Day 7, Friday, May 18th: Ramen!

A beautiful sunny morning in Shinagawa. I am up around 05:30 while Lana is sleeping. Finish most of the blog for yesterday and Lana will do her editing and additions later. The temperature in our room is perfect. Some train noise, but that isn't a problem. Once we have both showered, dressed and finished the blog, we are off to the free breakfast at the restaurant in the lobby called "G". Lana is really looking forward to getting some fruit for breakfast! Prices in supermarkets for fruit are fairly expensive by Canadian standards.

Wow, what a variety of breakfast offerings in this restaurant. We are both very impressed! They seat you and tell you about the numbered toothpicks which define your table. For the section where you can order hot food such as Omelettes, eggs, French toast, pancakes, waffles, noodles etc. you give them your toothpick and they bring you the order in a timely manner. Lots of fruit, cereals, pastries, toast, vegetables, rice, congee, miso soup, dim sum, traditional Japanese style breakfast offerings etc. Plus, whatever hot beverages you desire and about 10 types of juice (all fresh). I have probably forgotten some of the offerings, but this gives you a good idea. Given Lana's Gold status, we don't have to pay for our breakfast. We believe the retail price for this buffet breakfast is around $45CDN each?

Various fruits with Muesli. The muesli is almost as good as Deutschland.

After our excellent breakfast experience, we are off to another city: Yokohama. We are both interested in seeing the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum located very close to their train station. Given ramen is one of our favourite dishes, it makes sense to visit Japan's homage to ramen. Founded in 1994 as the world's first "food-theme amusement park". It is easy to find using our handy once we depart the train. First stop though is at Starbucks JR located in Shinagawa train station. Lana buys another Starbucks card (Tokyo edition) for her collection and an ice chai latte to drink. 

We walk to the entrance for the Keikyu Line and up an escalator to platform 1. Wow, the train is waiting for us to board. Our stop will be Yokohama station. Then take Blue Line (Azamino) to Shin-Yokohama station and walk about five minutes to the museum. We could have gotten there sooner by catching a Shinkansen from Shinagawa, but we were good with the train given we are in no rush. Admission fee is 310Yen per adult. You get an English brochure which is appreciated. The Mens toilet is in the bowels of the basement about three floors down. Nondescript building with the museum stuff on entrance floor and one level down. Overall, the museum itself is very small (all on the first floor with an exhibit that covers the history of ramen as a dish) and we think most visitors don't spend much time here. 

Sign outside the museum.

Ramen gimmick outside entrance to museum (check out embedded video)

Ramen bowls collection from various restaurants around Japan. Beautiful bowls.

"How To" on making ramen.

On the bottom floor is a faux creation of an older Japanese street where you would have eaten at a ramen shop. There are actual ramen shops located there serving museum goers. We decided not to eat ramen there (still full from breakfast).

Listing of different languages for ramen.

One of the educational banners. We both enjoyed the mention of the ramen boom in Vancouver that then moved across Canada to Toronto. The first popular Vancouver ramen shop that opened was Kintaro in the West End. Then they opened another sister restaurant close by that offered a special "charcoal" broth. After that, more and more places opened up. Lana's favourites are Santouka--a chain from Japan and Jinya (they offer a black garlic flavour!). The latest hot ramen place is in Richmond--adjoining a car wash and has only 10-12 seats!!

Different types of ramen.

Wall of historical information. We learned a lot from this and spent most of our time here.

Classification of ramen.

Regional ramen in Japan. There are many varieties of ramen in Japan.

Wall of magazine covers and ramen cookbooks.

