Adventurasia Community

(Written By: Dean Holden Ruetzler)

Hill Top is yet another in the plethora of anomalies that make up the Japanese millieu. An “all you can eat”(”tabehoodai” in the local tongue) Steakhouse in Japan is hard to believe, but in the middle of nowhere is downright bizzare. Whoul`d`ve thunk it? Whatever the reason for opening the restaurant, the owner is a steak “kamisama”(”God”), as far as I`m concerned. Hill Top was like manna from Heaven for me.”

Very eloquent, yet vividly descriptive of the Hill Top Steak House in Senmaya. I would like to claim that prose as mine, but it`s not, they are the words of S.S., former JET program ALT in Senmaya, who then continued to work for the town for two more years in a similar capacity.

A posting in a very rural spot in Japan will often deprive a foreigner of some of the amenities of home, like in my case, flush toilets, and gas stations open after sunset. This was not the case for Shawn in Senmaya, as he was just a “hoop, spin, and a holler” from as many steaks as you can possibly inhale in one sitting, which you cook yourself (rare as the best sushi to post-apocalyptic is your choice, and you don`t have to send it back to the chef), the hugest mugs of beer this side of a “Sudden-Deutsch” Oktoberfest, and if you have room, a little soft ice cream, from one of the local dairy farms.

The steaks, by the way, are not a local specialty, but imported “hunks o` cow”, your first two are from Australia and the United Steaks of America, respectively, the next one (to nine or ten) will be be your cut of choice of the two, and in my case varied on my relative recent consumption of fat and protein(the Australian cut is a little more marbled and fatty), and also the relative ammount of those two substances existing in my body composition at the given time.

Again, we return to S’s prosaic:
” Everything about the restaurant was wonderful: The quality steaks at affordable prices (another example of how Japanese chauvinism and economic protectionism))worked to the advantage of Non-Japanese (and Japanese too, if they like non-Kobe beef or non-Misawa “Gyuu”(Ed.)), fresh, hand-made ice cream, “daijoki” (”big f%&#@*g mugs” in English) beers, Iwate-Ken “sumi-yakki” (”open-pit charcoal broiling”)-style cooking, salad bar, friendly owners, conversation-inducing seating, kitschy “cowboy-yank” decor (As an American, I can say this is true, you will see the best of what makes “North Dakota-style” and its Japanese counterpart “Tottori-Ken-Fuu”, the butt of jokes across the world), the perfect part of my days in inaka.”

For about 4000 yen, when the “damage” is totaled up and paid for, you can eat and drink what could easily cost you twice as much in dollar terms in North America, in Euros, you do not even want to consider the price. In “loonies” the ammount may be in the thousands. Shawn: “It scares the MOO out of me, to think of all the beef I stuffed in my belly at Hill Top for the last five years!”

The Hill Top has been a mecca to the JET community of Iwate for five years running, most often patronized in conjunction with organized street hockey games and Halloween celebrations organized by S and his “Honorary Canadian-Citizen” partner in crime, G, who has parlayed his JET posting in neighboring Murone-Choo into what must make him the programs first “seven-year” JET. The hockey appears to be a pretext, as S says “I am positive that people came there for Hill Top and not street hockey”. Indeed a large mix of JETs, other members of the Iwate foreign community, and Iwate denizens, to crowd around the large central “sumi-yakki” table (it can handle 25-30 patrons easily), and indulge in what S calls “The confortable numbness that flowed over my body after eating three steaks and downing two “daijokki” of beer.” Plus “The internationalization that happened naturally and unforced while eating along the smoke pit”. Certainly, many more people have gathered around that pit in those groups, than can be explained by a fondness for a game (and a toned down “user-friendly” version, at that) that beyond North America, Scandanavia, and few isolated posts, is scarcely more than a curiosity.

Couple large groups of people primarily in their young adulthood, a convival atmosphere, the flow of some brewskis, and the permission to eat without restraint, throw in a little ego-fueled competition, and you end up with some gastronomic feats that exceed belief. Some of the stories border the line between reality and obsfucation, it must be noted.

There was, of course, the legendary competition between G “Five-Alarm” A and T “I played golf with Tiger Woods!” J, to see who could blacken their steak the most before consuming it. By the time it was over, their steaks looked no different than the “sumi”-charcoal, and several people at the table were treated for smoke inhalation. Apparently, the Sendai fire department, fearing the worst, upon seeing the trail of smoke, sent roughly half their contingent of fire trucks, and a helicopter or two, to the scene. Believe it or not, T and G actually consumed those steaks, whole!

