Goemon Kumagaya Station

In Kumagaya, Saitama — a city known across Japan for its fierce summer heat and passionate rugby culture — the evenings carry a particular kind of hunger. Goemon Kumagaya Station is the kind of place that answers it honestly, without ceremony or pretense. Step through the entrance and the interior opens up further than you expect: a warm, lively space where the U-shaped counter runs close to the kitchen, close enough that you can watch the skewers rotate over the charcoal and catch the first curls of smoke rising from the grill. The kitchen at Goemon is built around two pillars of traditional Japanese cuisine: motsu-ni and yakiton. Both draw from carefully selected domestic pork offal, treated with patience and precision. The motsu-ni — a slow-simmered offal stew — cooks throughout the day in a large iron cauldron set at the centre of the counter. Five varieties of offal meld together in a deep, miso-rich broth, the fat softening into something almost silky by the time it reaches your table. Nothing is held back or prepared in advance for the following day. When it sells out, it is gone. The yakiton skewers move in a different register — the char quick and direct, the meat yielding at the centre. Heart, liver, harami, pork cheek: each cut grilled to its own quiet ideal. Alongside the skewers and the stew, a rotating selection of drinking accompaniments — lightly dressed vegetables, seared fish, slow-cooked egg — fills out the table at its own unhurried pace. Goemon is a place that knows what it is. An izakaya, in the truest sense of the word. A place to stay a little longer than you planned.