11 November 2019
Rain the other way
Light rain followed by Ramen in Yamagata
I actually had a plan to go quite a bit further tonight, up a hill and down a street I thought might have a bit of a view of the city lights, however then it started raining, and that was the end of that. The awnings of houses and shops in Yamagata do not offer any protection from rain at all, and of course all the trees have by now been stripped of all their leaves and are now just twigs sticking out of the ground. That would mean even light rain would get me uncomfortably wet.
Therefore soon after setting off in the opposite direction to the last 2 nights, I accepted defeat and headed back to the station area.
I was on the hunt for hot soba, now armed with google lens realtime translate I pointed my phone at a couple of soba places, and all the menu items said chilled soba, boooo.
Then I saw a strange stairwell with 3 signs at its base, so I wandered up. Option 1, expensive barbecue. Option 2, raw cold fish. Option 3, DOKI DOKI RAMEN.
Based on the picture of the house special, I thought Doki Doki meant a pile of bean shoots on top of your ramen, but now that I have searched the term, and seen it used to describe nearly everything, I have discovered it really means the following -
(dokidoki) is a word that mimics the sound of a beating heart. It is used to describe physical/emotional excitement or racing of the heart. It can indicate that someone is thrilled, excited, or nervous.
Hmmm, so there you go. What I can tell you about Doki Doki Ramen is that the little old lady who was cook, waiter, cashier, cleaner and entertainment spoke some amusing English, and started singing Elvis Presley songs. The words sounded familiar, the tune however was non existent, so I wasnt sure, but then she asked me, you like Elvis Presley? I will spare you the Japanese accent typed in text, but I can assure you it was as you would expect.
At this stage she was still preparing my Ramen, so of course I said, I like Elvis! But that lead to trouble, as she asks, which Elvis song do you like best?
I had to think about this for a minute, do I know the name of any Elvis song? All I could come up with was see see rider. So next thing shes in the kitchen confidently singing see see rider over and over to the tune of jingle bells.
The Ramen was great!
After diverting due to rain, I had to find things to photograph, why not convenience stores? Yamagata has the larger variety, with cafe seating and car parking.
There are 3 main brands, 7-eleven as shown above, Lawson as shown here, and Family Mart, not pictured. I thought of walking to the Family Mart to complete this series, but it was raining too much. Niigata also still had Daily Yamazaki, a brand I dont see as much lately?
This is the view from the station, down the main street, towards my hotel, in the rain.
ELVIS RAMEN! It was a huge serve, but mainly bean sprouts. Although I feel like I have eaten too much.
I have seen Filipinos a lot in Yamagata, this is where they work. All of them.
These things are my favourite snack lately. I think its a nut, coated in green, coated in sugar. The green seems to be flavourless. I am not sure I can eat them now after the huge bowl of Doki Doki See See Rider Ramen.