unhappy while travelling and even upon returning home,” the book says. “On the other hand, a gourmet meal satisfies you in the moment and after you finish eating.”

The authors have known each other since the early 2000s when Huh was working on his best-selling comic book series “Sikgaek (gourmet).” For the comics that depict the journey of a Korean chef, Lee did plenty of legwork, finding distinct cuisines in Korea, and wrote the story around his experience.