First Ramen of the Trip
There are few traditions in Japan that revolve around New Year, one of these it to do house repairs and yearly house tasks. For us this means changing all the batteries in the clocks, clean and repair all the light fixtures and what ever needs renewal. So, we needed to head off to one of the main stations to replace a gas hose for the cooking stove. There is a good ramen place up the hill in Minami-Senri, and they serve a good bowl of spicy tonkotsu ramen with really nice chashu (roasted pork).
Chashu is an art form onto itself, I once sent a week on the side of El Capitan debating what the perfect Chashu should be with Nagaska (A member of the climbing team below us, Nagasaka and Takeshi were traveling from Japan to Yosemite. Because of the way we switched belays on the wall, I would end up hanging out with Nagasaka and Rex was hanging out with Takeshi, this went on for days, without us seeing the other). After days of debate on the topic we came to the following conclusion... The perfect chashu should have the perfect balance of fat and meat with a deep roast flavor well into the meat, then when added to the hot ramen it loosens up to the point that it falls apart in your mouth but not in your hashi (chopsticks) or in the ramen itself. When cold it should be think enough to stand on end.
After ramen we headed back to Minami-senri for shopping to finish up the missing items for Osetchi. There I found the melons are cheap at the moment... only about $80....
After ramen we headed back to Minami-senri for shopping to finish up the missing items for Osetchi. There I found the melons are cheap at the moment... only about $80....