The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Osaka

Taking a break from the normal posts about everyday life here in Iizuka, I wanted to write about a special place. Here's one tourist attraction that I highly recommend for anyone who goes to Osaka, young or old or even those awkward-phase-too-cool-for-school teenagers.

Just a 5-minute walk away from the Ikeda station (池田駅) on the Hankyuu Line (阪急線), you can find the Instant Ramen Museum. They have a pretty impressive display of every cup ramen they've ever put out on the market - we're talking about the "Cup Noodle" brand - but the real reason to check this place out is for 2, and only 2 things:

1. Make your own Chicken ramen.
2. Make your own customized Cup Ramen.

Pictures are always more fun, so enjoy!

Making your Own Chicken Ramen (チキンラーメン手作り体験)

watching an informational video

smoothing out the dough which will be cut into noodles later

taking a break and decorating the packaging

after putting the smoothed-out dough into a separate tool for cutting the noodles, they get deep fried for us

finished!
you also get an extra complimentary pack of ramen and get to keep the bandana as a souvenir

Making your Own Cup Noodle (マイカップヌードル)

buy a styrofoam cup from, of course, a vending machine

decorate it as you like

watch as they put the noodles inside

choose your soup flavor (4 choices) and choose 4 toppings

finished!

You'll notice that their average clientele consist of mothers and their young children, but who cares?!

Aside from these two activities, there isn't really much to check out within the museum other than the display of cup ramens throughout the years and a small resting area where you can buy some cup ramen to eat.

Information:

To participate in the ramen making, you must make reservations in advance by phone. When I attempted to make reservations 1 month in advance, it was booked for the days I wanted, but luckily, someone canceled 2 weeks later, so keep trying if the date you want is booked. Check the site below for information.
http://www.nissin-noodles.com/crworkshop/index.html

The custom Cup Noodle activity is open to all visitors, so no reservation is required for that.

The website below has information on getting there and maps, but like I said above:
Hankyuu Line: Get off at Ikeda Station (阪急線、池田駅) - about 5 min. walk)
http://www.nissin-noodles.com/guide/data.html

And the website in English, or actually, a link to a downloadable PDF in English.
http://www.nissin-noodles.com/english.htm

Vote for Edison!

My friend Edison is applying for a job in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It's not a typical job as the application process involves make a 1 minute-long video and getting the most votes online.

Please help him out and vote for him! Watch his video and hit 5 stars on the right side.

http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/applicants/watch/oWK56wWjUOM

上のページに行って、僕の友達の動画を投票してください！投票仕方は、右の方の星を五つ選びます。それだけです！彼は一番多くの投票を集める事ができれば、オストラリラで六ヶ月の間に特別な仕事を受けます。よろしくお願いします。（この日本語が間違いがあったら、今度会う時に教えてください。）

Valentine's Day is for weenies

...so say some people. (:

Valentine's Day has never really been special to me, nor is it now, but since coming to Japan, I've been able to enjoy it particularly due to Japan's custom of girls giving guys chocolates or presents on Valentine's Day.

Last year, Kojima-san's girlfriend and her daughter came to the bus center when we were practicing (on v-day) and gave me, Shohei, Takanori, and Maa-kun (Masayuki) these plush frogs, some chocolate, and cards. The awesome thing about those plush frogs is that they're acutally speakers!


Last year, I returned the favor on White Day (March 14th) by giving them a bunch of gummy bears and random American candy that I found at a Spencer's type store at a local mall. I think the time coincided with when I received a care package from home, too, so I was able to throw some things in from Hawaii, too.

This year, Kazue came by and gave us hair wax from their salon, Bagus Hair. Kojima-san put a link to my blog on his site by the way. I'm there as "ワイハのDaryllくんのジャポン日記." :) They're a really cool and fun couple!


Apart from that, my Valentine's Day weekend consisted of:

a breakdance battle,

eating gyu-don at suki-ya by myself after breaking practice hehe


some hiking,

and some drawing.

Nice and chill!

English is actually a difficult language to learn

Here are some of the more interesting short answers I was checking the other week at school. These are from the 9th graders at one of my schools. I think it's pretty interesting how people will say things in the language they're learning that they wouldn't normally say in their own native language. I guess part of it is from the fact that their vocabulary and grammar is limited; it works the same way with me when I (try to) speak Japanese.

"What do you want to be/do in the future?"

"Do you like English?"

