This evening I did the NUMBER ONE thing I wanted to do when I came to Japan...EAT AT A RAMEN HOUSE :) Like a legit one, with a bar. Due to it being stupid windy (it only got worse from the daytime) I chose the ramen place I had noticed right near my hotel the other night. Most ramen shops here seem to be open from 11am - 3am.
When I entered, I was so confused at first. One of the counter guys directed me towards a token machine to the right with no names, just colored strips over prices. What the heck? Seeming to sense my absolute dumbfoundedness within about 2 seconds, another nice counter guy came all the way around and tried to help me by miming and speaking Japanese (only some of which I understood). I finally got the gist of it and ordered a small beef shoyu ramen (I think). I remember the kanji characters for small, medium, and big anyway.
When I entered, I was so confused at first. One of the counter guys directed me towards a token machine to the right with no names, just colored strips over prices. What the heck? Seeming to sense my absolute dumbfoundedness within about 2 seconds, another nice counter guy came all the way around and tried to help me by miming and speaking Japanese (only some of which I understood). I finally got the gist of it and ordered a small beef shoyu ramen (I think). I remember the kanji characters for small, medium, and big anyway.
The ramen was SO-HEAVENLY-DELICIOUS-AMAZING-OMG. I always knew the ramen we got in the US couldn't be close to the real deal...I was so right. The noodles were thicker than what I was expecting and perfectly chewy. The broth was super rich and filling, not even really a broth. It came with nori, green onions, a slice of beef, and some sort of spinach or leafy green. I had no idea how I was supposed to eat this properly so I just made so and ate it my way haha. The bar went around in a U shape so I coudn't really spy on the other patrons to see how they were eating it...plus that's creepy. Lol but I really enjoyed my bowl of ramen at the bar, like I had always wanted!! My childhood dream come true, ever since I read my first Naruto manga :D My bowl had cost 700 yen, which is a little less than $9. Pricier than I was expecting, but it DEFINITELY filled me up; it was a giant bowl. They call this a small?! What are you Japanese people made of?? And I'm no tiny eater myself @.@
Green tea ice cream IN A PREPACKAGED CONE that I wrote about before. So. Cool. Also the rest of my goodies I've bought today and views from my window. I seem to be in a fairly residential area with plenty of shops, stores, and food places. I found one particular long long long street that seemed to be a market street of some kind because it was packed and lined with craft, goods, and clothes stores on either side.
Unlike in Korea, people here seem to know right away that I am completely foreign. It's SUCH A WEIRD EXPERIENCE lol, I can't explain. It's just not what I'm used to now, I'm used to having to struggle through it myself to figure it out or have to have a lengthy conversation about how I am NOT in fact Korean, OR Japanese, OR Chinese; I am American. At the grocery stores, the home goods store, and now at the ramen shop, without me even saying a word (with my terrible American-accented Japanese) they seem to instinctively know I'm not from here and help me out right away...it's kind of nice. I have been treated kindly and very well everywhere I've been so far, with everyone being very understanding!
These vending machines are EVERYWHERE. I am talking EVERYWHERE. Like every 10 steps there's another one and if you stand on a street corner you can probably see 5 or 6 without even moving just from that standpoint. I remember reading about how safe Japan was in terms of vandalism since they have vending machiens everywhere and they stay clean, new-looking, and in working order for pretty much forever. Amazing. In America, that's be graffiti-ed and robbed before it hit it's first birthday.
After dinner I got a bottled tea and a hot chocolate from two separate vending machines just to do it (they're so cute and bright haha it's like a bug to a light, I'm just drawn to them). The hot chocolate came out in a can and it was HOT!! For some reason I wasn't expecting this lol, the only machines I've seen that give hot drinks are the open paper cup kind. This is SO FREAKING COOL. I was drinking hot chocolate warm. Out of a can. Why is Asia SO AWESOME.
After dinner I got a bottled tea and a hot chocolate from two separate vending machines just to do it (they're so cute and bright haha it's like a bug to a light, I'm just drawn to them). The hot chocolate came out in a can and it was HOT!! For some reason I wasn't expecting this lol, the only machines I've seen that give hot drinks are the open paper cup kind. This is SO FREAKING COOL. I was drinking hot chocolate warm. Out of a can. Why is Asia SO AWESOME.
I get flustered when paying at counters especially, because unlike Korea (GOD HOW I MISS KOREAN MONEY) the majority of small purchases are made with coins. That is because the smallest bill in Japanese yen is 1,000 which translates to a little over $12. The next bill is 2,000 which is about $25, 5,000 yen is about $62, and 10,000 yen is $126. My brain almost imploded when I first calculated these changes on the flight over to Japan. Seriously. I was used to Korea, where 1,000 won is LESS than a dollar. And frankly I like it that way lol. Therefore, there are tons of coins being used, from 500 to 100 to 50 to 10 to 1. As the 500 won coin is still worth over $6, you clearly need to be careful with your coin purse -.- I'm still kind of shellshocked right now to be honest, and it's the end of the 2nd day already.
It takes me a lot of time to count out the unfamiliar coins, because in Korea your purchases would all be in big denominations (e.g. 3,500 won or 12,000 won. Nothing less than 500 won would usually be seen when I bought stuff, which made it easy to use bills and big coins). Here though, my purchases end up being like 1, 271 yen or something. So I'm sitting here trying to count out my unfamiliar coins and have to apologize and ask the register lady to hold on a moment please. I remember at least that much Japanese. They all seem to find it really amusing thankfully lol, instead of being annoyed. Another different thing is that when ringing you up, they say aloud the price of each item as they scan it. Every. Single. One. As my first few trips to the grocery store were rather fruitful, it was kind of funny because they would be calling out prices as they scanned for a good couple minutes haha because my basket was so full. I wonder why they call out prices as they go...it's fun trying to keep up with their number counting though haha. I got really good at Korean numbers (both number sets) so switching now back to Japanese is hard. It's still so unbelievably frustrating for me, because at one point I had all of this and much more down pat! I would've been able to easily converse with the people here, instead of struggling so hard to remember the Japanese equivalent of the Korean word in my head that I look like I'm suffering some sort of mental collapse @.@
It takes me a lot of time to count out the unfamiliar coins, because in Korea your purchases would all be in big denominations (e.g. 3,500 won or 12,000 won. Nothing less than 500 won would usually be seen when I bought stuff, which made it easy to use bills and big coins). Here though, my purchases end up being like 1, 271 yen or something. So I'm sitting here trying to count out my unfamiliar coins and have to apologize and ask the register lady to hold on a moment please. I remember at least that much Japanese. They all seem to find it really amusing thankfully lol, instead of being annoyed. Another different thing is that when ringing you up, they say aloud the price of each item as they scan it. Every. Single. One. As my first few trips to the grocery store were rather fruitful, it was kind of funny because they would be calling out prices as they scanned for a good couple minutes haha because my basket was so full. I wonder why they call out prices as they go...it's fun trying to keep up with their number counting though haha. I got really good at Korean numbers (both number sets) so switching now back to Japanese is hard. It's still so unbelievably frustrating for me, because at one point I had all of this and much more down pat! I would've been able to easily converse with the people here, instead of struggling so hard to remember the Japanese equivalent of the Korean word in my head that I look like I'm suffering some sort of mental collapse @.@