I lived in Japan for over 6 years
And in that time I ate more than my fair share of of tasty Ramen. I ate it for an early morning breakfast after a night of drinking. I ate it for lunch on day trips to random cool places. I ate it for dinner. I ate it whenever I happened to walk past an amazing smelling restaurant. I ate Shoyu, Tonkotsu, Shio, Miso, and all the local variants of the places I visited.
There was this one shop on the ground floor of one of the bars I pretty much lived at, open all night. The owner of the bar was my buddy and without fail, there was a 3 or 4 am hike downstairs to rest and recharge for the drinking rally lasting to 6am. Sometimes it was a couple of us, others, a huge group. The owner of the ramen shop always got a kick out of it and knew us well.
It was a smaller place and could fit maybe 15 or 20 people.
Always warm and smelling of ramen broth and fried gyoza. Usually there was a cute girl working as the waitress as the grizzled old guy tended to the register. Sometimes he would come over and joke with us. Ask us what trouble we were up to. Some of the answers we gave might have made others blush, but he just laughed.
Life in my twenties was crazy. I had friends who owned bars, others that loved to drink, and everyone loved to get together and have fun. Food was a center point of that. Always eating, always drinking. A culture and life based around sharing one of the most common activities...eating.
I know it's winter for a lot of people and the cold weather makes you want to hibernate. So I wanted to post up something warm and filling, to help y'all through the frigid, snowy times :)
Hope you enjoyed the pic! I'd love to hear a story about a ramen experience you've had :)
Michael
my entry into @juliank and his daily #photocontest Today's being #foodphotography
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