Sunshine City in the morning

*External link to the Japanese website
**External link to the website except written in Japanese

After some minor business from the morning in Ikebukuro (池袋), I visited Yasubee (やすべえ) there.
I was very tired and sleepy because I had to go there without sleep at all last night.

Because it was Saturday today and maybe because it was fine and rather warm for winter, there were a lot of passengers there.
I had never seen such a scene because I have scarcely ever come to Ikebukuro in the day but often in the evening.

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I have visited other branches (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Suidou-bashi, Akihabara) of Yasubee but this was the first time for me to visit Yasubee Ikebukuro.
There were still crowded customers waiting in line at Yasubee Ikebukuro, too when I came to this shop even at about 2 p.m.
But this shop had a steady flow of customers (客の回転がいい) because of many (about 8 or 9) staffs for this tiny shop therefore about 15 persons was waiting before me but I was waiting only about for 10 minutes.


Entrance of Yasubee Ikebukuro; you can see many customers waiting inside the shop

I did not choose extralarge-sized (550g) but large-sized tsuke-men (440g, 720 yen), which looked smaller than other branches.
I like its tsuke-men but today's soup tasted a little salty-sweet and was not cooked in good stock, I guessed.


Large-sized tsuke-men

Oh... I feel like eating more better tsuke-men like Momiji (紅葉) or Tonikaku (兎に角)...

And I bought hayauri Weekly Shonen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ) vol. 10. at a certain book store in Ikebukuro.

It was about 3:30 p.m. when I got to my room.
And I fell asleep and was sleeping heavily between 4 and 8 p.m.

Zusammenfassung von heute (today's summary)

• Nach einem kleinen Geschäft habe ich Tsuke-men ungefähr um 14 Uhr bei Yasubee, Ikebukuro gegessen.
• Ich möchte Yasubees Tsuke-men, aber heute war das nicht lecker.
• In Ikebukuro gab es viele Menschen, weil heute es Samstag war und vielleicht weil es warmer für den Winter.
  

Ramen seekers

*External link to the Japanese website
**External link to the website except written in Japanese

It was about 2 p.m. when we woke up... Overslept!
Myself aside, Koba slept too much because Koba might have been very tired.

That is why Ramen Jiro Matsudo (ラーメン二郎 松戸店) finished the daytime business (11:30-15:00) when we rushed there just a few minutes before 3 p.m.
We looked for another good shop or restaurant but, for example there was an incredibly long waiting line in front of Tomita* (中華蕎麦 とみ田) which is located near Matsudo station (松戸駅) as well as Jiro, the No.1 ranking in Ramen Date Base (as of Nov. 2), we were not able to find it and it was not already lunch time then therefore we gave up having lunch (breakfast?)

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We went back to Kanamachi in order to take a bus for Asakusa (浅草); he wanted to get Tokyo souvenirs for his family.
And there I bought 30 pieces of Ningyou-yaki (人形焼) (a Japanese cake and a popular souvenir from Asakusa) because it was discounted at a certain shop (700 yen per 30 pieces.)


New landmark of Tokyo, Tokyo Sky Tree


Kaminari-mon gate (an entrance gate of Sensou-ji temple)

About 5 p.m. it started raining when we were walking around Sensou-ji temple (浅草寺) and Nakamise-dori (仲見世通り) (a shopping center of Sensou-ji.)
We took shelter from the rain under Houzou-mon (宝蔵門), a large entrance gate of the main building (本堂) of Sensou-ji, for a short while but at a 100-yen shop* near Sensou-ji I bought a plastic rain poncho (I carried a fold-up umbrella with me) and Koba bought an umbrella.

About 6 p.m. we took a train at Asakusa station on Toei Asakusa line (都営浅草線) via Toei Mita line (都営三田線) in order to go to Meguro (目黒) and visit Ramen Jiro (ラーメン二郎 目黒店) there.
It cost 260 yen to buy a one-way ticket a person to go there.



But today Meguro Jiro took a extra holiday though it usually opens on Sunday...

Unbelievable! Not again! (=またか!) Why does it happen to me again and again!?
And moreover, we came here from a distant place through the rain expressly to eat its ramen! (Meguro Jiro is far (about 15 minutes' walk) from Meguro station (目黒駅), its nearest one.)
Scheisse! I will never come to this shop!

We were at a loss where to go to eat ramen.
It was proposed that we go to Ikebukuro (池袋) expressly in order to eat ramen at Jiro (ラーメン二郎 池袋店) or Taishoken (南池袋大勝軒) there but for the present we tried to look for another good ramen shop around Meguro station.

