Ramen: I know what you're thinking, so don't! It is sooooo much better here.

Do you know what this is? A blessing upon the seekers of happiness! A testimony to the strive for perfection in food!

These two ramen shops operate and compete side by side.
The one with the red sign is called 武蔵家 or Musashi House
and the one with the white sign is calledぐうたら Guutara,
which means lazybones/good-for-nothing/idler. Very
similar to slacker, right? :D

When I was here last, I developed a connection with food and my moods. When I was feeling victorious, I would eat sushi, typically from a conveyor belt. When I was in a celebratory mood, izakaya/bar fried foods were a perfect match. When I was feeling homesick, Japanese style curry and rice tasted a lot like beef or chicken stew and would help me. And when I was feeling like a failure (in language class or Wadaiko club, or just a bad experience with Japanese bureaucracy), I would save up my money for a day or so, eat nearly nothing and go out for ramen. Where does one go for ramen? Well, you have several choices, but if you are in the ICU area, might I suggest Guutara Ramen? They are my boys. Let me tell you why!

There are many types of ramen, noodles, and ingredients.
This was the ramen they called the Guutara Ramen, kind
of like their house special, with free appetizer rice and pork. 

Guys don't care about going out to eat ramen. It is filling, it is delicious, and it is a good time (just you and a bowl or a social time with your buddies). But girls don't want to eat it often. "I'll get fat" "It is too salty" "Ramen shops are so hot and gross" sorts of complaints are common from girls. To keep the girls coming into their shops, ramen workers are overly nice to them. Girls tend to get free appetizers, special attention from the cooks during the meal, free refills and free dessert! That was why I went there when I felt low about myself; with all that special service, how could I stay upset? On top of that the food was fantastic! And since I was so active, I didn't fret about all the other stuff girls did. One meal at Guutara is about $8-$10 American, though, so I made sure I got as many refills of noodles as I could.

The typical ramen shop set up. The tissues are when your
nose starts to run from having your face over a bowl of
hot soup for too long. And they also work as napkins.

Ramen is the Japanese version of Lo Mein (say them a couple of times - they sound similar, right?) but depending on where you go, it can be far less oil based. I personally love when they put the undercooked soft-boiled egg in the ramen. There are individual shops and large corporate ramen chains all over Japan, so no mater where you go, you'll find somewhere to eat. They are open late at night and are a great place to wait for the spring rain to stop. Noodles not your thing? Most also offer other side foods like gyoza. But whenever you make it to the Land of the Rising Sun, do yourself a favor, and get a bowl of ramen! Money well spent for sure!

Today's free dessert is douhua, or sweet
tofu pudding with fruit syrup. I'd liken this
to the Chinese (yes, it is ia Chinese dessert)
version of jello.

The Gourmet Club (GuruMegane) at ICU wrote this brief review of Guutara when they were sampling ramen locations near campus.

Likewise, students other than me at ICU include Guutara in their blogs and websites.

Even two years ago, my words failed me. This was my first impression about ramen.