Fulfill your heart’s desire to go to Australia in Yamaguchi Prefecture!?

November 26, 2016 6:36 PM

"If you can’t take a trip to the Land Down Under, come enjoy the Australia-like Yamaguchi Prefecture!"
posted by No-sword (14 comments total)

I only wanted to go see the emus. I didn’t think I needed to prepare myself for this.
posted by wintersweet at 6:50 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Thanks, wintersweet, I forgot part 2 and part 3! (Mods...?)
posted by No-sword at 7:30 PM on November 26, 2016

This was pretty cute, and if it had tied the trip around Yamaguchi Prefecture to the plot of some well-known epic trip around Australia, it'd be a tiny Ulysses.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:50 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

What no Koalas?
posted by boilermonster at 8:44 PM on November 26, 2016

There are grilled meat croquettes and oyster cream croquettes among the selection, but the best would most likely be the one showcasing Iwakuni’s specialty food, the lotus root croquette. Lotus roots from Iwakuni have one hole more than other regions’ lotus roots and are said to mean good prospects and luck.

The crispiness of the lotus root never stops!

How can one hole more mean anything but good prospects and good luck? Thanks, OP. I love this.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:18 PM on November 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

There are two soft serve stores named after the two people from the famous duel at Ganryujima.

Here's the story of the duel between Sasaki Kojirō and Miyamoto Musashi, which was supposedly won as much by psychology as fighting skill. Here's a monument on the island.
posted by eye of newt at 9:20 PM on November 26, 2016

I'm so hungry now. That was great!
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:49 PM on November 26, 2016

Metafilter: The crispiness of the lotus root never stops!
posted by mobunited at 10:04 PM on November 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Cute but doesn't work so well as real advertising. In comparing Akihoshidai to Uluru, they didn't even bother mentioning what's underneath Akiyoshidai: Japan's largest limestone cave, Akiyoshido, which I found way more impressive than the scattered rocks covering the top.

Yamaguchi's Shimonoseki City is also famous for being Japan's fugu capital. Not sure how that correlates to Australia though.
posted by p3t3 at 10:32 PM on November 26, 2016

Shimonoseki City is also famous for being Japan's fugu capital. Not sure how that correlates to Australia though.

Fugu can kill you if you're not careful, just like pretty much everything in Australia can kill you if you're not careful.
posted by dazed_one at 10:59 PM on November 26, 2016 [10 favorites]

I'm smiling wryly at the though that if you REALLY want to go somewhere in Japan full of Australians, you just go to Niseko. Don't even need to speak Japanese.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:25 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

When I was in Japan many, many years ago, I was reading an English edition of the newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Buried in the newspaper was this little article about two Australians who wanted to open a restaurant in Japan and were applying for a special permit for nationals opening a restaurant of the cuisine of their nation.

The low level administrator wasn't allowing their permit because, he said, Australia doesn't have a cuisine. Apparently one of the Australians had to hold the other back from basically killing the guy, and a higher level administrator came out to calm things down. The end result was that the government office made an official statement that there was, indeed, an Australian cuisine, and that they were going to get the permit.
posted by eye of newt at 12:00 AM on November 27, 2016 [18 favorites]

This is adorable.
posted by Pfardentrott at 3:19 PM on November 28, 2016

A little bit south of the match venue Suncorp Stadium, there is one of Australia’s symbols, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

For values of "a little bit" that equal about 14 hours on the highways, or about 2.5 hours by plane.

It's only a little less than the entire North-South size of Japan.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:20 PM on November 28, 2016 [1 favorite]