My Tokyo Blog (well, sort of)

[MilSpex]

i don't know where to put this, but it's pretty funny.

Worst restaurant experience ever (kintaro ramen)

Well folks, this joint has gone downhill in a hurry. A few years ago it was good, but after today's disaster we won't be back, and we'll be advising everyone we know to stay away. Here's the skinny:

My wife, 13-month old baby,and I arrived a few minutes before opening today (Aug.7/07). We dutifully took our place in line (there were about 5 or 6 people ahead of us) on a rainy Tuesday. A waitress came out and handed everyone menus, returning a few minutes later to take advance orders. The couple ahead of us were the last to order; the waitress inexplicably stopped there and returned inside (so why give us a menu in the first pleace?). It wasn't a good omen.

When the doors opened everyone took a seat and I immediately wondered how the staff would remember who was first in line.Sure enough, soon everyone had ordered, including a lot of people behind us in line before she came to our table (so what's the point in lining up?). My wife (she's Japanese) called the waitress over and told her that we hadn't ordered yet (meanwhile, some people were already getting served). She took our order and we waited, and waited, and waited. Everyone we were sharing the large table with in front now had food in front of them except us. 12:15 rolls by, then 12:30. WTF? Some people were now finished and leaving. Fed up,I asked my wife to again have a word with the idiot "managing" the floor (the same 20-something Japanese ESL student). My wife tore a strip off her (our baby was now getting fussy as well) and we got up to leave. It was now 12:40PM...we'd been waiting 40 mins.+ for a couple of bowls of soup and had only been given glasses of water, that's it. Remember, we about fifth in line. We stormed out and my wife again gave the waitress hell outside the restaurant. We got empty apologies. What a waste of time. Hungry and pissed off, we returned home.

Japs dont like foreigners or babys in restaurants so you`re lucky you even got a table. Go eat at subway, they got the shrimp and avacado sub going at the moment. Good stuff and limited racism. Japanese food sucks anyway. Ramen is basically Chinese and the Chinese version tastes way better imo.

I`ll never forget what a student of mine wrote about Japan:

"In Japan we like the white, we even dont hate the black, Japan is a good country for the foreigner I think."

[mizanation]

sounds like you have a love/hate relationship with japan, mils.

it ain't as bad as you make it out to be. and it ain't as good as other people make it out to be. i hate it when people talk about japan like it's some utopia or some shit. it's far from a utopia, but every place has got its problems.

there's just as much racism and bullshit in the united states, bro. a couple times i've been in restaurants with my family and didn't get served. many, many times my friends and i have been stopped, searched and harrassed by the police. do i say that everyone in the u.s. is racist? nope, cuz that would be ignant.

[coleslawyum]

Japan might be a denim utopia, though. Yeah, there's actually racism everywhere – especially in Zurich, Switzerland and Portland, Oregon (only because I had some bad experiences there) – but again, not everyone is racist. I usually go by a person to person basis.

Japanese food is great, and so is Chinese food. And sometimes they resemble each other and sometimes not. Either way they both have dishes that may be suspect. Ramen does not suck, however, there is shitty ramen.

[fre-co]

Japanese ramen > Vietnamese Pho > Chinese noodle soup

[dismalfuture]

^ we got tony_hige v 2.0 up here....

[mizanation]

oh boy, not again...

[fre-co]

eh? did I miss something?

[mizanation]

we had a huge ramen discussion in another thread. this is bringing back flashbacks...

[coleslawyum]

Alright, I'm just gonna say this once: Ramen is the tastiest dish in the WORLD!!!

[fre-co]

ah ok sorry man.

On the subject. I ordered a box of instant ramens from like 9 different famous places. You get 2 of each for about 4000yen in total. I make my own cha-shu pork, and it's the best way to get a ramen fix in barren London.

[braydendevito]

Alright, I'm just gonna say this once: Ramen is the tastiest dish in the WORLD!!!

WHAT ABOUT PAD THAI

[mizanation]

ah ok sorry man.

On the subject. I ordered a box of instant ramens from like 9 different famous places. You get 2 of each for about 4000yen in total. I make my own cha-shu pork, and it's the best way to get a ramen fix in barren London.

wow, that's awesome. link please?

[fre-co]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/bali-indah/769678/782863/

The quality is good, the noodles much better than the usual stuff avaiable here.