On the way back to the station from Jiro, we found out a certain tsukemen shop; Zyurumen Ikeda (づゅる麺 池田) (too hard to transcribe into arphabet... I hate an absurd Japanese transcription ignoring the pronunciation! I cannot understand that "KAT-TUN" should be pronounced [ka:tu:n] (like "cartoon") or "∞" of "Kanjani ∞" is not "infinity" but "eight.")
At first we wondered if we should enter this shop or not.
However, Ramen Date Base* said through my cellular phone that Ikeda had the No.166 ranking (rather higher!) in October therefore we decided to try it.


extralarge-sized tsukemen

I chose extralarge-sized tsukemen (つけ麺特盛) (500g, 900 yen) as well as Koba.
Its tsukemen tasted good. Noodles were boiled properly and smelled like Minami Ikebukuro Taishoken's ones.
But it was good but not great. I did not think that it was peculiar; I love more peculiar ramen like Jiro or Tonikaku (Matsudo) (松戸・兎に角), Momiji (Kokubunji) (国分寺・つけ麺紅葉) and others.
I will not come to Meguro expressly to eat this tsukemen again.

After going out of this shop, about 8:30 p.m., we went to McDonald's in order to chat with each other; Our behavior remains the same even if the one moved to the other place!
And it was about 11 p.m. when we parted from each other; he went to Takada-no-baba (高田馬場) to be a Net Cafe refugee again there.
He said that the next day in the morning he would take the limited express train Azusa (特急「あずさ」) at JR Shinjuku station (JR新宿駅) in order to go back to Nagano and at that time he would dismantle his bicycle in order to carry it on the train.

Today's story still carries on.

About 1 a.m. my younger brother, Ryoma, a university student in Niigata prefecture (新潟県), reached my room by car from Kochi prefecture (高知県) in a distance of about 900 km on about 12 hours' drive.
A week ago he went to Kochi from Niigata by his own car in order to conduct research on the geological features there; he has studied geology.
I had received an E-mail from him through my cellular phone at about 1:30 p.m., about 12 hours before, that he had been starting for Tokyo from Kochi now.

The ramen-man condition (2)

*External link to the Japanese website
**External link to the website except written in Japanese

Attention: I have been writing the article about my brother's visit in Tokyo: day 2 on Jul. 25, but it has not been completed yet. So I publish today's article first.

About 9:30 p.m. I ate tsuke-men at Yasubee Akihabara (やすべえ秋葉原店) alone.
This was the second time for me to eat it there (the first time was May 29. with Koba.)


Extralarge-sized tsuke-men (550g) (880 yen)

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I like their tsuke-men but I did not feel that it tasted as good as before probably because I might have already experienced more delicious tsuke-men than Yasubee, as I said before.

However, it is praiseworthy that this shop had a steady flow of customers (客の回転がいい).
More delicious tsuke-men shops I have mentioned sometimes have a non-good flow of customers; for example, at Momiji (紅葉) I always must wait in line every time I visit this shop. Of course it is because Momiji is one of more popular tsuke-men shop in Tokyo.

After leaving Yasubee, I dropped in at Bookoff** in front of Akihabara station (ブックオフ秋葉原駅前店).
It was exactly 11:19 p.m.* when I took the Hibiya Line train for Kita-Kasukabe (地下鉄日比谷線北春日部行き) at Akihabara.

Frontier spirits

This is a new frontier.
About 8:45 p.m. I visited Bankara (ばんから), Akihabara (秋葉原) with Koba.
This ramen shop started a business May 21. and this was the second time for me to come to this shop; it was in the end of May that I ate their ramen first.

I am ultra-conservative about food and do not mind visiting my favorite restaurants every week.
But, on the other hand, I am a ramenist therefore I have to reclaim a new ramen world.
This is just a frontier spirit!



I chose mega-sized tsuke-men (1000 yen) with additional noodles (120 yen) (メガ盛つけ麺 + 麺増し).
Its soup was sweet and spicy (甘辛い), and was quite different from, for instance, Momiji's (紅葉) soup, which was cooked very well in good stock (出汁が効いている).

This tsuke-men was good.
But I would not like to eat it every week because it was too expensive.
I suppose that mega-sized would cost about 800 yen at a reasonable price.
(I think that all of their ramen were more or less expensive while they had a small amount.)

In the rain

It was raining so lightly that I did not put up an umbrella though I carried it with me.

About 9:45 p.m. I visited Momiji (紅葉), Kokubunji (国分寺) alone because of Rick's absence from the seminar.
But I had to wait in line until about 10:20 p.m. because there were already more than 10 customers waiting before me.



I ate large-sized tsuke-men (820 yen) as usual; today I had to choose original noodles partly also made from tapioka (タピオカ入り変わり麺) because normal noodles we ate every time were already sold out.
Tapioka noodles were good too!

