27 October 2017
Second opinion
Good cheap ramen in Shizuoka
My first night in Shizuoka, I thought it was all a bit quiet and boring. Then last night I went to a new level of quiet and boring at the other end of the train line at Shimizu.
Tonight I went for a longer lap around Shizuoka, and at first it was still quiet and boring, but then I found the busy bits, including streets shut off from traffic for pedestrians, the so called red light district, and lots of places to eat.
Actually I think the other night I was one or two streets either side of the busy parts, and missed them entirely before heading back to the station for dinner.
So there you go, on a scale of Shimizu to Tokyo, Shizuoka ranks above Shimonoseki, Toyama and Nagano, probably at about the level of Kanazawa, but defintely below Sendai, Sapporo and the other big cities.
I have slept in lots of cities in Japan, and still have 3 new ones to go on this trip - Kobe, Gifu and Yokohama. Although I have visited Kobe and Yokohama on day trips.
I will of also be staying in places I have stayed before - Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo again as my last stop. So there you go a huge list of cities.
Tomorrow I am going to Kyoto, but I couldnt get a cheap train ticket until later in the afternoon, I usually like to time my train journeys for a 2pm arrival so I can get to my hotel to check in at the earliest time of 3pm.
So far this has all been a very procedural update, so let me tell you the story of 3 school girls trying to ride one bike. It did not go well.
The girl in control could basically not see where she was going at all, as she rode the wrong way up a one way street in traffic, and it all ended badly with a hilarious collision with a post box.
How do you celebrate such an event? Selfies of course, after arranging yourselves and the bike with the post box in shot.
And on a related note, its big news that school children in Japan who naturally have hair any other color except pure black are not being allowed into the school until they dye their hair 'Japanese black'.
Perhaps this wouldnt be big news, but one girl has decided to sue the government over it, you can google this yourself if you want, just include the words Japan girl hair black government.
Another look at what is the main street, still very quiet. I moved on, starting my big loop around the city.
My journey took in many interesting sites, such as a shop that sells only umbrellas. Its forecast to rain tomorrow so marked this shop on my map just in case.
Then, near the castle, I found another shopping street, even more deserted, but so very neat and tidy. No restaurants along here at all, quite weird.
One of the few stores that was open is bowl world. They have lots of bowls because theres no stores nearby serving food that need bowls.
They do not have anyone here to sell bowls though, maybe it works on the honor system, or its the local trade-a-bowl.
Not actually on the deserted shopping street but nearby I found this awesome model car shop. Its huge and so neat and organised. Every model car in the place is from one specific brand, Ebbro. I just researched it, its a new Japanese brand fast building a global reputation for excellence in model cars!
There was a husband and wife sitting at the counter inside reading their phones, I came in and they spoke to each other, I know exactly what they said, 'look at this round eye who has no intention of buying anything trying to take a photo'.
The best photo was this one taken from the outside.
At the end of quiet shopping street is this shrine, which is at the base of the castle (I think). I decided to mess about with my camera for a while.
This one is handheld, 1/20. My camera has no optical image stabilisation.
This one is a long exposure, not handheld. Another good feature of my camera is the screen pulls out of the back and can flip up, out, down etc. so you can use it as kind of a mini tripod to take shots like this.
One of the busiest parts of town is Tsutaya, an amazing book shop, open to midnight, starbucks inside the store. People just hang out in here not intending to buy things, me included. Plus they have bathrooms.
Here is one half of the busy night life street. Its Friday night so its closed off. There are a few signs up saying its the official Halloween street of Shizuoka, whatever that means.
In Japan Halloween is orange and purple. Everything has to be orange and purple themed.
There were lots of places to eat around here, but I ended up having ramen, again, how predictable. It was really cheap and quite nice, especially when you add the various pickled vegetables.
I ordered from the ticket machine, thus ensuring I dont have to utter a single word all day, however I somehow ordered an option with no meat in it.
I only noticed as I was finished that there was no meat, perhaps there was supposed to be meat but the guy forgot, oh well, it was about $7 so I wont complain.
Heres a gyoza shop, with many lanterns. Their sign took my eye, 'The woman dumplings, The meat dumplings, The man dumplings'. I will get 1/2 a dozen woman dumplings please..... 'breast or leg?'.
The local book off has the super mario odyssey bundle that was released today.
They also have a huge selection of second cartridges and old game systems. Some of the carts are $2 each, I thought these things were all collectors items now?
Should I buy up big and re sell on Australian ebay? Somehow I dont think its that easy.