#i guess its more hotpot then ramen??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

huginsmemory · 2 years

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favorite ramen recipe 🙏😮? wanna try smthg ober than chicken and pepper🥴

Oh I can absolutely share it! The thing is though, it's not really a single recipe I use- it really depends on what I've got in my fridge at the time, haha, which makes it really versatile as a recipe. I have a tendency to 'free-style' a bit as I cook so the recipe isn't going to be given to you in cups, my apologies, nor is it really gonna be done in a 'traditional' ramen manner, as I tend to bastardized recipes. Below I've broken it down into three different categories: there's the stock, there's the noodles and there's toppings.

Stock

Put on a pot to boil- half the size of the bowl you have is one portion, as you'll be adding noodles and toppings on top of the broth. So eye the water going in for how many portions (bowls of water) you want. Mix in any broth base- I have a preference of beef, as I feel that would be closer to what is generally used in ramen, but any will do (I generally use more than the suggested amount of broth to put in since I like things salty). Some vegetable broth however will be very heavy in flavour of celery- so I would steer clear of those, but if that's all you got then that's all you got! Into the pot it goes. I then slice ginger and garlic and throw it in as well- for six cups I maybe put in 3-4 medium garlic cloves and about 1.5x the amount for ginger. Pour in soya sauce- for about six cups I maybe put in 1/3 cup of soya sauce. Let simmer.

That's a general broth; however you can mix it up by adding miso and removing most of (or leaving in) the ginger and garlic to get a miso-ramen. Or, you can add a few star anise and a stick of cinnamon and if you have it a bit of all-spice and 1-3 cloves to get a similar flavour profile to pho.

Noodles:

Find noodles; obviously, if there's ramen or Asian style noodles then that is preferred. Vermicelli or other glass noodles are less ramen-like but also perfectly serviceable. If you're really desperate, spaghetti noodles can also work, but then that's blasphemous and why are you not having spaghetti then? have I done this before when I was young and unaware and working with limited ingredients? Yes.

Boil a separate pot from the stock, and this is where you'll boil your noodles in- if you're lazy, then you can also boil your noodles in the stock pot. However, boiling your noodles in the stock pot means your noodles if left in long with get soggy which is not as desirable. This is also why if there's leftovers (which there always is) put the noods and the broth in separate containers. But again, it REALLY depends on how much work you wanna do.

Toppings:

This is where it gets fun. You can put whatever you want on-top; obviously, there's preferred things to put on top, so I'll list a few of my favourite.

Eggs! This means a third pot on the stove, or if you strategically remove the noodles out of their pot, you can boil the egg in the noodle water. Peel, cut in half and plop on top of your noodles the two halves. Or, a less preferred method, fry an egg sunny side up instead to be added, or just crack an egg into the simmering broth.

Meat- honestly, cold cuts and bacon are the best for this (assuming your not out buying the presliced raw meat specific for having with hotpot or something). If it's cheap soft bacon, I suggest frying it in a pan breifly before putting it on top of your soup, as if you dont cook it, you tend to swallow the slippery bacon whole which is not particularly pleasant. Cold cuts such as sliced ham and baloney (yes, baloney) are really fucking good in ramen, and are cheap and easy to get. Lie/tuck the meat in once the noodles and the broth and veggies have been added to the bowl; the broth will heat up the sliced meat. Or, lazily just throw the meat into the pot. That works perfectly well as well, and if you have thick slices of something this may work better as well.

Tofu you can also add! What I like to do is pre-slice the tofu thin and let marinate in a soya sauce-brown sugar sauce. If you're feeling fancy you can add a bit of grated ginger and chopped garlic for extra flavour, then fry it up in a pan (with lots of oil, to minimize burning) to get the tofu nice and crisp, and can be laid on top of the ramen when assembling it. Or you can just cut it into chunks and throw it into the broth while it's simmering as well. All different modicums of how much work you wanna put into it!