The ramen-man condition

*External link to the Japanese website
**External link to the website except written in Japanese

After laboring at Hibiya/Yurakucho for 9 hours including 1 hour of rest between 0:30 and 9:30 p.m., I went to Shinbashi by walk in order to eat tsuke-men at Shinbashi Taishoken* (新橋大勝軒).
Listening to Dio's music with my portable player in order to mourn for him, I walked to it for about 10-20 minutes through the drizzle along JR Yamanote line.
By the way, I stayed up all night yesterday. So it was not easy but a little hard for me to walk around through the rain in the night after the vigil and 9 hours' laboring.

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I heard some of staffs talking with each other in the language which was obviously Asian but not Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
I chose large-sized tsuke-men (400g, 750 yen) though they sarved also extra large-sized one. I did not choose it because it was 600g and too much to eat.

...And I would never come here expressly to eat this tsuke-men. f^_^;
It was not bad but I had already experienced the tastes of Tomita** (とみ田) (Matsudo) (see also here* for Japanese), Tonikaku (兎に角) (Matsudo) and Momiji (紅葉) (Kokubunji and Koriyama) whose tsuke-men were much better than Shinbashi Taishoken.



Fortunately, tonight I visited this shop without YR, who always complains to me whenever the shop or restaurant I took him was not good for him (in spite of the fact that I'm not a owner of that shop!)
One of conditions to be a ramenist is not to be afraid of drawing a blank.

Female vocalists

About 8:30 p.m. I ate large-sized tsuke-men (つけ麺大盛) (520g, 870 yen) for dinner at Momiji (紅葉), Kokubunji with Rick.
He chose the same size, too.

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Talking about Heavy Metal at McDonald's, he told me that Within Temptation (Netherlands) was popular in Moldova where he had stayed for some weeks last summer.
Actually, he said that there was popular Within Temptation's female vocalist, Sharon den Adel, featured by a Techno band or unit.
By the way, I do not like Heavy Metal music featuring female vocalists.
But I prefer Dark Moor featuring Elisa C. Martin (Spain), Crystal Viper (Poland) and Arch Enemy (Sweden & Germany) because their vocals sound as if men were on vocal in spite of the fact that their vocalists are all female.

And I showed him the new electronic dictionary of mine which I bought last Tuesday.
Then he, 26, one year-older than I, looked up German obscene words (I can't tell you here!) in my electronic dictionary for fun.
I was disgusted with him and convinced that he was stupid!

Come back if delicious

About 8:30 p.m. I ate large-sized tsuke-men (つけ麺大盛) (520g, 870 yen) for dinner at Momiji (紅葉), Kokubunji with Rick.
He chose middle-sized tsuke-men (つけ麺中盛) (390g, 810 yen.)



We visited this shop last Friday, too.
We might love this tsuke-men...

Ramen battle in Koriyama

*External link to the Japanese website
**External link to the website except written in Japanese

About 2 p.m. I ate tsuke-men with my mother for lunch at Nidaime Momiji (二代目紅葉), Koriyama which is a branch of Momiji (紅葉), Kokubunji (国分寺), Tokyo which is the main shop and which I visited with a friend of mine Rick 3 weeks ago.

I chose XXL-sized tsuke-men (特盛り) (500 g), which is rather expensive because I had to pay 1000 yen for 500 g of noodles.
(By the way, at its main shop I paid 930 yen for XXL-sized tsuke-men (特盛り), 650 g of noodles; it was a little more expensive but seemed necessary because it was located in Tokyo.)
However it tasted so good as its main shop in Tokyo, and I think it was the best tsuke-men in Koriyama, better than Koriyama Taishoken (郡山大将軒).
But opposite to me, my mother said that she liked Koriyama Taishoken.
It is sure that some do not always like what others like.

By the way, recently good ramen shops have been increasing in Koriyama city, which I do not know because I have not lived there since 2003; Koriyama Taishoken (spring '05), Ohsuka (大須賀) (end of October 'o7), Ten-shin* (天心) (no date), Momiji (end of June '09), and so on.
Koriyama is a closely contested district for ramen (ラーメン激戦区) and a fierce battle rages on...

(Pics will be added later.)

My absolute...

I ate tsuke-men for dinner at Kouyou Momiji(1) (紅葉), Kokubunji (国分寺) with Rick.
I think that it is second best next to Tonikaku (兎に角) among tsuke-men which I have ever eaten.

(1) Mar. 27, 2010 corrected.


XXL-sized tsuke-men (特盛り) I chose (930 yen)

And surprisingly, this shop has its branch* in Koriyama city.
I would like to visit there when I go back to my hometown.

He is a good guy except for the fact that he tends to shelve his own problem like mine.

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Some ask someone whether he is happy with what he is now doing and often tell him to do what makes him happier or at least helps him earn a livelihood better than what he is now doing.
But.
Such a question might be meaningless if he neither lives a happy life nor hopes at all that what he is now doing makes him happy.

I would lose some friendships and a "loveship" because of my "absolute misanthropy" or dislike to others but am going to lose also my career because of it.
What irony.