More Than Sushi: A Collection of Cafeteria Noodle

Because I'm shot in the head and don't feel like sleeping (because it would mean waking up and having to work more), I bring you: A collection of caffeteria noodle-food.

The counter is clearly marked, and I think it looks happy. I kinda wish it had an exclamation point. Anyways, you know that here you can get at least one...

NOODLE!

Yeah yeah I know plural is hard. I give the world permission to laugh at my Japanese so long as I have a leave to giggle at its English.

Ramen is, of course, a classic.

The cafeteria ramen is pretty decent. A little greasy, as you can probably see. The first thing you have to learn is that ramen is not healthy. It is a pure grease-juice of concentrated flavour. The second thing; it's all about the soup. The noodles are important, sure, but the soup... it's what holds all those delicious calories. That soup could power a small fighter jet.

And yeah. You're also supposed to SLUUUUUUUUURRRRRPPPPPPP the noodles. Making a completely awsome ammount of NOISE. OhmyGÜTENBERG you have no idea of the sheer volume of slurpy-sound a couple-hundred Japanese students make when they're all eating this at the cafeteria lunch-rush. I know it's the culture here, and I know I should embrace it. But I can't help myself. I still find it obnoxious as shit.

In the realm of healthier options, we have

As far as I know, soba-noodles are one of the healthier types.

the cold seaweed egg ham cucumber soba salad with sauce. All the girls eat this. I suppose that means it's healthy. Doesn't matter, had food.

And it was pretty good, too.

The third one is also a noodle-food, I promise.

Udon are worms. Big fat squishy slimy noodle worms.

There's just a lot of stuff on top.

The noodles beneath are of the udon-variety; really really thick wormy slightly slimy things that for some reason I actually do like. They are weird as all hells, but still...

This is udon salad. It has a delicious sauce at the bottom, and of course a bit of seaweed. On top is a classic onsen tamago (hot spring egg): slow boiled at a low temperature (63-ish degrees, I think), which cooks the egg-white and keeps the yolk liquid.

There are countless other noodle dishes in Japan. I eat noodle so often I can't even noodle what noodle I noodle anymore. Noodle.

Preparing to namedrop, and More Than Sushi - The first installment of the long-unawaited sub-series about food

Finally, after untold hours of scrounging the internet, I've found a room in Ikebukuro that seem to be just exactly what I'm looking for. And it's available from August 15th, which is almost too perfect to believe. Now I just have to make sure these people rent it out to me, and not some other gal...

In other words, I'm getting ready to shamelessly namedrop Tokyo University and the Royal Norwegian Embassy like a true butt-licker. If that doesn't work, I'll offer to give English lessons to somebodys grandchildren or something. THESE PEOPLE WANT ME AS THEIR TENNANT, and I will make them know it! ヽ༼ ಠ益ಠ ༽ﾉ

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In other news, I've been working myself silly lately trying to tie up lose ends before I say bayh-bayh to the Toh-Dai. I can't believe I only have two weeks left here! Shit, I have... really mixed feelings about that.

When I have more time I'll go on a long rant about all the things about being an exchange student here that I'm going to work on improving while I work at the embassy, but in the mean time (since it's late and people will come to check my fire alarm tomorrow which means that I really should at least take out the 500 empty pepsi cans I've accumulated, and possibly vacuum clean just a littlebit), I present to you:

More Than Sushi

Your irregularly updated and poorly researched guide to Japanese food that is not vinegared rice with various toppings

Basically, just pictures of some stuff I've eaten. I've been planning this for a while, which means I've accumulated a good ammount of dishes for my lazy blogging pleasure.

Let's start wiiiiiith.... LUNCH!

This particular lunch was one I had on a training-day at the embassy, so it's a tad classier than my usual cafeteria-fare.

So this, as far as I understand, is a fairly typical Japanese set-meal. It generally always contains miso soup and a bowl of rice, and then some combination of mains and veggies (usually pickled, in my limited experience). In this case we see my friend the umeboshi making a guest appearance. 

Point 1: this is black-belt level chopsticking right here. See that fried fish? Yeah, it's on the bone. And you pick the meat off wiiiith ya'chopsticks. Suffice to say I struggled. And the natives only laughed at my predicament.

Point 2: Yes that is a raw egg on my rice. The Japanese love it, and I kinda dig it too no matter how much it makes Gordon Ramseys blood vessels pop in fear and rage. Japan (apparently) has very strict laws for poultry production, and since everyone eats raw egg all the time and most people survive it just fine, I'm jumping on egg-train. Besides, the hot rice mostly cooks the thing anyway.

Point 2.5: Actually, this particular eatery has a specialty. What is it? Your lunch comes with all you can eat raw egg. Take that, Gordon Ramsey!

Point 2.75: You can actually find chicken sashimi here. Real, bona-fide RAAAAAW CHICKKKIIIIIIN!!!!