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After our long day in meetings listening to translators and watching slide shows, Wesley and I had tum-tums that were dying for some attention.  We needed to find a nice ramen shop ASAP and didn’t have enough money on us to make sure we would have enough for train tickets so we decided to hold off on finding a nice shop until we made it to our final train destination.  We asked some convenience store clerks where we could find a place.  These young clerks looked like a Japanese comedy duo and one of them had anime styled gelled up hair.  Their assistance and overall personality was great.  Though they looked a little nervous when we started talking to them, I guess our Japanese was good enough to calm their nerves and allow them to talk to us without mounds of sweat gathering on their foreheads.

The ramen shop we found fit about ten people and even in Tokyo it seemed like they did not see many foreignors in the shop.  The super cool regulars were busying eating and smoking their cigarettes when we arrived and I’m pretty sure I heard some grasshoppers chirping as we entered the establishment.  We bent down a good six inches to avoid any head trauma while walking through the door.  As Wesley and I sat an old man we shared a table with moved to accommodate our need for more space.  The ramen shop’s owner came out to take our order and we were pleased to hear they had “chashuu men.”   Chashuu men is normal ramen, but with added slices of pork for those times with three slices just isn’t enough.  Wesley and I enjoyed the meal and as our empty bowls showed, we were still proud members of the Clean Bowl Club.  After a couple water refills from the shop’s Obaa-chan(old lady) we paid and made our way home with full bellies.

Wesley and I were thinking of new Japanese/English puns as we walked home from our volunteer session in Asakusa.  Here’s mine:  “What is the Weather Girls’ favorite kind of noodle?”  The answer is the title of this article!  Pretty good, right?

By: Will

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