The Dogo area of Matsuyama is known for many things: its thermal spring with a 3,year history, famous glass , literary and art museums, Dogo Onsen Honkan , Yuzuki castle ruins Dogo Park , along with its oh-so-expensive onsen hotels. What Dogo has not been famous for are its barsβuntil now. With the opening of Wani to Sai, Dogo can now correctly boast that it has one of the most interesting and unique bars in Matsuyama.
The area itself is dotted with crumbling, beautiful old wooden merchant buildings and brothels evoking a murky past, and massive stone torii gates demarcating the many shrines and temples in the area. This neighborhood oozes with history and a prospect for the future that is easily felt. Wani to Sai also serves very good ramen and yaki-niku donburi. The night that my wife, some of our guests from Sen Guesthouse , and I went there, we had both dishes and they did not fail to deliverβeverything was extremely good.
Also, everyone who orders a drink is given a tsukidashi, a complimentary starter dish served at most izakaya, which was also excellent. After graduating high school, he left for Italy to study visual arts.
He stayed in Europe for a total of eight years, in Italy and other counties, as a street marionette performer, before moving back to Japan a couple of years ago. He's fluent in both English and Italian, along with his native Japanese. His interests and experiences clearly make themselves apparent in Wani to Sai.
He also has a couple of his marionettes on display and if the night is slow, and the music is right which it always is you just might be able to convince him to bring one of his friends to life.
