Original Tsukemen noodles Taishoken (大勝軒)

Summer comes. Summer comes after this moist "Tsuyu/梅雨"June. In this season it's been rainy for a month, not heavy rain but long silent rain. And We can see flowers of hydrangea called "Ajisai/紫陽花" here in the park or school yard this month.

I always commute with a big black bag of NorthFace and an umbrella. Ahh Humidity, humidity , humidity... Ahhhh Okay, It has been since I was born here. Maybe travelers from California does not adapt it.

I had Tsukemen at Ramen shop, Taishoken Next (大勝軒) at Shibuya. Do you know Tsukemen ? Ramen is noodles with soup. Regarding Tsukemen the noodles and the soup are separated like Zarusoba. So it's Zaru-Ramen! but nobody calls it. It's Tsukemen (つけ麺).

The price system of Tsukemen is interesting. The size of noodles has small , medium, large but the price is same, 750 yen. The other shop has same rule. Everybody choose large? I don't think so.  Large is so big. Actually I choosed middle. This yummy soup is mild fish taste and strong because we don't drink it, we dip noodles into soup. Please remember, dip noodles into soup. Do things right. Tsukemen also has a manner and we respect it :)

About the history of Tsukemen Kazuo Yamagishi is invented this Tsukemen style at Ikebukuro and now many pupils took over his work and have the shops. This shop is the one of them. So this is an original and modern updated Tsukemen! (The shop name is Taishoken Next. ) Please try it!  

URL:

大勝軒next 渋谷店 - 渋谷/つけ麺 [食べログ] 

http://s.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130301/13160949/

World Cup Now! Japan vs Greece

World Cup now! Tomorrow Japan will have a game with Greece, FIFA rank no.12. Japan's rank is ... no.47. I  am discussing with my colleagues about how can we win this strong Europa team ?

Since Japan dropped the first game with Côte d'Ivoire, we are standing at the deep end, oh, bye bye Spain!  In the first game Honda's tiger shot excited us but, then their two heading goals took us deep into the sea. When shining god Drogba came into the ground  in the second half,  Our team looked tired and it was Godzilla attack. After the game I told wife the result. She just said "danshi, yowa!!" The word broke my pride! She means the women's team is strong and won the World Cup but men of this country always lost. 

Anyway... Greece players are tall and we are not.. Maybe they are speedy, we are also speedy like Ninja... maybe. I heard their defense is world level. Oh.. So ... ? Off course we don't have Nishimura. Sorry I don't mean that. hmm Honda's Tiger shot, then Kagawa's Drive shoot, then... But it's not a comic. Anyway enjoy the World Cup!

Tomorrow the game will start at 7 am. Oh! It's Friday and I gotta work. I can watch the first half of the game but.. No, I will meet person from Brazil company tomorrow. Weird, Brazil has World Cup and he can't work! My colleague said company is Brazil but the person is Italian , oh that's why... 

AIRMOS Burger's Dream in JAL 787

Last week I traveled San Diego. The airline of my flight was JAL, Boeing 787 dreamliner. Since a few years, we can flight from Narita airport to San Diego directly. It takes about 10 hours. It was not the first time that I used JAL but I again realized it is a great airline company.

Great food, great quality! Salmon in the square plate, block sliced salad, stripe rice Bento and cup miso soup are all nice. And four popular brand beers are served, Kirin, Asahi, Evis and Premium Malts. I am a fan of Kirin but this time I chose Premium Malts. It's the air flight. I could enjoy all of them because I had 10 hours :) But I didn't because it was the day before the marathon race  (Serious marathoners do not drink alcohol basically, maybe, ahh I'm not so serious... )

Great food, great quality!

The other dinner was fun and I surprised. It's a hamburger called "AIRMOS" of popular burger shops Mos Burger. I am a fan of Mos Burger so I've never thought we could meet there in the air. 

The Interesting thing is a manual was distributed for us. Wow, it's how to cook a burger. I was excited that I make a mos burger's burger in the flight even though I am not the shop staff, off course the putty is well baked, though... I liked the humor. Maybe, busy person or person lack a sense of humor wanted the burger completely cooked. I read manual well in the bumpy flight and cooked it perfect. 

The sauce was carrot based and was really good. 10 hours were short for me, it was a nice flight. A remake of Robocop was boring. 

Air Mos!

Manual

Let's cook!

Yummy

Finished the Second Marathon at San Diego

I traveled San Diego for one week and came back to Japan this weekends. On the second day I joined the marathon race called Rock'n Roll marathon at San Diego and finished it fortunately in the California sunshine.

My time of this race is 6 hours, correctly 06:02. It was the HARDEST RACE EVER! After the start of race I was getting lost my energy and stopped running at 15 km point and then almost walked until the goal. Last year I finished Tokyo marathon in 04:24 so I thought I would finish it in 5 hours in the worst case but...  Let's look back on the race.

Start:

I arrived at San Diego one day before the race. Landing in America first time! On the day I checked in at a hotel in beach side and joined Marathon Expo at the convention center. I had dinner at Holton Plaza in down town and then came back to the hotel. On the race day I woke up at 4 AM and walk to the Balboa park, the start point, through the silent streets in the dark. 

I was ready and waited more than 30 minutes at the starting point. I'm surprised a little at many tattooed runners there, arm, leg, head?..., because we don't have tattoo except scary people, you know, like Yakuza  in Japan. I think here tattoo is a kind of fashion or cool thing ( maybe their grand mother disagree...) but some Japanese think they are mafia runners, haha... Anyway, the race was started at 6 AM, 06:15.   

