During our tasting tour of Kagawa we visited two udon shops (both of which happen to appear in that movie, we learned later). Be warned most of the udon shops in Kagawa, especially the great family owned ones are only open a few hours for lunch.
The first was 谷川米穀店 (Tanigawa Beikoku Shop). This was the first place we went. We heard of it through a guidebook and chose this one because they specifically don't use any broth, ever. We arrived about 1:30, so the main rush was over. They are only open from 11-2 each day, but after 1 they usually stop making the noodles. The noodles were made right there behind the counter in this small restaurant. They owners were very friendly, telling us that they've been making udon for about 40 years. They also promised that if we come back in the morning when the noodles are freshest, they will be even better. So we took them up on the offer arriving at exactly 11. The place was packed and there were at least 10 people waiting in line in front of us. Luckily, udon is the kind of food you just slurp down and move on, so the line moved fast. They were right about the noodles, the udon was definitely even better made fresh. It was great to see the whole operation at work. The father and grown son took turns rolling out the dough and adding the noodles to the boiling pot. The mother, grandmother, and staff filled the bowls, set them on the counter, and collected the money. I forgot to mention! Udon is dirt cheap. A big size bowl was 240 yen (less than $3). It was quite the experience and I highly recommend you get to this shop, if you are in Kagawa.
The second shop we went to, 小縣家 (Ogataya) is also from the guidebook. This one isn't a family style establishment, in fact it looks like they are in the middle of constructing a big addition. And the udon was all of uniform size, implying it wasn't hand made right in the shop. But it still tasted good and they gave us our own daikon radish to grate! Their udon is served with just a slightly thinned out soy sauce. You can also buy the udon their to take home for all your jealous friends and family. We also really enjoyed this place. Plus it's always fun to grate your own daikon! Also, this is also one of the few shops that operates for dinner, one of the reasons we chose to go there. They are open 9-6.
(We went back the next morning to get more udon to take home.)
I highly recommend a trip to Kagawa, if only for the udon. We hope to make a trip back when it's warmer and visit some of the neighboring prefectures to do some swimming.*If you've spent any length of time in Japan, you have most likely been asked 'do you like soba or udon better.' And most foreigners choose soba, probably because it's more similar to 'pasta' that we think of from Italian dishes.
--Pamela
See I wasn't kidding when I said it was tiny. I only have this tiny coffee table, so some of the dishes had to go on the floor. I also didn't have enough bowls for everything.
This is 
Here are vegan dad's roasts. These were amazing!
The green been casserole, delicious as always.
My plate! Clockwise from the pumpkin dinner rolls, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with sage and onion gravy, stuffing, 
And of course dessert. We had three kinds of dessert. This is the pumpkin brownies, which were awesome! Mine came out more like a chocolate pumpkin cheese cake, I don't know if that's because I used a slightly smaller pan or that's just the way they are, but I'd definitely make them again. We also had fudge, which was good and pumpkin pie. The pie was our friend's first attempt at vegan baking. It was really tasty, he even made his own pumpkin filling. Sorry, I didn't get a good picture of it.
This is my tiny shelf. A few of them aren't vegan. The Japanese ones (except the one on the far right) are all 
These are the books on top. Most of these are part of the new editions to my collection (thus why they are on top). Glad I finally got Yellow Rose, especially after all the talk. 
All of these zines were part of my new birthday money (I totally spent over what I got).
That's not our picture. I found it 
This is the section at Loft. I couldn't actually fit it all in the shot, but you get the idea.
Look at the assortment of bento boxes! I wish I had such a cool looking one. I have one more for practicality than cuteness. (All the 'cute' ones seem so small, so I always end up buying the dude themed ones. I wish Japanese women weren't always on a dieat and ate a normal sized lunch rather than kid portions.)
The accessories section! I don't even know how to use half this stuff.
Close-up on some accessories. These little things are used to stab food like fruit, so you don't get your hands sticky and they look cute sticking up out of the bento.
See, I didn't use any cute dividers or plastic pictures. It's just lunch.
Oh yeah, this one's fancy.
Here's a bento I made for work last week. It's not all that exciting but it was tasty! This one contained spicy sauteed slices of eggplants, sundried tomato hummus, a veggie burger, spinach, cherry tomatoes and sliced green and red peppers. And the letters were cut from cucumber slices. I also had a seperate tupperware with slices of cornmeal pancake, raisins and mochi.
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