**External link to the website except written in Japanese
My youngest brother's name is Asuke, which parents often name their own daughter and merely their own son in Japan.
Today he, eight years younger than I, came to Tokyo by Highway Bus in order to attend the Open Campus of a university there.
The Open Campus in Japan is a meeting or session that professors or staffs of a university give a explanation or information about their university, especially its history, curriculum, entrance examination, and students whom they want or need, in its campus or buildings to those who want to enter that university and their family.
And I slept for only three hours; I went to bed at 0 a.m. but I somehow woke up at about 3 a.m.
Tokyo Station
About 0 p.m. I picked up him at Tokyo station in front of which the terminal for his bus from Koriyama was.
And I had been going to get on the train there and go to Tokyo Gakugei University* (東京学芸大学) in Koganei city (小金井市) just after that but he complained that he was hungry therefore before getting on the train we had lunch on Tokyo Ramen Street* (東京ラーメンストリート) in Tokyo station.
We ate tsuke-men at Nidaime Keisuke Ebisoba Gaiden* (二代目けいすけ海老そば外伝) (proper but too long name...) there.
To tell the truth, we wanted to visit a brunch of Rokurinsha*, Rokurinsha Tokyo (六厘舎TOKYO) (Rokurinsha is the most popular tsuke-men shop in Tokyo) but there were many customers waiting in line and its staffs said that we might have to wait one hour therefore we gave up eating ramen at Rokurinsha.
Keisuke is also a popular ramen shop in Tokyo but I had never eaten their ramen or tsuke-men.
My brother ordered 300g of Noukou Ebi Tsuke-men (濃厚海老つけめん) (850 yen) whose soup was cooked in heavily thick stock made from the Japanese spiny lobster (伊勢エビ) while I chose 400g of that tsuke-men (1000 yen.)
400g of Noukou Ebi Tsuke-men I chose
Frankly speaking, I do not like this tsuke-men; the soup was seasoned with and smelled like lobster too much and heavily! My brother said so too.
I did not want to keep eating it halfway though I ate it up all of course.
And I would never want to eat it again.
But I do not want to say that this tsuke-men tasted bad; it did not just suit my taste.
Tokyo Gakugei University ~ Nakano
It was 20-30 minutes past 1 p.m. when we got on the Chuo Line train (中央線) from Tokyo station.
Therefore it was almost just 2 p.m. when we got to Musashi-koganei station (武蔵小金井駅) on the Chuo Line, which is the nearest station from Gakugei University.
And we had to take a bus (170 yen) because it took 20-30 minutes to go there by walk from this station, and moreover, we must die if we would walk around in this terrible sunshine and heat today!
Today it was very hot in Tokyo too but hot especially in the western part of it.
Entrance of Tokyo Gakugei University
We managed to get the session in time which gave us information about the department my brother wanted to enter but was planned to be held four times today. The session we attended was the fourth, last one stating at 2:30 p.m.
We had had little time to eat ramen leisurely at Tokyo station.
After that we walked around to see the sights of the very large campus.
We entered the university library, whose building was smaller and whose collection of books seemed fewer than Hitotsubashi's or Waseda's one.
While we were on the subject, we visited Ramen Jiro Shin-Koganei-Kaidou* (ラーメン二郎 新小金井街道店), which is located near Gakugei University but was still closed then.
By the way, I have sometimes visited this Jiro before with my friend Kaz and others.
Wide street in the campus
In front of Ramen Jiro Shin-koganei Kaidou
However, anyway, we got very tired because we wandered around in such a dead heat and sunshine!
About 5 p.m. we were back at Musashi-koganei station.
We had to go to Ikebukuro (池袋) 7:30 p.m. to see our special guest but had a little enough time until then.
So I brought my brother to a deeper otaku and sub-culture town than e.g. Akihabara (秋葉原), Nakano (中野) on the Chuo Line.
In a shopping center, Nakano Broadway** (中野ブロードウェイ) in front of Nakano Station there are a lot of shops handling manga, anime goods, video games and so on.
There we can also view some rare items (e.g. toy, doll, poster) on old Japanese animations free so you can enjoy yourself there if you have little money.
With Kitaro (鬼太郎) from GeGeGe no Kitaro (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎)
At this point in Nakano we were very tired and our foots had already hurt a little.
Ikebukuro ~ Jiro
On the Yamanote Line train (山手線) to Ikebukuro I got a phone call from the special guest, Rick.
He said that he would like to move our appointment to one hour later, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. because today 11 p.m. he was going to cross over to Izu-oshima** (伊豆大島) where his relatives lived from Takeshiba Passengers Terminal (竹芝旅客ターミナル) (Takeshiba Sanbashi, 竹芝桟橋) by ship with his family but he did not finish preparing his baggage yet.
However, the appointment was canceled; he had to work overtime in the daytime, after that he had to go back home and pack his things. Moreover he had to rendezvous with his family at that port 10:00 p.m. Therefore there was not enough time left for him to have dinner with us at Ikebukuro.
About 8 p.m. I accepted his apologies for canceling the appointment through the phone. That was pity but impossible to be avoided.
By the way, Rick has seen once my youngest brother at Ikebukuro last summer.
He offered my brother wine at a hamburger steak restaurant, Gold Rush* (ゴールドラッシュ) but he declined this offer because he was under age (it's natural!)
I visited Jiro Ikebukuro (二郎池袋店) with my brother.
It was he who wanted to eat Jiro; he said that he had watched a TV variety program about Jiro before and he was tempted to eat it by this TV show. (It may be here*.)
In front of this shop there were fewer customers than usual waiting in line I supposed because it was deadly hot today so normal ramen fans must have not wanted to eat it in such hot night.
About 8:30 p.m. we sat at table.
Inside the shop it was very hot and humid; the air-conditioner must have not worked well or have been broken. All of customers were eating ramen being in a profuse sweat. This was the bad condition.
(Rick, we should not eat Jiro in summer. That's surely suicidal.)
My brother chose normal-sized ramen (700 yen) as well as I. I did not choose large-sized because I was very tired so I was not confident of eating it up all (even Ramen-Satan sometimes takes good care of himself!)
And this was the first time for my brother to eat Jiro. I was afraid that he did not like Jiro. Jiro is ramen which some like but others do not even if they were all ramen fans.
But he said, "very good! I like it!"
Oh, sinfully, I created a Jirolian (ジロリアン) once again (Rick and Kaz were Jirolians made out by myself Ramen-Satan!)
Normal-sized ramen (and fingers of my younger brother above)
I did it!
After going out of the shop we were thirsty because of eating fatty and salty ramen and the un-falling temperature in spite of the night so we bought plastic bottles of juice at a Convenience Store, Family Mart** (ファミリーマート) in front of Ikebukuro station.
My room
It was about 10:30 p.m. when we got back to my room in Kanamachi.
My foots had still hurt so I had (made?) him massage my foots (it's a privilege of the elder brother!)
During his massage I felt asleep before I was aware of it.
To be continued tomorrow...
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