Ashikagans in Springfield

Some time ago I was bragging about one of my students winning a speech contest in Ashikaga. Well the prize for that contest was a free trip to Springfield and a bit of Chicago to see the sights. It was very cool to see both sides of the circle, plus I got to see my student and several other people I know from Japan. It was fun to speak some Japanese after what feels like a long time as well.

I actually saw everyone on three different days. There was an informal little reception at Floyd's, a downtown bar, and there was a fancy(and long) gala at the Illinois State Library.

This was at the third little event I attended held inside the Old State Capitol. There were again lots of speeches, including remarks from Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin, Ashikaga Mayor Minoru Omamiuda(seen here singing some Elvis at an earlier welcome party in Japan), and Illinois State Senator Larry Bomke. Each one of the winning students then stood up at the podium and recited the Gettysburg Address. While this is not the place where Lincoln gave his famous speech, this is where he gave his "House Divided" speech that is also very well known.

Gettysburg Speech Dream Team

We all had Subway at the nearby but not-yet-open National Museum of Surveying(website). While they didn't have a ton of exhibits in place yet, they did have something pretty awesome called Science On a Sphere(website). It was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and it's pretty much a big ball with several projectors playing on it to create the illusion of an animated sphere. It's a pretty cool way to see global weather patterns, earthquakes, and even sea turtle migrations take place on a round earth.

I took a couple of little videos of the thing in action. The whole setup was controlled with a Wiimote, which just made it that much snappier.








The whole thing made it into the State Journal-Register here.

Official Goodbyes

Wednesday broke the seal on a flood of goodbyes. Around 11 o'clock Joe and I performed our goodbye speeches three times to the mayor, superintendent and his sidekick, and what I believe was the school board(the superintendent sat on this board, so he had the unfortunate distinction of listening to our speeches twice. In summary, I just said thank you for the opportunity. I told my unwilling listeners that the program was very important for me and that it is also important for the Springfield/Ashikaga relationship.

Here I am after my speech at the mayor's office(guy behind me is Mr. Maekawa, the head of our division of the board of education). I had to make a conscious effort to ask the mayor interesting questions. He was notably rushed and the minute the conversation slowed down Joe and I were out on the curb.

Thursday was my last after school teacher party. It was nice but it definitely reminded me why I stopped going to those things. For one, it cost 60 dollars at the door. As in, I hand them a 100 dollar bill and they destroy it and give me the scraps remaining. That buys a set course of food and "unlimited" beer for two hours or so. For that kind of money in Springfield I could go to the movies and bring 6 friends with a few dollars left over for popcorn. Everyone was a lot more interested in speaking with me as it was my last hurrah, so that was nice. I got a few little gifts, one of which was an envelope with 5000 yen inside. A nice little chunk of change to be sure, but less than it cost for me to enter my own party. Hehe.

The table was set this way when I sat down. Additional dishes came by later, including some sashimi and a big slice of egg plant in some sauce. We had little ice cream cups for dessert. This meal was notable in that we were all given a dish to take home, something I've never seen happen. The dish was eel on rice. I think it must be eel season.


Here is a pretty outlandish beer snack. These are eel's spines, some with a bit of head still connected. I ate the first one reluctantly, but I quickly had several more. They bones are fried so hard that they become crispy and brittle. If you chew on a fried chicken wing's tip, the part where there's no meat but only gristle and fried batter, you get a similar taste.

After the party I biked over to Gold's Gym to cancel my membership. The girls at the front desk suddenly seemed much less friendly once I ceased to be a paying customer. Hehe. Then Friday I gave a little bilingual speech to a gymnasium full of my students. I said a few little goodbyes to teachers and students and then that was it.

The principle often gives a speech with a moral during these assemblies. I suppose it could be related to a sermon without the religiousness.

The view out of the side door of the gym. It doesn't get much more rural than this, does it?

Friday was my last day in my apartment. I did a lot of running around trying to get everything into boxes and I'm a bit worried about how much it will cost to get everything shipped home. That fact that it took so little time and effort to sever my Japanese life felt a bit strange. After a few days and a few speeches I have closed the door on most of my Japanese social groups, returning to outsider status once more.