Veggies- these you chop up and toss into pot while it's simmering. Any type of non-poisonous mushrooms, sliced, also work as well as things such as Bok Choy, carrot, onions, cabbage, eggplant, corn, lotus root, leeks, dried seaweed, so on and so forth. Search up toppings to ramen/hot pot and you'll get a long list of things you can add! I generally ogle my fridge and go, hey that would do well in it and toss it in. You can also gently heat thinly sliced eggplant until it's soft on a frying pan and let it sit in soya sauce-brown sugar mix (or even just soya sauce, or you can pour it on top while gently heating) and it adds an extra kick of flavour when you add it into your ramen.

Cheese! Grated cheese (I like cheddar for this) can be placed on top to add an extra savoury taste and pairs really well with spicy broth.

Green onions I like to chop up and add as a garnish in the end.

Assembling the ramen at the end looks like this (if you go the more extra route): add noodles to bowl, then pour over broth with veggies, and then place in any protien, fancy veggies/tofu or cheese, and then place on top chopped green onions. Add soya sauce and spicy sauces to taste! Hope this wasn't too confusing, and enjoy your ramen! ❤️

#recipe #asks!#ask #ramen #ramen recipe #part of me is worried someone is going to be horrified with my poor mans ramen #look. look. i learned to cook with whatever ingredients i had and it means you make do with what u got #i guess its more hotpot then ramen???#anyways uh yeah #huginspeaks #its like. choose ur own adventure ramen. choose ur own ramen

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slothgiirl · 3 years

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try and walk on water 6

You change twice, before ending up in the same leopard print shirt you’d meet Alex in. It had become a favorite of yours. You tuck it into a pair of rick owens leather leggings you’d gotten at the sale of a lifetime on a long layover in France before you ended up knocking around India for half a year.

There.

Wait-

“You look good,” Vi says, not moving a muscle from the couch she’d collapsed onto after a long shift at the hospital. You make her a pot of coffee.

“No-I mean, it doesn’t matter,” you tell her. “It’s not a date.”

“Not a crime to look cute when meeting a friend. In fact, I’d be pressed if you didn’t look cute when we go out for brunch. I literally can’t wait to get bottomless mimosas. Why’d I go to med school again?”

You shrug, “because you wanted free donuts from the doctors of tomorrow club and ended up actually liking it. But also your mom kept bringing up med and pharmacy school.”

“Asian parents man,” Vi complains.

Alex picks you up because no car and you hadn’t even mentioned that you were going to grab an uber when he’d offered. Still, you see him and say, “Sorry for making you drive all the way to Torrance.”

“It's no problem,” Alex smiles. “I like getting to hear music and thinking on a long drive.”

“Yeah, but you drove this way and now we’re going back the way you came. I feel bad.”

“Don’t,” he laughs, looking sleek in dark jeans, a vintage t shirt with an interesting logo, and a different leather jacket. “I don’t mind.”

“You’re full of it.” You tell him sliding into his car. “I googled you.”

“Did you now?” Alex arches a brow and you wish he wasn't wearing sunglasses so you could see his chocolate eyes.

“Yeah,” you laugh, “and then got overwhelmed by the results and closed the browser.”

Alex snorts. “That bad?”

“No! I mean its fine, comes along with the whole band thing but yeah its wild to think about,” you pause. “I-forget I said anything.”

“I like the honesty.”

“Bullshit. I freaked you out. Came on too strong?” You were a little worried. Calling him had been a drunk decision you still weren’t sure about. There was China, then some project in LA that needed brochures for investors and maybe something in Seattle that hadn't panned out yet.

But Alex travelled too.

Maybe you could make it work, if things went well.

“Not at all,” Alex grins sheepishly, “I loathe it more when people just stare and sneak pics instead of just asking.”

“I can see how that would be awful.” You hated getting posted on facebook by your parents, or tagged in some terrible image with a bible quote in neon letters.

Traffic is fine until you hit the city.

“See,” you tell him, “this is why I hate driving.”

“Is it worse than China?”

“Eh. No. Not really. There you have to watch out for cars and bicycles. Not to mention the air quality. As bad as the great london smog or LA in the 60s.” You admit. “I guess I just lack the patience for driving.”

“Its a great way to play some tunes.”