For a long time, the acknowledged record holder for steaks consumed in one sitting was Canadian ALT; S. B. of Ichinoseki, who was able to consume eight steaks in one sitting. Rumor has it that it would have been more, but she actually cut off, broiled and consumed one arm and several assorted digits of onlookers. Only the steaks counted, though, of which she put down eight. It must have left S with an unfulfilled feeling (at least pyschologically), much the same as I had when I finished third in a “wanko-soba” eating contest, and knew I could have won if I hadn`t snacked on two “onigiri” (riceballs), and some “kamaboko” (fish sausage) fourty-five minutes before the contest.

Eventually S`s record was broken, by T.O., one of G’s students, a tall, rail-thin, high-schooler at the time, with the metabolism of a hummingbird, and a mean slapshot. He was able to manage nine steaks in one sitting. Being the lucky recipient of his unique speedy physiology, he probably actually lost weight in the process of digesting. My one day record was six and a half, the half was the half of a steak, that my friend who outweighs me by about 50 pounds, could not fathom finishing. That in one sitting in my life, and I am no lightweight myself, with my occaisional moments of “brilliant gluttony”, usually putting 200 to 220 pounds on my six-foot frame.

There are rumors of the double-digit barrier being broken in steaks consumed, if it has not been yet, it certainly will be soon, for what do records exist for?…To be broken…of course! Perhaps, you, the reader will be the future “King of the Hill(Top)”? “High on my list of all-time wonder memories. Not because I was able to gorge myself on steak and dream of home….I NEVER DID such a thing while living in Japan. For me, eating the delicious steak at Hilltop was was more of a vehicle for being able to converse with everyone….. It is the people that I met at hockey and shared steak and beer-farts with at Hilltop, that I bonded with the most. I am thankful for the opportunity to have made so many friends…..and for Hilltop being ..Hilltop!”

I have to agree with S’s sentiment. In my three years on the JET program, I was never one for the “groupism” that is associated with many aspects of the program. I have to say that some of my best friendships from that time were made around the very same tables that Shaun alludes to, and that the “hockey and beef” bonding was the best group I was involved with (My apologies to the Outdoor Special Interest Group folks, you rocked TOO! Heck…you let me be co-president one year!, Unfortunately, we didn`t meet enough!)

Nestled in a remote corner of Southeast Iwate lies one of the more unique dining experiences in the region, if not the whole country. It beats another meal at Tony Roma`s, MaCd`s, KFC, or any one of a thousand places, to get very good, authentic, western food, with little to alter the experience to the surreal, such as squid in spaghetti (bearable, even decent!), or corn in pizza (no comment…). Ok..so the decor is a little surreal, but more or less because it is in Iwate, and not in backwoods Idaho.

It is real easy to find Hill Top, just take route 284 out of Ichinoseki (easily accesible by the ubiquitous Route 4), and keep going straight on through Senmaya until you go up a little hill, near the Murone border, and the correctly spelled, and entirely visible “Hill Top” sign will beckon…… Come on in, you will be transported to another place and time (well..except for the book shelves full of Manga). It has left its mark on one more than one denizen of Iwate, and its foreign community, almost to a point of “semi-legend”, and certainly to the level of “tradition”. Not to say that all experience the same, but Hill Top has become a huge part of the Iwate experience for more than a handful. It is hard to pin it down and explain it it but Hill Top is much more than a restaurant it is well..um..for lack of a better word, a true experience. Hill Top is without parralel, the best place to bring a group to dine in a casual atmosphere in these parts. Bring your appetite, your dark “gluttonous” side if you choose, and set a new record. Continue in what has become an old tradition for some…or start a new tradition. It will, with out a doubt, one way or another, be an unforgettable Iwate experience. Parting wisdom from our erstwhile guru of smoke, steak, and sagacity…The venerable Shaun Sephton… “Remember the golden rule at Hill Top: Never, and I mean…NEVER, sit downwind from K.

Hill Top Steakhouse Restaurant
Kiyota Aza Toogeshita
25-1 Senmaya-Choo, Iwate-Ken 029-0801
(0195)-52-5789

Filed under: Japan, Taste of Asia