I am writing this from the guest room at Tung's family's place in Melbourne. No problems so far. The flight was long but uneventful. We are about to run so I will have to talk about that later.

Made the Front Page

Fellow Ashikaga blogger Kaz, aka "Ashikaga"(blog in English and Japanese here) gave me a little heads up that there was a picture of me in the local Ryomo Shimbun. What a nice guy. Of course someone as vain as I couldn't just let something like that slide, so I hunted down a copy of the thing and marveled at its splendor. The picture is from the Gettysburg Address speech contest that I recently participated in.

I'm in the big picture at the bottom, front row, third from the right. The accompanying article isn't anything extraordinary, just a little blurb and a list of the winning kids' names. Not bad at all.

I've seen a couple new episodes of sumo star Asashoryu's Fanta commercials that are amusing. Previous coverage here.

Here's the big guy in his middle school English class. It doesn't get any closer to home for me. The teacher mispronounces FanTaro's name and tries to get him to pronounce Monday correctly. I think that the mispronounced Monday sounds like the Japanese "Is it ok to squeeze?" or massage or something like that... I could use some help on the meaning of that one. Anyway, it's a pun. So laugh.

This one has FanTaro skipping out on his homework to play some sumo video games. His mom catches him and tells him he can't have the soda she had brought, but delicious Fanta Zero Cider saves the day. Hurray.

Friends Are Leaving, Busy Times

My friends from college have been staying at my place off and on for the past 10 days or so, so I have been busy showing them around the country. I'll post more on that in the near future. I woke them up when I left for work today, and that is that last time I expect to see them in Japan. They are going to Tokyo today and will return home tomorrow. I hope they enjoy their remaining time.

As for my remaining time, the days are quickly ticking away. After today I have 9 school days left. I cancelled my school lunch subscription after giving many explanations to incredulous coworkers. The main reason is money, as I was going to pay a full month's fee for only about 7 or 8 lunches. Today is my first day of bringing my own lunch to school. I hit the Seven Eleven on my way to work this morning and picked up a salad with tuna, a salmon onigiri, and a little carton of a mix of vegetable and fruit juice. I expect a bit of surprise from the kids I will eat with, but I am prepared to answer the questions. It might not seem like a big deal to people in the US or other places, but here, everyone eats the school lunch. The principal, the office staff, and the kids who would rather not, all purchase this lunch every single day. I am likely the only person in a building containing 800 or so people who is not eating this lunch. While talking to the office staff about it, one of them said something like "I wish I could cancel my school lunches too". I thought it was amusing to hear a grown man talk like that. It's sorta like if one bee in the hive decided he didn't like honey, he liked strawberry jam better. Oh, the uproar.

Well now that my friends have completed their time in Ashikaga, my attention turns to other pressing matters. I have about two weeks before I leave to explore Australia. The thing is, my apartment contract is going to terminate before I return. So, I need to pack up all of my stuff, move it to a friend's apartment, and then clean the place. When I return to Japan then, I'll be living out of Zishan's apartment for a little less than a week and then I'm gone. I'm really cutting it close, but I figure it's better to be busy until I leave than bored.

Gettysburg Address Contest

At the end of about a month and a half of practicing the Gettysburg Address with 13, and then 4 students over and over daily, the big day of the speech contest finally came. Despite my objections, I was forced to judge my own kids. All four of them did pretty well under pressure, though, so I was happy with how things turned out. There were thirty kids trying for 7 spots, with each winner receiving a free trip to Springfield for 10 or so days. Not too shabby.

This contest has happened every year for what sounds like quite a few years. This one had a small additional bit of importance due to this year being the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. It was mentioned several times that this was the only officially recognized Illinois Bicentennial Commision event being held outside of the United States.

While the scores were being tallied somewhere unseen, a bit of entertainment was provided for the audience. First a student group and then a couple of talented adults rocked out on their koto. Koto not only have 13 strings, but the bridges are moved during play to change the sound. It looks pretty complicated and sounds very Eastern.