Race & Goal:

After the start I ran slowly first and kept my pace enjoying the band play ( more than 30 bands play in the course, it's rock'n roll marathon! ) and taking photo. The camera was heavy in my pocket, I forgot the porch for camera from Japan... The sunshine was getting strong than I expected and lost my energy little by little. haa haa... haa haa... hot...hot... I had a bad feeling that this race will be tough one. It was right.  I stopped running at 15 km point. And I gave up the good record and focused on finishing this worst parade ever! I can get a medal when I crossed the goal line. I walked and waked, the limit is 7 hours, I watched G-shock and I believed I can finish if I won't stop walking. 

Cheerleaders and visitors repeated "Keep it up!", the same meaning of "Ganbare!" in Japan,  they talk in a low voice, but whatever. I kept walking and finally crossed the goal line at Petco Park, MLB stadium of San Diego Padres, and finished the race without a smile, you don't know, I can't afford it. But, AWESOME! I got a heavy big medal. It's two times bigger than Tokyo marathon's medal, it's American Cheeseburger, hehe. My legs (and I) were almost dead and I maybe was sunstroke or heatstroke, I don't know, so I came back to hotel by San Diego Trolley soon and jumped into the bed and died.

The next day, fortunately I came back to life and enjoyed watching MLB game at Petco park and sightseeing to Ensenada, Mexico. I introduce them later too.

Happy Cup Noodles Life!

Momofuku Ando who founded Nissin company invented Cup Noodles in 1971. I respect him. He did it when he was at the age of 61. He said "In life, there is no such thing as too late." And in 2014, now we eat cup noodles in the world and my today's lunch too :)

 I think  popular three in Japan are Cup Noodle, Cup Noodle Seafood and Cup Noodle Curry. Today i found a new one with surprise. it's Tom Yum Kung Noodles. I know this is so popular and was sold out for a while. I finally got this with 160 yen...Yes...!

It was most spicy cup noodles I ever had. I coughed when i tasted first. It's real with lemongrass, red pepper and coconut milk. Yes, Thai Nissin supports it too :)  Great taste. I love this noodles!

Official site --> 日清カップヌードルエスニックシリーズ 瞬間アジア気分

Tom Yum Kung !

1.add boiled water. 

2.wait three minutes.

3.add Tom Yum Paste.

Yummy!

Happy Noodles Life!

Visit to San Diego for Marathon

I will travel San Diego next month. This will be the second country as travel this year and the first visit to America in my life (wow). If I will visit Tijuana, Mexico by bus, this will be ninth countries. It's 4 % of the world. The world has 195 countries now. 

Why San Diego? Simple reason. I can take vacation in June. I want to travel America and want to run a marathon overseas (last year I ran Tokyo marathon as the first race). I searched marathon races in America and found The San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. (Later I knew the San Francisco marathon in July...)

I don't know my choice was good... but I completed the online registration. I reserved plane tickets and hotels. I registered ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) with 14$ too. It's 22 days before the race day. 

My record of marathon is 4:24 last year. Hmm I can run sub four hours in San Diego?

Traveling the Northern Japan "Tsugaru"

Aomori is the northernmost prefecture in the main island of Japan. It has a beautiful nature , mountain and ocean (and fish). Aomori is famous for the apple-producing center in Japan. I traveled west Aomori called Tsugaru (津軽) district for my family travel and to meet my grandparents live there.

Aomori (Google map)

Hirosaki castle (弘前城)

On the first day we moved from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori by Shinkansen called "Hayabusa". 

Shinkansen!!

And then moved to Hirosaki(弘前) to see Sakura blossoms around Hirosaki castle.  In Tokyo Sakura has no flowers this season but in Aomori it is the time to see just now. There are many tourists, I saw travelers from overseas too. The couple I talked was from Hong Kong and said they will go to beautiful Towada lake. Sakura was beatuful ,and castle too.

 

Ninja swam here to attack the castle...(once upon a time)

Yeah, Ninja...

Tanakaya(田中屋)

Then we visited a shop called Tanakaya (google map) in town to see traditional crafts made in this place. Tanakaya is make the crafts called Tsugaru-nuri（津軽塗） and sell them. The products of Tsugaru-nuri is expensive but best quality is promised because of this history and trust. It's so different from the one sold in 100 yen store in Tokyo...  

Tanakaya

Traditional crafts

Working

Kasose and Gonosen

And I moved to Kasose (風合瀬) village where my relatives live by Gonosen train. This area is fishermen's place for a long time. Yes, family business is "The Old Man and the sea".  

Kasose (Google map)

Gonosen, this train seems famous for train geek in Japan. As one of the reason this train moves along the shoreline of the westernmost Aomori and we can see the beautiful ocean view in the train. 

Gonosen

And the interesting thing is that this train comes only five times in a day. It surprise me and Tokyo citizens. because in Tokyo trains come every 5 minutes. It seems so inconvenient for us but it's not because they use cars, not train. But if I missed the train, I needed to wait 5 hours for the next train in the boring no-man's station.

I found the great train view when I'm teen. This time it's still perfect and I took videos. 

Beautiful Sunset

Train just came

Mt. Iwaki

Other photos

Country road~~♪

Our fishermen's battlefield

The Old Man and the sea

Apple trees

Nebuta