Ramen (Kind of) and Osaka

As I promised, an iconic-Japanese-food-themed story! Today, after a morning of homework, some new friends and I went to the Ramen Museum in Osaka! And yes, I wore my ramen socks on the outside of my skinny jeans to show my excitement. However, I soon realized that it was the Cup of Noodles Ramen museum. I'm not really a fan of Cup of Noodles. But entry was free and I was able to take some neat pictures. About half of the group went through the line and made their own Cup of Noodles cup while the other half just chatted. There were these adorable chick mascots everywhere - little yellow chickens with different personalities. The only thing was...one of the pictures was a cannibal chicken! It is making ramen with chicken eggs~!

Anyway, after that we decided to eat at a nearby ramen shop to keep the theme of ramen. However, there was a long wait line for it so we ended up eating at a popular family-style-restaurant/"cafe" called Gasto. I had "Cheese in Hamburger" which was literally a hamburger patty with cheese in the middle and was actually pretty good (not as good as my host mother's hamburger, of course). There was also 3 edamame pods, 2 small hash-brown patties, and some roasted corn. I was still hungry (and love sweets) so I ordered the "Stone ice-cream parfait" which was a disassembled parfait in a stone bowl: ice cream, a small slice of cheesecake, banana slices, various fruits, and amazing, CoolWhip-like whipped cream. It was quite delicious.






We had thought the Ramen museum would have taken more time, but seeing as it did not, we decided to check out a nearby temple...but ended up not doing that since no one knew really where it was, Google Maps wasn't working on multiple phones, and we were tiring of walking for long distances and then having to backtrack. So we went to a popular train station with this pretty waterfall staircase and checked out the Pokemon Center! Employees were setting up an event (card game) and there were poken (video game) trials here and there. There were also a lot of the new series of pokemon out. I wanted to get something for my brother, but the only non-new pokemon items that were there were Pikachu and Snorlax. Hopefully, when I go to Tokyo I can find something more befitting him. Although, I did use a Gacha machine for the first time and got something for a friend of mine. A piece was missing and I was distraught, but one of the friends (G) with me said he didn't really care about his so gave it to me! It was so sweet! Without G, my friend back at home wouldn't be able to receive this gift! I'm so grateful.

At one point today, we actually walked across the border between Osaka and Hyogo Prefecture (which encompasses where I live in Nishinomiya, KGU, and some parts of Kobe). Usually, we cross the borders via trains so don't notice anything, but, apparently, there were beautiful markers designating the border by showing each prefecture's symbols.The one on the right being Osaka and the Purple flowers representing Hyogo.

 It was nice walking around the cities of Japan, talking with friends about various topics, and eating some really good food. I think I spent about $11 for lunch today, and I'm pretty sure the same food would have been closer to $20 in the US. There was an embarrassing part where I misheard the waitress and thus gave her the wrong answer. I thought she asked if we were done deciding what we wanted (and I said no since we'd be ordering dessert later), but what she really was asking if all our food had arrived (in this form, to decide is "kimeteiru" and to arrive/come is "kiteiru" - I was adding the "me" in there for some reason).

Finally, I made it back home for some delicious Chinese-style food and Japanese senbe sweets. There was a dish wish beef, green peppers, onions, and take-no-ko which went amazing with the fried rice and the soup (which had onions, egg, those invisible noodles, and take-no-ko). There was also a salad with these sprout-like, onion-like vegetables (my host dad loves them apparently and I cannot recall the word at the moment).

Speaking of walking home, I was so happy because A. I used the train system without getting lost at all today and B. I recognized which way to go today by the kanji rather than the smaller English print! I was so happy! I truly like the Japanese train system. People are courteous, even during rush hour where the train gets super cramped. It's a completely different feeling than the cramped trains and subway of London. Also, there is nice scenery (which London did have btw). There are a lot of small rivers that the trains usually cross over. Today, I saw an egret flying over one river and, over another, there was a string of colorful fish flags dancing in the wind. It was quite nice.

I thought before I left for the night, I'd post some pictures of what it is like walking home from the nearest train station. Neat buildings, agricultural areas within urban areas, and a beautiful sakura tree are the highlights. Unfortunately, the sakura season is nearing its end. I miss the pink clouds and scattering petals. I wasn't able to try any sakura-themed snacks either (though, my host mother and I were talking about the ending of the sakura season, and she said there might still be snacks out - so there is hope!).