First Supper

This is the first meal I've cooked in Japan.  Legit Japanese style yakisoba noodles with beef, green beans, a fried egg (I don't think that's actually supposed to be in traditional yakisoba, but sue me) and....

gyoza!  This meal was like 2-3 yen to make?  So I think I can actually live sort of cheaply here.  I'm glad cause I was really getting sick of paying like a buck fifty for 3 bites of rice.  Next step, rice cooker?  Well, we'll see, everything takes so long.  I spent like an hour decifering the laundry machine and even with the help of a Japanese speaker, I still screwed up a load of laundry somehow and one load was sitting in a puddle of water. -_-

Hakata Ramen

This is legitimate Hakata Ramen.  Shinsengumi and every other ramen place has nothing on this.  This is the most popular ramen restaurant in Tenjin.  Their specialty is Hakata Ramen, and they have two types.  This is the slightly more expensive bowl (800 yen ~ $8.00) and as far as I could understand, the difference between the 700 yen and 800 yen bowl is that, this "might be" slightly larger and is "deeper".  The exact word the waitress used to explain it was, "it's deeper" and that's all.  So I found out the difference is that red splat in the middle of the bowl.  It's what they call a "flavor ball" that you mix into the soup broth.  I have no idea what it is, it's likely it's just a giant ball of MSG but I don't care.  Other differences, they use some black mushrooms (right of the bowl) and really not much else.  No frills, just damn good ramen.