How to Make Two Minute Noodles

First, catch your noodles... Haha, just kidding. Of course, you all now how to make two minute noodles (aka instant ramen). You've all been broke students. But did you ever stop to think about how they were made before they were put in the packet? Well, I sure didn't, but a recent trip to the Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda changed that.


We went with (L to R) Hiromi, Kiyo, Rizzie and Kaori. I teach Kiyo and Kaori every week, and the outing was their idea. Kaori did the organising and booking, so big props to her! And thanks to Kiyo for this photo and some of the others in this post :)

Yup, not kidding. Instant Ramen Museum. Actually, it's The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum. Mr. Momofuku is the man we have to thank for the miracle of two-minute noodles. Also, isn't it the cutest-sounding name ever? I just keep wanting to say it. Momofuku. Momofuku. Momo. Fuku. Mooo Mooo Fuuuu Kuuuu.

Ahem. Anyway. Instant ramen debuted in 1958, and the entirely self-contained Cup Noodle followed 13 years later. World changed, in my opinion. I mean, imagine the world withough two minute noodles. It would be a dark, miserable, and, most of all, quite peckish place.

Instant ramen has also been re-engineered for space travel. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi took a supply of "Space Ram" with him on his mission in 2005.


The history displays were actually really interesting, but the main attraction for us was the opportunity to make instant ramen *from scratch*. Actually starting from the flour and oil and... stuff... Which we had to knead together...


And then wring it through a noodle-izer...


(Yes, we did get to keep the bandannas.)
And then, it got put into moulds and deep-fried. (The moulds are heart-shaped because it was February, and, you know, Valentine's day and stuff...)


And then, ta-da! Our very own handmade chicken flavoured instant ramen. We also got to design our own packets. Cute huh?


Mine is bottom centre, and Clinton's is bottom right.

So, it was a fun and really interesting outing. It certainly changed how I look at the humble two minute noodle.

SNOWWWW II: The Snowening

So, I know the last post was mostly pictures of snow. Well, so is this one! Because we went to the Sapporo Snow Festival. Which was very exciting, because I have wanted to see it since I was in primary school. True story.

The main attraction of the snow festival is the snow sculptures. Sculptures of all kinds of things, but this being Japan and all, there are some things you can expect to see,

like anime girls,


Mario,


and Totoro.


Pretty cool, huh? (Haha, no pun intended :P) But check this shit out... The main attractions were about three storeys high, like this zoo animal piece:

And this replica of a Korean palace (Edit: wait, no, wrong pic. This is a replica of some other building. But it's still REALLY BIG)

I heard that the SDF are involved in trucking in all the snow and ice required for these babies.

These sculptures were at the main site along Oodori (literally 'big street', it's a sort of boulevard of parks running across the middle of Sapporo), but there were two other sites. The Susukino site, south of Oodori, had ice sculptures running down the middle of the street, and managed to mop up the last couple of Japan cliches that the Oodori site hadn't covered:

Fresh fish


and Gundam.


Oh wait I love this shot too... How awesome would this anime be?

SWORDMAN, MEGAROBO AND MERMAID CHICK. I think there's even a dragon in there, too. Hell fuck yeah.

Of course, snow and ice carving isn't limited to decorative items. It can also be used to make...

INNER TUBE SLIDES!!1! We did have to wait for about 45 minutes in the queue, but it was free!

Besides the snow festival, Sapporo is also well know for beer, since it's where the first brewery in Japan was built. We headed over to the Sapporo Beer Museum for a squizz. As you can see, Clinton was pretty excited about that:

And I was pretty excited about lunch in the 'beer garden' (read: beer hall).

It was the Sapporo Beer Garden's speciality called 'jingus kaan' (I'm pretty sure that it's named after Genghis Kahn), which is lamb and veg cooked on a hot plate at the table. Tasty McTasterson. Ah lamb, how I have missed you... Delicious, delicious sheeps.

There's Snow Place like...

SSSNNNNOOOOOOWWWWW!!


LOTS of snow:


And a snowman!

But more of that later.

So, it was Christmas and stuff. Even here in Japan! Our winter break started on Christmas Day, so we started celebrating after work on Christmas Eve, of course! We celebrated with a 'traditonal' Japanese 'Christmas dinner' of fried chicken, and Christmas cake.


Although, the chicken was from Family Mart, not KFC, which is where REAL Japanese Christmas dinners come from. But Family Mart chicken is more delicious. The Christmas cake was actually really nice, too. I thought it was iced, but it's actually slathered in real cream, and filled with real cream, and strawberries. I thoroughly endorse it.

On Christmas morning, we got up early and got on a train! And another train! And then another, AND ANOTHER! Six hours on trains! Best Christmas EVAR! (/irony)
But it was in a good cause because we ended up in Hakuba, Nagano. And there was a lot of snow.

We spent three days up there snowboarding. This is not terribly compatible with taking photos, so here's just one bad pic of me and my hired snowboarding gear. (My board had lightning on it. Awesome!)


Yeah, that's right. I learned to snowboard in three days. Boo-yah!

Goodness me, we were sore after that, though. So we went and had a soak in a local onsen on our last day. It was like magic. About 90% of the soreness disappeared. We wished we'd gone at the end of every day!



In other news, recently, we bought stufff for having nabe, because it is delicious. It's just a big ol' pot of soup you boil up on the table, and you put stuff (like cabbage or mushrooms or wontons or meat or whatever you like) in it and haul it out when it's cooked and eat it. And then you whack noodles in the left over soup. It is officially on my top ten best things ever list. Here's me and the inaugural nabe:


Mmmmmmm.... Definitely introducing this to our back-in-Melbourne lifestyle.