Randy's notes from the historical review of ramen (skip this if you get bored easily):

• root of ramen is Chinese as the father and the mother is Japanese food culture
• earliest record is 1488 - Chinese noodles
• Japan ended its isolation in 1858 after a 200 year closed door policy
• Chinese noodle dishes then entered Japan
• Plus, removal ban on eating meat which was forbidden in Japan for 1200 years
• Chinese workers and students living in Japan fostered growth in Chinese food influence in Japan
• 1910 Rairaiken opened a shop with Chinese cooks serving the first ramen
• broth from pork and chicken bones to make soup with a Japanese soy sauce base
• Outbreak of cholera saw Japanese eating Chinese cuisine as safer due to Chinese heating and boiling their food
• Kanto earthquake in 1923 forced ramen chefs from Tokyo to move across Japan
• Post WWII ramen became more popular as a hot, delicious, calorie-filled cheap food
• 1954 miso ramen developed
• Tsukemen (cold noodles dipped in sauce) invented
• 1958 Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen by deep frying the noodles to remove moisture with high temperature oil, thus allowing for preservation of the noodles. 
• This was the birth of instant ramen
• 1970s shops using pork back fat
• Iekei Ramen pork bone and soy sauce based soup, thick noodles, spinach, roast pork and laver
• Tonkotsu Ramen after 1975
• Year 2000 was the Japanese boom of ramen
• Michelin stars are now given to ramen shops

Other information from Ramen Museum:

• Umami flavour discovered by Japanese from sea kelp in 1908
• Umami is one of five basic tastes; sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami

_____________________________________________

We walk back towards the train station and in to a local Starbucks to figure out our plan. Neither of us are hungry so we decide to head for KICHIJOJI Tokyo neighbourhood. This is what I read about Kichijoji when doing my research in Vancouver: "always shows up near the top of the list of places where Tokyoites would most like to live. It's got a youthful, Western-influenced vibe with lots of sidewalk cafes and cute boutiques. In Inokashira Park, known for its cherry blossoms, street performers appear on weekends and there is a pond with paddleboat for rent and a small zoo. For a modernized version of a traditional Japanese shopping experience, check out the Sun Road shotengai (covered shopping street) and for a step back in time to the postwar years, spend an evening in the tiny old restaurants and bars in the alleys of Harmonica Yokocho." Kichijoji is located west of central Tokyo and a bit of distance from Yokohama.

We walk to Shin-Yokohama station and catch the Yokohama Line to Kikuna station. Transfer to Tokyo-Toyoko Line and wait for the limited Express train to Shibuya station. At Shibuya station we transfer to the Keio-Inokashira Line and Kichijoji station is the end of that line. I think it takes us about 70 minutes to make it to Kichijoji station. Again, we could have taken a bullet train, but we are in no rush. It is a long walk at Shibuya station to the Inokashira Line and eventually we go outside to get there. Our train is at the beginning of the line and we are the first in the train queue! A little bit of confusion from the video screen in our car about transferring to the local train. 

Yamanote Line train car. Note the hangars. Plus, the number of passengers on their cellphones. The train cars are clean, tidy and fairly quiet. 

Example of train/subway platform markings confirming where you line up for the doors.

Sign on the platform beside the entry doors.

We arrive about 14:00 in Kichijoji station. By this time, we are looking for some lunch and thinking of Tsukemen (cold ramen) as we have not eaten that unique style of ramen yet. We find a place fairly quickly and we take a picture of the sign outside the restaurant to show the servers what I want to order. Yeh, we get to try this ramen for the first time! One thing to note about ordering at your table in Japan is the servers all have a hand-held device to record the order and send to kitchen automatically. No servers write down your order.

Tsukemen sign outside Hidakaya Restaurant.

Lana's lunch order of rice and cold tofu.

OK, you saw the sign above and this is the actual Tsukemen ramen dish. The broth/dipping sauce is very spicy with a fish flavour. The noodles are indeed cold and come with a hard-boiled egg and bamboo shoots. I am good with spicy, but this is pretty spicy. After I am finished the dipping the noodles into the sauce my mouth and tongue is on fire. Good we have lots of water. This is a very different ramen experience, but I would try it again.  