After listening to the Gettysburg Address a total of 32 times, the dust settled and one the kids from Yamabe JHS, Hana, came out on top. Its funny how little emotion any of the winners showed while receiving their certificates up on the podium. I guess they are trained to do that. This victory combined with a winner in the last speech contest gives me a little record I can be proud about.

As you might be able to see, the participants numbered 29 girls and one boy(he didn't win). The contest is timed during the Springfield Sister Cities Student Delegation so that the chaperones from Springfield can serve as additional judges. I wonder if we are ever going to get to see the score sheets.

New Laptop is Here

My nice new laptop has at long last arrived in the mail. I have been without an internet connection at home for a solid month now, which has super sucked. I am embarrassingly dependent on my computer, even more so because I live in a foreign country. A week from now 3 of my friends from college will be in Japan wanting to do everything the country has to offer, and I'm relieved to have the beautiful trip-planning power of the internet.

Minus a couple of days off I am going to take when my friends come to visit and a trip to Utsunomiya to do some work visa tweaking, I have 14 days of actual work left. My Japan time is quickly drawing to a close.

I've been doing some fun stuff and taking a few pictures over the past couple weeks so stay tuned while I post a few things.

Springfield Student Delegation in Town

The Springfield student group arrived last weekend and is probably running around town as I write this. Two girls are homestaying with kids from Yamabe, and I met each of them on Monday. It's nice when there are foreign visitors at school because the teachers and students both become much more interested in English. It gives everyone a chance to ask their favorite questions to new victims, like "How many people are in your family?" "Where do you live?" "What Japanese food do you like?" All of the classics that I have become so very accustomed to answering time and again.

Another nice thing about the Springfield group arrivals is we always have nice reception dinners for them at the best hotel in town, the New Miyako Hotel. We listen to lots of welcome speeches and get to eat good food. The meals are 5 or 6 courses long and pretty pricey looking.


The first course was pretty fancy, unfortunately it looked much better than it tasted. Subsequent dishes were much nicer.

It is also a nice chance to meet and chat with many of the international association and school board people that I don't see very often. A special guest at this particular event was the newly elected mayor of Ashikaga, Minoru Omamiuda. He is quite a bit younger than the previous mayor and his English is quite a bit better-he read his whole welcome address in English. Hopefully I will have more time to chat with him in the future. I am interested in city issues but the language barrier is a large one.


The mayor sang some Elvis surprisingly well.

Kanikosen: The Big Day

Yesterday I was finally able to see the fruits of my one Saturday of labor. I believe the entire movie was filmed in Ashikaga, and as such the town was treated to an advance screening at a town hall sort of place. As far I as know, Ashikaga, population of about 150,000, has not one operating movie theater.

For months now I've been thinking about this little project. A good number of students and teachers at my school knew I had done some work on the movie, and I wasn't looking forward to telling the whole lot of them that I had been edited out of everything. So when movie day finally came, I was a bit nervous about how it would all turn out.

Kawada Sensei, one of my coworkers who was especially excited about the whole thing actually bought his own tickets to the show. I mentioned that it was too bad there wouldn't be subtitles and I might not understand anything, so he went out and bought this little manga of the Kanikosen story for me. What a nice guy.

Here's a couple of pages that tell my part of the story, in which the pitiful Japanese crab guys get to see how well the Russian fishermen live. It definitely helped me to get a better grasp of the story, but it also worried me a bit. This book of a couple hundred pages had only about 6 that featured the Russians. That not a lot of time for my unshaven face to charm audiences, now is it?

The makeshift theater was fully packed when Shaun and I arrived. We lined up more folding chairs in the back of the room and squeezed in. After the obligatory overpolite speech, the room went dark and the film began.




Well, I'm no film critic, and I couldn't understand most of the lines being spoken, but I will say the film was interesting despite the language barrier. Unfortunately I don't have a clip of the movie to show or anything, but I got a definite look at myself in our scene, so I'm happy with that. Joe turned out to be winner overall. He was probably on screen longer than the real Russians

The cherry on top was the credits at the end, where all of our names were listed in English. That's a nice little consolation to the guys who didn't get any face time.