Cha-shu pork can be made at home pretty well.... not exactly like in a Japan ramen shop but it's a good substitute.

[dismalfuture]

aghhhh! so does that need to be refrigerated while in transit?

[mizanation]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/bali-indah/769678/782863/

The quality is good, the noodles much better than the usual stuff avaiable here.

Cha-shu pork can be made at home pretty well.... not exactly like in a Japan ramen shop but it's a good substitute.

thanks, man. would rep you but i can't.

[fre-co]

Not to my knowledge

[fre-co]

No worries Miz. I guess you need a proxy or a Japan hook-up for this.

[Lab]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/bali-indah/769678/782863/

The quality is good, the noodles much better than the usual stuff avaiable here.

Cha-shu pork can be made at home pretty well.... not exactly like in a Japan ramen shop but it's a good substitute.

oh hell yes, I'm gettin' my ramen on.

thanks!

[so-so]

Sounds like you got a bad case of the (get out of) MY Japan Syndrome.

I think you're right.

Combined with being stuck in a tourist filled area of tokyo most days and seeing how many handle themselves, its hard to not want to distance myself from the image they give off. Seems like the worst of the western world congregates here. (way overexaggerating, but still)

[dismalfuture]

^ fre$co, were you able to store this ramen set for longer than a week or so? I'm thinking about buying like 5 and picking them up off a friend when i go to japan soon...

on another note, this idea desperately needs to be extended to Pho... for 18 packs of the finest pho broth alone I'd pay $40...

[poly800rock]

Japanese ramen > Vietnamese Pho > Chinese noodle soup

^ we got tony_hige v 2.0 up here....

oh boy, not again...

ha, i remember that discussion.

[fre-co]

I think they'll last a couple of months or so

[thewindsong]

Japs dont like foreigners or babys in restaurants so you`re lucky you even got a table. Go eat at subway, they got the shrimp and avacado sub going at the moment. Good stuff and limited racism. Japanese food sucks anyway. Ramen is basically Chinese and the Chinese version tastes way better imo.

I`ll never forget what a student of mine wrote about Japan:

"In Japan we like the white, we even dont hate the black, Japan is a good country for the foreigner I think."

that wasn't me though, i just lifted that from a restaurant review site. i have been to that restaurant many times and never experience anything like that, maybe it's because he have a japa wife with him. and what's the chinese version of ramen? wonton soup?

[mizanation]

actually, that's not quite accurate.

you're right that the old japanese emperors imported a lot of chinese culture. in fact, japan is where you see a lot of chinese culture that was destroyed by the mongols and warring states. a good example is zen buddhism and the tea ceremony, which were created in china, but have survived in japan.

however, ramen's history is quite different.

ramen is actually quite new to japan, appearing in the meiji era. so, ramen is only about 100 years old. it wasn't the emperor who brought this dish in. rather, it was japanese merchants and chinese immigrants. ramen is the common person's food, not a royal delicacy. i doubt the emperor eats much ramen at all.

ramen as we know it didn't exist until the mid 1900s. before then, it was a japanese variation of chinese noodles in broth. after world war II, we see ramen in its modern form.

[fre-co]

Nice info Miz.

[thewindsong]

ya i heard that japanese culture is basically what tang china look like, and japan just stop borrowing stuff from china after they became isolated.

[mizanation]

hm. not exactly....

[Guest jmatsu]

hm. not exactly....

good morning.

i've heard random opinons about jp's origins. one that i kind of believe is that we're the offspring of gods (or in my case, at least my mother is...).

another popular one is that jp and korea were all part of the chinese empire until jp declared it's own independence using korea as a go between.. i don't know if this is totally accurate though.

[cuddlysheep]

back from jp. i got some items for supermarket in a few days.

[MilSpex]

good morning.

i've heard random opinons about jp's origins. one that i kind of believe is that we're the offspring of gods (or in my case, at least my mother is...).

hahaha, thats actually what a lot of deluded, brainwashed, Japanese I met believe. Do you seriously believe that Matsu or are you just stirring shit up?

A lot of Japanese go around fully believing their not Asian, they`re JAPANESE with some kind of super senses and super empathy to appreciate seasons and shit better and feel shit more than other people.

Some of my students wanted to travel to Asia and I told em I had good news, they were already there. They just looked at me like I was the biggest moron. They just couldnt get it around their brains that they were Asians.