Upon arriving to the hotel, I took a shower and then met some of the fellows and the executive director of the Japan America Society of Pennsylvania, Amy Boots, in the lobby for dinner. Unfortunately a few of our fellows got in much later than planned due to a delayed flight, but the remainder of us decided to head back to Tokyo Station to eat. We seemed to walk and ride the subway forever, and then we seemed to walk some more trying to find a place in Tokyo Station that could seat all of us. We settled on a place off of Ramen Street- a corridor of Ramen restaurants. Ramen in Japan is not the cheap hard noodles we microwaved in college. Ramen usually consists of noodles in either miso broth, soy broth, or salt broth. There is typically meat served in the broth as well- I chose pork. Ordering the ramen was a different experience- outside the restaurants, there were menus posted, but fortunately for us non-Japanese speaking folk- they also had photos! Each photo then corresponded with a button on a vending machine. After putting in your money, the vending machine spit out a ticket that you then took to the guy behind the counter. Pretty efficient process!
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