Then the lights came on to the sound of the audience's applause. I was very surprised to see Sabu the director himself take the stage and answer a few softball questions from the other two sharing the stage. I guess he said something like everything went so smoothly that he will consider Ashikaga for his next projects. We'll see about that.

And then that was it. I couldn't imagine leaving without some sort of movie memorabilia, and Shaun's Japanese lady friend was nice enough to bargain a movie poster out of the guys who had been selling tickets at the door.

As you can see, it seems that the movie will be available to the public on the 4th of July. I will keep a look out for releases in the US. I'll definitely be needing the DVD to show to my family and friends back home. I'm sure they will be amused.

One of my friends alerted me that I was now on the IMDb page for the movie. Thanks to whoever put that up there for me. Very cool.

Mountain Vegetables

Clarence, Nounours, Irish Matt and I recently had a nice lunch worth mentioning at a soba restaurant near Ashikaga Flower Park. Nounours had been to the place before, and he recommended the sansai tempura to accompany my soba. I hadn't had that before, so I was excited to try it out. Sansai literally means mountain vegetables and these were apparently gathered in the nearby mountains. I love the word because I can read its kanji characters on the menu. Anyway, they were then fried in a light crispy batter, with some sea salt available to sprinkle on top. It was awesome.

The most interesting bit was pretty much a flower. The big yellow guy in the corner there is called fukinoto. I asked the staff about it and they produced an edible plant field guide and pointed it out to me. It seemed like they were going mountain vegetable wandering themselves. Very cool.


The very unassuming exterior of the restaurant.



This doesn't relate to anything but I thought that it was amusing. With advertising like this, it's a wonder more Japanese people aren't overweight.

Bike Repair Shop

I was recently forced to make a trip to the local bicycle shop. If you recall, I had a few problems with my ride soon after buying it, but things have been reasonably smooth with it since. It was last week's ride to Ashikaga Flower Park that finally pushed my poor bike over the edge. The road there was long, hilly, and uneven. I don't have much time left on my Japan contract, so I was hoping I could sneak by without putting anymore money into that thing.

When I finally rolled my bike into the shop near Ashikaga-shi Tobu Station, it had a flat tire, a rusty chain with a half broken link, and a dead light bulb. So much for avoiding additional expenses. The little old man at the shop seemed to have been waiting for me, because he was walking to greet me before I had even reached the door. The shop was tiny by US standards (as many things in Japan are). Maybe there was enough room for ten bicycles smashed side by side in that place. A short desk and maybe a shelf or two with spare parts filled what tiny space remained. The walls were completely glass, with Japanese style sliding doors. I could see a personal tatami room with a TV on through a partially open door on one wall. The building was two story and a window revealed more signs of residential life. No doubt this guy lives there as well. This was no part-time hardware store chump. He repaired my bike with speed and skill, and his tools looked about as old as he was. As he toiled, my eyes wandered to the gravel surrounding the shop. It was about 10% metal. Nuts and springs and screws from years of repairs were ground in with the pebbles.

Ever the tightwad, I asked him for a quote on what the repairs would cost before he touched the bike. He said something along the lines of "I won't know until I'm finished". In Thailand this is the part where I say "give me a quote or shove it", but this guy didn't look like he was out to swindle the foreigner, so I let it slide. Once he was finished, including oiling and wiping off the whole bike, he said "4,000 yen" but he said it in a funny question sort of way. As if it was a suggestion that I could choose to resist. I was very satisfied with the whole experience, though, so I was happy to pay. It was a slow moment from a simpler time.


My computer is currently being a jerk, so no pictures this time. Part of me is happy that it's not working. Lately I've been reading some Hot, Flat, and Crowded, and practicing my Spanish on a DS game. I even thought about doing the dishes once or twice. I should be watching Japanese TV instead of consuming large quantities of Lost, The Office, and The Wire as I have a habit of doing. Especially now that it is becoming warm outside, I should be enjoying nature and whatnot. I can check my email at school, so I guess the only big downside is that I can't use Skype to rain phone calls over the globe. Bummer.