“Stuck in traffic?”

“Yeah,” Alex nods with a smile, “some albums were meant to be heard while high, some were meant to be heard while on a road trip. Road to nowhere while on the road to Vegas is a whole other experience.”

“Okay, yeah I can see the point. . .if someone else is driving.”

Alex laughs.

You like hearing him laugh, his eyes crinkling up, looking boyish in a sexy way that sort of made you want to kiss him.

LA parking is a small fortune, but the ramen is worth it. Alex preservers with a leather jacket even as you both have soup on a sunny LA day, which was 95 percent of LA days.

“Okay so it wasn’t insta hype,” you comment, then ask Alex, “unless you absolutely hate it?”

“No. It’s good.” He nods, “though the bowl’s larger than me head.”

“More hotpot than single serving.”

“What’s hot pot,” he asks.

“Like a family serving of soup. It’s a Vietnamese thing. My friend Vi’s family did it for thanksgiving one year. Way better than turkey.”

“I’m intrigued.” Alex leans back.

It's nice and laid back. It’s the middle of the day so you don’t feel pressured to make this super special and you already made a fool of yourself by asking him out at 3 in the morning.

“I didn’t wake you up or anything, when I called,” you cringe.

“No.” He laughs at your embarrassment, “I was recording. Starting to get the music down. Laid down some sexy basslines.”

“Speaking as a white stripes fan,” you clear your throat, “Is there any other kind of bassline?”

“They didn’t use bass but actually used the guitar to create basslines, though it is a type of guitar to begin with so it’s sort of a chicken and egg situation.” Alex goes on, clearly getting into the specs of musical production and writing.

“Okay,” you giggle, “you got me. I’m a fake fan. If you need photoshop or photorespiration, I’m your girl.”

“Hardly love,” he shakes his head, “I’m pretty sure the fans know the words and find more meaning in the music I create than I do after a while.”

“What, you don’t like your old stuff?”

“Not exactly, but it is a time and place and I move on. It’s like looking back on old pictures, you appreciate it, but it's not you anymore.” Alex explains, playing with the remaining noodles in his bowl. He was right, you were stuffed and it was still half full.

It made sense.

You’d seen those viral youtube videos of singers forgetting their own song lyrics.

“When I see an ad I designed I usually take a selfie and annoy my friends,” you admit. “It's still wild to me that something I made gets plastered in a magazine or on a website.”

“That’s adorable.”

You make a face, “ugh, please don’t make me feel like a five year old.”

“No,” Alex leans forward, “I think it’s bloody great that you’re proud of your work. I just, I dunno, get embarrassed by my lyrics or voice, not the music itself.”

“Ah, like robert pattinson who doesn’t watch his own movies.” You laugh, thinking yeah, it would be incredibly egotistical to listen to your own music a lot.

“Exactly like that.”

You pay for the food, “I insist.”

“No-” Alex argues.

“I invited you so-and you drove,” you protest.

“Does that mean you’ll drive next time,” he teases.

You shake your head, “can’t drive here from Xi’an.”

“You’re leaving already?”

You take the momentary distraction to pay. “Yeah. For the month at least. Then maybe LA again unless it falls through. I dunno. The freelance thing means I can really just spin the globe and throw a dart. Never been to Amsterdam before.”

“Never played China before,” Alex tells you. “What’s the country like?”

“European in that there’ll be ancient ruins next to a skyscraper, and ladies with food stands across from Mcdonalds. I definitely got culture shock my first time but each city is so-it’s cool to be there for a month though it's only scratching the surface. Chongqing is a favorite.”

“Can you speak any chinese?”

“Very badly,” you admit, flushing with embarrassment. “No matter where I go I feel like the dumb american that can like, ask for directions but only knows one language.”

“My mums a german teacher and I still only know english.”

“Okay,” you tell him as you cross the street to one of little tokyo’s shopping plazas, “that makes me feel better. I’m just bad with languages. That area of my brain just sucks.”

Alex laughs.

“I keep meaning to learn french since I go over a lot,” he tells you, “for skiing and paris but it’s still oui, s'il vous plaît, and combien.”