I'm also amazed at how nice the students' handwriting is. The 2nd short answer was written by a boy who has bad handwriting when compared to his classmates; it still beats mine. I am constantly aiming to get my handwriting up to the level of that of my students. Seriously.

Introducing the Bus Center Bboys: Part 3

Another guy!

Name: Nin-nin-kun (I don't know his real name either)
Age: 22, 23 or 24
Occupation: Caretaker for old people - I think he goes to old peoples' homes and takes care of them.
Extra: He actually only comes to the bus center to practice every now and then, but out of everyone who practices here, he's probably the best all around: he's got some good style and he's got some good power as well.

Nin-nin is really chill and laidback and like the other bboys (I forgot to mention this), he is a hardcore gamer. When he comes to practice, he brings his helmet, elbow pads, change of clothes, etc. and his PSP. I think on some occasions, he and Masayuki or Kojima-san or Shohei would just sit on the floor and play their PSPs while the rest of us would be practicing. Typically, after practice, we'll chat and when he's there, the conversation will always somehow end up in something relating to video games or even card games like Yugioh (Masayuki is really into that, too). In America, playing something like Yugioh would be dorky - or at least I think it would be - but here in Japan, you can play your Yugioh card games and still be a dope bboy.

Climbing Mt. Aso (阿蘇山) or...not.

Last weekend, we decided to head down from Fukuoka to Kumamoto to see the famous Mt. Aso, Japan's largest volcano (or was it caldera?) in Japan. The area is actually called the Aso National Park and consists of a couple of mountains that you can climb/hike and the one called Naka-dake is the one that has the famous caldera.

We started out by taking the 2 hour "super non-stop" bus from the Tenjin Bus Center (go in pairs and you can buy the special 4-ticket pack in the bus center that makes it 1600円 each way) to the Kumamoto Kotsu Center. From there, we took another bus to Kumamoto station and took a 1 hour train to Aso Station. And from there, you will have to take a 30 minute bus to the main area.

The thing people should know about going to Mt. Aso, though, is that the buses going from Aso Station are really infrequent. There's one bus an hour that stops at Kusasenri (草千里) - the grassland area near the volcano and the ropeway station from which you can hike up or take the cable car up to the top (阿蘇山西駅). And to top that, the last bus leaving the top is at 5 PM, so if you don't have a car, you'll have to keep that in mind.


We ended up going to Kurokawa for some onsen action on Saturday since we didn't think we would have enough time for Aso, but to our disappointment, the ropeway was closed on Sunday and people weren't allowed to be within 1km of the caldera due to volcanic activity. Lame!

We opted to climb some other mountain - it was still pretty fun and the views were great - and then headed over to an onsen in another area.

One piece of advice. If you decide to hike south from Kusasenri, DO NOT take the route on the sign/map marked 下田. After spending 40 minutes on the trail, you will end up here (see below) and then have to walk another hour or who knows how long to get back to civilization (assuming you have a map to follow). Interesting experience to have as a story, but a little scary when you're in the situation, especially when the sun is setting and you don't see a single habited house or person in sight. Needless to say, we did not to go to any (not decrepid) onsens.

Overall, it was a great trip but main point of advice: if you've got a car, USE IT.

I hope this information helps someone out there!


Transportation Info:
Tenjin Bus Center -> Kumamoto Kotsu Center
- Buses leave every 10-15 minutes
- Approx. 2 hours
- Kaisuken 4 ticket pack costs 6400 yen - between two people, that makes it 3200 yen for a round trip.

Kumamoto Kotsu Center -> Kumamoto Station
- Bus platform 20 or 21
- 10-15 min.

Kumamoto Station -> Aso Station
- About 68 min on the express train or a little longer on the local trains with one stop
- 1080 yen for the local, 1980 yen or so for the express

Aso Station -> Mt. Aso (Aso-san)
- Buses run once an hour
- 30 min
- Last bus at 5 PM from Mt. Aso back

again, use a car. :)

Introducing the Bus Center Bboys: Part 2

Continuing the series from Part 1 on the Bus Center Bboys, here's Part 2! Jumping right into things...

the leader, the senpai, or basically, the oldest guy in the group!

Name: Kojima-san (I don't know his first name...)
Age: 31
Occupation: runs his own hair salon, Bagus Hair with his girlfriend Kazue
Extra: He also graduated from that high school near my apartment! His girlfriend's daughter (not his) also goes to one of the elementary schools that I used to teach at.