Some Local Tourism

I've had a couple mini-adventures lately that deserve to be grouped together. The first was a visit to the Ashikaga Flower Park. This year we went in the evening because someone said the flowers would look cool lit up. I suppose they were right.

Here is one of the giant wisteria plants that everyone had come to the park to see.

I think this wall of flowers must be something new, as I don't remember seeing it last year. Last year's post on the park during the day time can be found here.

The gift shop, shown here testing the boundaries of the purple flower-related merchandise that people will actually buy.

The next little trip that I went on was to Tatebayashi, to see the koinobori. I mentioned it a few posts ago, explaining that it is a fish flag hoisted in the air meant to celebrate children in the household. Well Tatebayashi went a bit overboard with the concept-

-by covering a river in a zillion of them.


A very odd tourist attraction.

After several minutes of gazing at the fish in awe and confusion, Shaun, Mitsuo, his family and I all went for Mexican food. I was interested in having some more Mexican cuisine experiences in Japan, and this was a good one. The place is maybe the most authentic looking Mexican restaurant I've ever been to. The place was nestled in an old gas station which added to its rustic appeal.

There weren't any cheesy sombreros or piñatas hanging from the walls in this place. There were a few pieces of artwork here and there mixed in with the odd antiquated beer advertisement. I really like how rough the place felt.

The food felt much more authentic than is usually available in Japan (but I've never been to Mexico, so I'm not going to pretend to know what authentic is).

A new addition to the adventure crew is Mitsuo's baby, Saori. Here she is enamored with a hand wipe package, likely asking herself an important question: "How this would taste?"

My First Movie Part 3: Filming

I found some new information about the movie I was an extra in. I'll share that in a bit. First I want to finish talking about the cool part of my experience on the set of Kanikosen: the filming. So when I left off, the 19 or so of us foreign guys had been given a tour of the set, eaten a light dinner, suited up with the lady from wardrobe, and heard a quick explanation of our role from the assistant director. Now it was just about time to rock.


The bit of the Kanikosen story that we worked at portraying was the part where the Japanese guys have an enlightening moment. I still need to read the book, but I believe the two crew members realize how crap their own conditions are when they meet the more prosperous Russians doing similar work. With this knowledge they return to their crab boat and stick it to the Man. So we have a good time, and they stand in the corner, dirty and muttering about union dues.

I could tell by the music and commotion that something was happening on our faux boat. I managed to get a vantage point and take a couple of pictures. One of the workers (understandably) told me to not take any pictures during actual filming, so all of my material is either from breaks or from rehearsals when the cameras weren't rolling.

Our scene called for two groups of dancers to entertain our group of Russians on a ship. I caught a few glimpses of the dancers' routines before it was my turn to be on camera.

There were two different groups of people practicing their routines. The first was a group of three Russian(?) girls dressed up like cold weather ballerinas. The second was a little Chinese(Japanese in reality) dance troupe. Their clothes were militaristic and so was their dance. They each had a letter on their hats that spelled out “China”. I thought that was a little weird. Oh and they had clown make up on. That was a bit weird too.

Both groups ran through their little dances so many times that I got tired of watching and went back to the blue tent to wait with the others.

When the time finally came for us to get started we all crowded onto the little boat deck and squeezed around two tables. I was a bit towards the end of the line to get on board, so I couldn't find a good place to stand. The staff saw that everything was a bit awkward so they moved three of us over to the side. When the cameramen started shooting I realized that I was stuck way out of the shot! Oh no! Luckily my angle improved in later takes.

So the first little scene was us enjoying food and drinks while watching these two sets of dancers. They didn't give us a lot of direction really. Perhaps they assumed that we knew more about having a foreign party than they did. There was food and drink on the table, and dealing with it seemed to be our biggest confusion. It felt like there were about three different people all giving us conflicting instructions. We were all pretty hungry due to our very light dinner, so once the word was given we ate a ton. Of course by then everything was cold.