“I find pointing and smiling works in every language.”

He looks over at you with a grin that has your skin buzzing, “you do have a very sweet smile.”

“Sweet?”

“Like seeing the moon during the day,” he shrugs, which clarifies nothing but makes my toes scrunch up inside my shoe. Fuck, you could already feel yourself falling for him.

Alex moved with a gravitational pull, enticing you with his warm eyes and easy smiles.

You look away, suddenly wishing this was a much more sexy date that ended with Alex between your thighs but the thought gives you cold feet. If you were serious about him, you didn’t want to go at 1000 miles an hour.

“Oh,” you cry out in delight, spying your favorite form of coke in a shop window, “mexican cokes!” There was a reason they were better, you just never remembered what it was. “I love those!”

“The ones you get from a taqueria,” Alex asks.

“Yes. They’re great. The one true form of coca cola.” You laugh at yourself. “I sound ridic don’t I?”

“No. I can’t judge. I wrote about dandelion and burdock which you can’t find outside the midlands really.”

You raise a brow, puzzled, “is it any good?”

“I’m biased.” Alex runs a hand through his hair, mussing up his hairdo.

You wanted to be the one messing it up. Yeah, your mind was firmly in the gutter today. You couldn't help it. It was Alex. The getup was ridiculous, right out of a grease themed high school dance but his confidence pulled it off and his jawline spoke for itself. It worked. He looked good, and he knew it which only enhanced the effect.

“I got this crazy craving for mexican food,” you ramble as you go into the market, “in belgium I think it was, but I couldn’t find anything decent which was only worse. The tortillas were all spanish ones, not corn. It’s funny what you miss when you’re in another country. Or even another state. In-and-out has to set up shop in New York.”

Alex laughs, “don’t hate me, but it’s not that good.”

“Oh-” you cover your face with a hand, “you do know it's illegal in california to criticism in-and-out?”

“Stop taking the piss,” Alex snorts.

“It’s true. That’s what actually happened to me,” you grin, “got exiled for saying their fries are thin.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Want a coke?”

Alex nods, “but I’m paying.”

“I’m offering you one!”

“None of that,” he wags his finger at you, “I’m paying and that’s that.”

You frown for a moment before bursting out in laughter. “Okay, okay. I won’t offend your masculinity.”

“What does that even mean,” he asks with a twinkle in his eyes. You’ve never seen a shade of brown so full of warmth, like honey stirred into a pot of tea.

“I don’t know,” you shrug, “sometimes I don’t even know what I’m saying. Feel free to tell me to shut up.”

“Well,” Alex leans forward, his breath tickling your skin, “now I’m curious to hear what else you come up with?”

He pays for the cokes and like some genetically passed on trait, eels returning to the sargasso sea, he opens the bottles with his keys.

You sit and watch people go by.

“Seriously,” you utter, “is that what they teach boys when they traumatize girls with the period talk in school.”

Alex doubles over laughing.

“I should've gone into stand up,” you muse, “or maybe I was a court jester in a past life?”

“You were the court jester,” Alex muses, “I was the musician with the harp making eyes at you as a bunch of toffs got pissed.”

“We’re onto something,” you agree, “we should pitch this to the BBC. Keira Knightley can play me.” She was too tall, but you had definitely had a thing for her after watching pride and prejudice. Having your soulmate be an asshole would be awful even if it worked out fine for Elizabeth Bennet.

“Cheers,” he clicks his glass against yours.

Your lipstick smears on the rim. You were surprised there was any lipstick left to be smeared. It usually didn’t survive something as messy as soup.

“You got a little something there,” Alex says, before leaning forward and wiping right under your bottom lip.

His hand on your skin feels electric. You meet his gaze and the air between you becomes charged.

“Lipstick,” you utter softly.

“Yeah.” He runs his thumb over the swell of your mouth deliberately, never breaking eye contact.

Feeling a bout of naughtiness, you part your lips, just a bit, enough for your tongue to wet his thumb the slightest amount, an unmistakable action.