This guy is awesome! Really charismatic, friendly, funny, and just really good at making people feel part of the group. He's 30 years old but is still breaking strong and is really young at heart. I've gone to his salon numerous times to get my hair cut - he gives me a discount - and it's always fun chilling there with him and his girlfriend. Someday, he'll move to Hawaii, open up a salon, and surf on the side - so he says. Glad to have been able to break with, or just meet this guy.

Name: Masayuki
Age: 18
Occupation: High school student and works at Bagus Hair part time
Extra: He gave me a pair of gloves to keep my hands warm last winter (couldn't really think of anything for this one for him).


Masayuki is the youngest one in the group, but definitely not the worse when it comes to skill. He's like our team Physix (Korean breakdancer), doing one hand hops using either hand, crazy 1990s, hollow backs, flares, and just ridiculous stuff with ease - oh, to be young again! :) The things he's capable of doing is ridiculous and he's also a pretty good dancer to begin with. He's a typical Japanese teenager, always talking about things related to sex, but he's a fun, good guy. I just wish he would enunciate his words more often and slur his speech less.

Name: Mitto-san (his nickname - I forgot what his real name was)
Age: 17? - same age as Masayuki
Occupation: High school student
Extra: He's actually pretty good at English - he gets a little cocky thinking he's amazing sometimes so every now and then I speak a little faster than I usually do with Japanese people to put him in his place.


This guy just started breaking in the Fall but he's been improving pretty quickly. He's still starting out, working mostly on handstands, nikes, and pikes, but he's getting quite good. He's a little quieter and doesn't have as strong of a personality as the other guys do, but he's a chill guy and it's fun chatting with him in English for a couple of sentences every so often.

Oh, and here's some of the food Takanori brought after/from work last night for us: okonomiyaki and takoyaki.

Kojima-san - he's actually a lot better than this; I think he hasn't practiced for awhile like me.

Sometimes, (typically, drunk) people will give us money and watch us practice. Like this guy:

He actually was drunk.

That's all!

Taiyou Restaurant (太陽), a.k.a. "Old Ladies' Place"

younger worker (I forgot her name) and the Matsumura sisters

Whenever I would watch TV sitcoms, which I rarely do nowadays, I would think to myself, "That would be awesome to have a diner or restaurant or coffee shop where I could be a regular and be tight with the owners." Somehow, I've been lucky enough to stumble upon this place and become close with the owners.

I first came across this place when I, still clueless at my surroundings from just arriving in Iizuka recently, was looking for an ATM in the Shin-Iizuka Station area. I've received many disgruntled looks from many people with my sonkei-go and kenjyou-go (levels of speaking in Japanese that elevate the listener or humble yourself) lacking Japanese combined with my Japanese face, so I had gotten into the habit of starting every conversation with a stranger with "I'm actually a Japanese American and I know my Japanese isn't very good but..." and then I would begin whatever it was I wanted to say.


I came across an old lady sweeping some leaves outside on the corner and figured I'd ask her. After reciting my little verse, she replied in surprisingly good English, saying that there's an ATM at the station and after chatting a little bit more, offered to watch my uke - I had taken it to school that day - and things while I go.

Am I going to have a story to tell later today of how my ukulele and things were swindled from me by a little old Japanese lady?

But me being the trusting type, I left my things inside, which I later found out was a restaurant, got my money from the ATM, and came back to chat with her and her older sister (they run the restaurant together), play some old school Hawaiian songs, and be fed dessert. Since then, I've been faithfully going there every office day for lunch.


They have a pretty varied menu, but all you need to know really, is that they serve omu-rice (680 yen) and yakimeishi (630 yen). They also bake desserts and have them sold at the local supermarket; if there's any mess-ups, I, or we, if we ALTs go as a group, get some for free.

Yakimeishi (fried rice)

Omu-rice

Purin

Last week, they made meatloaf and gave us a bunch - these weren't leftovers - and it was amazing.



And on one occassion, for the older sister's birthday, they invited me to go with them on a weekend trip to Karatsu with some of their friends who just happen to be more than 30 or 40 years older than me.


To get there, go to Shin-Iizuka Station (新飯塚駅) and take the street that runs perpendicularly into the center of the station. Their restaurant is located on the left corner at the first traffic light. Across from the restaurant on the other 3 corners is a parking lot, a liquor store, and a hair salon. They speak very good English and are very friendly.

Check it out!

Oh, and Aso Taro used to eat here when he lived in Iizuka too.