Here are a couple of interviews with the guys.

Between takes the precious food was dutifully covered and moved out of harms way.

The real actors were either trying to stay in character, or trying to avoid making eye contact with any smelly foreigners.

Things got downright silly when the magician walked in. I don't know what his deal is, but he is definitely wearing a Louis Vuitton print shirt. By this point I figured it was best not to think of historical accuracy, lest I hurt myself.

Here the guys that can actually speak Russian are being directed. Look who's special.

Story boards are about the coolest thing ever.

The grand finale was the fake Russians, bouncing dancers, and dirty crab boat guys all prancing around in a circle. What a party.

Here the dance scene is being planned out a bit. I didn't do any dancing in the middle, but I give some pretty good square-dance knee slapping.

The younger of the two crab guys is Ryuhei Matsuda. I didn't realize it at the time, but he is a pretty big deal in Japan. Here he is in a sappy long underwear commercial.

So at the end of a Saturday 9 or 10 hour workday, contributing to a motion picture about communism and overcoming oppression, I had a taco salad and a small tote bag to show for my time. 甘い皮肉 is Japanese for sweet irony, in case anyone was wondering. Maybe I'll put the bag up on Ebay. Seriously though, this was an awesome, unique experience and I consider myself lucky to have been a part of it. Now all that's left to do is wait for the movie and see if I can spot my ugly mug.


Ok, well I promised some new stuff. Here's a trailer. Enjoy.

I have a very powerful suspicion that I am visible in this trailer, directly right of the crab guy on the right at 1:37, but I'm not 100% certain. According to a Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan release (here), the film will open nationwide in June.

I didn't get a chance to finish this little tale because I ran out of time before my trip to Hong Kong. If you missed the first two episodes of My First Movie, you can find them here.

Strange Flavors

Tonight I went with friends Zishan and Mitsuo to eat Indian food. We had a lively discussion in the car about food flavors that we like or dislike. Mitsuo thinks that root beer tastes like medicine and he hates it. This is an opinion I've heard several times in Japan, and the drink is nowhere to be seen in stores. He also said that mint ice cream reminds him of toothpaste. I love both of those things, so I thought it was amusing. My big complaint with Japanese sweets is that the vast majority are made of beans, rice, and/or tea. They are good, don't get me wrong, but I feel like there are only so many combinations of flavor that can be achieved with such a limited range of ingredients.

Foods deemed to be "foreign", then, are on the opposite side of the scale. They indulge in flavor experimentation that borders on madness. I gathered a few photos of interesting foods, and you can decide if they are a good idea.

Custard pudding flavored KitKat. These aren't bad.


Even the chocolate is yellow.


I was given this at school. It's a white grape flavored yogurt drink. Not bad, but I didn't ask for another.


Peking Duck flavored potato chips. These are surprisingly good. Kind of tangy.


At Mos Burger, kind of a Japanese McDonald's, they offer burgers with rice paddies for a bun. This one in particular was delicious.


Cheetos that taste like shumai, a Chinese pork dumpling. These taste really bad. I think they taste a lot like the real thing, but the marriage is not meant to be. I can't say I've had a bag of Cheetos over here that I enjoyed. For some reason they don't sell the usual cheese flavored kind anywhere that I know about.


We had a barbeque yesterday, and my Hawaiian pal Ray made these sushi rolls with SPAM inside. They were good. I had seconds. This might be the first time I've ever eaten the stuff, but apparently it is a really big deal in Hawaii.

Ashikaga's Coco Farm & Winery Makes the News

Ashikaga's very own Coco Farm & Winery recently made a CNN report(here). The article's focus is on the autistic residents of Coco Farm that help to grow the grapes and bottle the wine that is among Japan's finest.





I took Angelica to Coco Farm about two weeks ago and had a nice little lunch with my friend Shaun.

The little restaurant has lots of windows. They provided a nice sunny view of the vines.