These are the rules in this restaurant. Our lunch meal comes to 1060Yen. We paid for our lunch with loose change. I like these rules. We also appreciate the fact that there was messages on the subway/trains reminding passengers to put their cell phones on silent and to not talk on their phones so as not to bother the other passengers!! This is the way it should be everywhere :)

After restaurant we head to Inokashira Park. Kind of cool to be surrounded by a park, ponds, trees, foliage and serenity in the busy city of Tokyo. Indeed a refuge for the busy city. We enjoy our time here and even take a moment to sit on a park bench under the trees and beside the pond. During our trek around the park/pond we deviate to Daiseiji Temple, but once we find the entry gate and are about to enter the temple an older lady approaches us indicating we are not allowed to enter. Oh well...we think many of the buddhist temples only open early in the morning???

Map of Inokashira Park. This comes in handy on our phone as we walk around trying to find different destinations. 

Dragon head water fountain for purification at the temple. 

Lana purchases some incense for 100Yen and lights it to have it burn in the offering below located outside of Benzaiten Shrine.

View from bridge across the pond. Notice the pictures that show what wildlife lives in or near the pond.

Outside Benzaiten Shrine. The white pieces of paper are bad fortunes--if you receive one of these, you tie to the string so that the wind will carry it away from you. The smaller wooden plaques are wishes/prayers hung by visitors.

Swan paddle boats.

Historical plaque outside a shrine located beside the pond.

Upon leaving the park area we decide to head towards Sun Road Shotengai (covered shopping street). Before we make it there Lana has ducked into a Uniqlo Store to look for some special tee shirts. No luck though. As an aside, I continue to have zero luck accessing any free public wifi. This is apparently the longest covered shopping street in Japan. Yup, it is indeed long and in fact shoots off in a couple of other directions. Much like the covered street we experience yesterday in Koenji. Lana finds a pet store and in the first cage is the cutest little puppy that wows potential customers. 

Official entrance to Sun Road Shotengai. 

There is a German-inspired pastry shop in the shotengai. In fact, the two employees are wearing German clothing. The breads and pastries looked pretty authentic and even had
German names on the signs.

Sign near one of many local temples in the neighbourhood.

Another temple in Kichijoji. We find that the entry doors are unlocked or open to all the temples, but no entry to the temples themselves.

On many sidewalks in the area. 

Lana spots this ball and recalls that it is symbolic of sake--it's called a Sugitama and it's a globe of cedar leaves traditionally hung outside a brewery when the new sake is brewed every year. The leaves start out green, but turn brown over time, signally the maturation of the sake. You will find these outside of restaurants that serve sake.

It happens so far in Tokyo that when Lana needs to find a bathroom it ends up being an arcade nearby. Usually, it is a McDonalds in most cities.  :-)

We have had another good walking day so we decide to head back to our hotel. First though we try to locate the restaurant that had signs advertising Japanese fried rice omelette (omurice). We have not tried this dish yet. Bad luck as we cannot find the sign again. Oh well, we'll find this dish somewhere else during this trip. 

We walk back to Kichijoji station and then catch the train to Shibuya station. We leave the station to find the Yamanote (Circle Line) Line which will take us back to Shinagawa station. Once we arrive at our destination we are looking for a light dinner. We end up back at the restaurants under the tracks. Lana is not very hungry/no appetite due to the heat of the day. 

We find Setaga restaurant has a small dish of pork on rice and I order an egg. In this restaurant like the others here you order outside at a machine. We learned though that you need to input your money first and then make your selections on the machine. Take your receipt and give to a server and find a seat. The total cost of this small casual dinner was 450Yen. I ate quickly and then we walk back to our hotel. Head straight to the Executive Lounge as Lana is now craving some vegetables to take back to our room. As well, I find a Champagne that Lana will enjoy. The lounge feeds the hotel guests pretty well!

We are back in our room by 18:30 so pretty early end to the day. Lana can relax in bed, enjoy some tv and read the free newspaper she picked up this morning in the lounge. I update today's blog so that is an accomplishment. The bad thing is we were counting on watching the sumo basho tournament on tv, but they are not covering it. They are covering local professional baseball though.

We have recorded more than 19,000 steps and 14 kms of walking over a 3 1/2 hour period and 33 floors in elevation (mostly subway/train stairwells?).