After nearly 2 years living in Japan I have finally found the thing I miss most from home… Poker! Unfortunately I had to travel around 1.5 hours to play and be mindful of the time so I can catch the last train home (11:03pm), but it turned out to be quite fun and profitable. The game is No Limit Holdem with just ¥25/¥50 (25¢/50¢) blinds I managed to take home a profit of ¥13,450 ($134.50). Needless to say I was happy. Besides that it was a fun group of guys who I would love to join in on their game again assuming they allow me back to take their money.

A nice pint of Bass Ale was an additional added value bonus.

After my dissapointing Ramen Mistake I was determined to revisit Jangara Ramen and get it right. Of course all that hype is a recipe for a let down. The Ramen was good but not great. The pork was really good but the egg turned out to be just a hard boiled egg not a Hanjuku Tamago which I prefer (半熟卵 Soft boiled egg). Plus the little orange/red blob in the top right was some strange substance I am still not sure of what it was. It was kinda fishy and spicy in taste. Still all in all it was  pretty good bowl of Ramen and I would recomend it to anybody passing through Harajuku.

For those of you who don’t know Tsukemen is basically a reverse Ramen. The noodles and broth are separate and yyou dip the noodles before eating them. This wasn’t bad but there were a couple things I didn’t care for. The noodles were a bit too thick more like Spaghetti and the broth was a bit too fishy for me. Plus I think I just prefer Ramen over Tsukemen.

http://www.yasubee.com/

I have been here at Yottekoya before but this is the first time I had their Red Cheese Ramen. It was pretty good but not as good as the cheese ramen from Tukumo.

Ivan is a fellow New Yorker who thought he would see if he could hang with the Japanese Ramen Elite. I think Ivan is hanging in there just fine if not better than fine. This 醤油全部のせラーメン (Soy Sauce Everything Ramen) was definitely one of the better bowls of Ramen I have had here. If you are ever in 芦花公園 , (Roka-kōen) defenitely drop by for a bowl.

http://www.ivanramen.com/

Saw this great tiny little car in Daitabashi. Only three wheels so it is probably classified as a motorcycle but it amused the hell out of me anyway.

This was a pretty good bowl of Ramen though nothing special. But it is always good trying some more neighborhood Ramen.

Natsuko’s father took me for ホルモン焼き (Hormone Yaki) for the first time. Basically its giblets, organs and all the random beef and pig parts. Ohyeah you can get just regualr meat too. I have gone for 焼き肉 (korena bbq) before just never ate all the extra stuff. I would say in the future I will just stick to the straight up meat. After a whole lot of meat and quite a few drinks Natsuko’s father insisted I try the Snake Sake. I was a bit hesitent at first but eventually I gave in. All in all not bad though it was quite strong.

Yum!

I have decided that taking picures of American cars here is boring and not all that unique anyway. So unless anybody tells me they just can’t live without my American car posts this will be my last one. If anybody has any request for something they want me to document here instead please let me know.

Ford Explorer # 5