The winery hosts a harvest festival every year that is a huge event, one of the most popular in Ashikaga.

Yokohama with Angelica

We stayed in the Ashikaga area for most of last week, but on Thursday we each packed a backpack and went to the train station. Our destination this time was Yokohama.

I don't think I've posted this view from the Ashikaga train station yet, but I've seen it a million times. It's a terraced cemetery. Cremation is the norm in Japan, so they don't need a ton of space for burying.

We picked up a few snacks for our journey. Angelica thought it was funny that Seven-Eleven sells individually packaged hard-boiled eggs.

View Larger Map

Yokohama is situated south of Tokyo and is Japan's second largest city.

We started our exploration of the city in Minato Mirai 21, a thoroughly developed area on the coast. A cool fact is much of it is built on reclaimed land.

A shot of Landmark Tower with the Nippon-Maru docked nearby.

There are a few little patches of amusement park here and there. One unique bit was a little vehicle that could be pedaled along on an elevated track.

While the area was clean, new, and well planned, it felt a bit sterile. After taking away the malls, the restaurants, and the little amusement park, I didn't feel like there was a ton to do or to see. Time in Tokyo is probably better spent.

The not-so-imaginatively named Red Brick Warehouse is a nice break from all of the steel and concrete of the rest of the city. While it is currently filled with shops and restaurants, they are trendy and I enjoyed strolling around in them. No McDonald's here.


We had a spring strawberry flavored ice cream at Bashamichi Ice. It was tiny and delicious, topped with a couple of fresh strawberries and sprinkled with dried bits as well.


Lunch was an avocado burger at the Hawaiian themed KUA`AINA. Sure, it's a chain, but its a pretty cool one.


It was one of those burgers that is so big and packed with toppings that you have to really hold on to the bun to keep everything from falling out. It was really good.

I was a bit disappointed in the brick wonderland because it didn't seem to address any of its undoubtedly interesting history. It was completed in 1905, served as a customs building for the bustling port, and survived the Great Kanto Earthquake and World War II. I think I missed something though, because I was too worn out to check the twin building on the other side. I assumed it was just more shops. My bad.


One of Yokohama's strong points, and one that differentiates it a bit from Tokyo, is its Chinatown.

We checked out a Chinese styled temple with a nice incense aroma.

Japan's vision of China: Hello Kitty in a panda suit.

You can check out the previous time I visited Yokohama's Chinatown here for more pictures and witty observations.


Angelica and I discussed not even going to the Ramen Museum in Shinyokohama. We were pretty tired already and the museum was a little bit out of the way. I am soo glad that we went. I wouldn't think twice about taking another multiple hour train ride to visit this place a second time.

Even the exterior was pretty cool. The lights above are giant soup bowls.

After paying a small admission of around 3 dollars, we entered. It was a bit of a rocky start. The first thing one sees after entering is a large gift shop full of ramen related trinkets. I wondered if I had been tricked into buying a ticket to a big store. Around the edges of the the merchandise was a bit of the history of ramen. There was little English signage, and I didn't find it incredibly interesting.

An instant ramen cup featuring Arnold had me laughing.

One level down was where the awesomeness started.

It's a two-story little ramen theme park set in 1958, the year when the first instant ramen was sold. The people that work in the little city are all in character more or less. Super awesome.


The upper floor has nice winding alleyways that are very well themed. Sound effects come from all sides, really pulling you in to the time period. There was even a penny candy store that I bought several interesting items at.




Little ramen restaurants are embedded in the city streets. Sometimes they looked so much a part of the scenery that I had to poke my head in the window to check if they were real.


I only had the stomach room for one bowl of ramen, but the Ramen Museum has assembled an all-star collection of restaurants from all over Japan. We chose to eat at Komurasaki, a ramen shop from the southern island of Kyushu.


It was really good. It was flavored with grilled garlic, something I don't think I've ever tasted in my ramen. Two thumbs up!

So yeah, the Shinyokohama Ramen Museum is awesome. I strongly suggest a name change for them though. Some people find museums boring, and this place is anything but.