Day 26: Not So Friday Feeling

WOOOP its Friday, the day when the weekend begins, the day when you can go crazy and have a hang over for 2 days. The day you can over eat, watch a marathon of terrible movies until the early morning while stuffing your face with chocolate and snacks and then tell people that you didn't do much, because we all do it but we all feel the shame after. 

Except not tonight, no, tonight I have to get to bed at my usual weekday time because tomorrow is open school. This means that a whole bunch of junior high students come looking at all the classes and when they get to mine, they see the foreigner and get super scared and can't even say hello. Fun times. 

To make up for your obvious disappointment about me not ordering the cold ramen (I know, I know, nothing can make it up to you, I can only do my best) I decided to order cold udon today. I told you about udon all the way back on day 5. If you have forgotten, it is another noodle and soup combo.

So similar and yet SO much more exciting to me than ramen right now

Cold noodles, not exactly something you immediately thing "YES, delicious", right? Well, I say to you, leave your preconceptions at the door. My first day at my job the teacher who was helping me get about took me to this restaurant and she ordered the cold udon. She asked me what I wanted, and I looked at the menu, it looked something like this:

But this is what I saw:

So despite cold noodles sounding weird and kinda gross I decided screw it, when in Rome (This was in Japan, "When in Rome" is just a phrase! But maybe they have cold noodles in Rome, who knows). They were amazing, they were cool and refreshing, and lots of flavour. Even better, I was told they were healthy!

Also, given the situation they were a god send. What do you consider hot? 25°C? 30°C?? Well I'm British, and I lived in Glasgow, Scotland for 4 years before coming to Japan. In Glasgow its Taps Aff (Tops off) at about 17-20°C, there is even a website advising people in Glasgow if it is warm enough to take your tap aff. Bearing all this in mind, it was a casual 40°C when I arrived in Japan. I was not built or that kind of temperature

You do not want boiling hot noodles and soup in 40°C weather. I don't care where you are from! Even my family who were a bit unsure at first loved the cold udon.

This is how my view of ramen is now

Anyway, your not here for udon are you? If you wanted that you would be at 1monthofudon.com (Future blog idea? Maybe!) So today I added an egg to my kotteri ramen (Just going crazy in my final week), and got a new side. 春巻, I love words like this one in japanese because 春(haru) means spring and 巻(Maki) means roll. Direct translation, Spring roll.

They look innocent enough but they are little packets of tongue burning deliciousness

They were pretty good, but expensive ¥500/$5/£3, the same as the plates of meat. I think you know which I would prefer. Also, I definitely burnt my tongue on those little delicious bastards.

5 bowls left. Tomorrow I'll talk about my health a bit, but mostly it's not been anywhere near as bad as I expected. Sorry for the late post, I had another 2 hour "nap" today. Wish me luck working on a Saturday!