Alex glances down at your mouth, the desire to kiss you written plainly on his features.

You pull away, still parsing out his intentions and your feelings.

You didn’t want this to be a one off thing. The magnitisism since you’d first met him: the way you clicked just right was special. You’re old enough to know that its rare to fit this easily with someone. You can count the people in your life you share this understanding with: your cousin Lea, Vi, and now Alex.

“Want to get mochi for the road,” you ask him, “its not a trip to little tokyo if you don’t get something at Fugetsu-Do.”

“Sure,” Alex pulls away, his eyes still raking over you in such a way that makes a shiver run down your back. “Speaking of things you have to do in LA,” he smirks full of mischief and the promise of more of what was building between you both, “you been out to Venice yet?”

“No,” you shake your head, getting up, “there's so much to do that I haven’t go down to the beach, any beach. Venice over Santa monica pier for sure. But Laguna knocks it out of the park.”

“I feel like that was a show.”

“Yeah, on MTV. I love a dumb reality tv show. It's practically modern day shakespeare.”

“Pfft, no way.”

You give him a look. “Shakespeare was low brow in his day. I might have sparknoted all his plays but I did remember that fun fact.”

You make it as far as the parking lot before the pressure implodes and you kiss Alex in his car. The gear stick digs into your side, but you hardly care when Alex has his hand cupping your cheek: his other hand trails down to the small of your back, the flesh there all gooseflesh. It’s been so long since you felt this good kissing someone. It was more than purely physical when Alex sucks on your bottom lip and your breath hitches and you feel his lips curve into a smile against your mouth.

You hardly know him, but you’re already all in.

It's the sound of his laugh and the way Alex rubs circles into the small of your back with his thumb and how he’d found your terrible running commentary funny. He’d spent lunch look at you even when his phone rang.

Fuck.

You clutch the soft leather of his jacket in your fingers as you get drawn further in, practically in his lap. You part your lips and run your tongue along the seam of his mouth, a toe curling throb of pleasure and self satisfaction going straight to your core when his groans into you.

It’s the way the sun is setting and his car is parked with a perfect view of the ocean gone ruby but Alex is too busy looking at your to care about the egg yolk star dipping below the horizon.

“You’d like Xi’an,” you say as an invitation.

“Oh yeah,” Alex utters softly, oriented towards you, his hand lazily stroking the side of your face with the back of his hand.

“Mhm.”

“I think you’re right.”

#Alex Turner #alex turner fanfic #alex turner imagine #alex turner x reader #mine #try and walk on water

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dearlyjinie · 4 years

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Got7 farting in front of you for the first time

Hyung line version

A/n: this is a weird idea that I thought of yesterday while talking to my sister, and I had to write so here it is.... I’m sorry not sorry asklwjdh

Im Jaebum

After being in a relationship for a little more than a year and a half it was safe to say that you and Jaebum were very comfortable around one another, maybe a little to comfortable some may say but that was the beauty of your relationship. You laid on your side with a book in hand reading in the dim light of your light stand. Jaebum by your side slept soundlessly on his stomach when suddenly a soft ‘brft’ noise was heard. You look at your boyfriend, ‘ did he actually fart?’ you thought biting your lip trying hard not to laugh but seeing that your boyfriend stayed quiet you thought against it. But when a louder noise erupted from your boyfriends behind you couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Jaebum slowly lifted his head from under the cover, cheeks slightly pink, feeling embarrassed from his action looked up at you.

“Sorry baby, i have a upset stomach” he said quietly, making you laugh harder. You cupped his cheeks and pressed a kiss to his chapped lips, telling him that it was natural.

Mark Tuan

“Is the popcorn ready?”

“Yep,” you told Mark as you walked over to the sofa, where he was. You sat next to Mark his arms going around your shoulders, pulling you closer to him while pressing play to resume your show. You guys were watching ‘You’ season 1 because Mark hadn’t watched the first season yet and didn’t want you to watch the second season without him.

While the night progressed, your eyes started to feel heavy and the lack of sleep from last night started to catch up to you. As you started to drift off a strong smell lingered around your nose. “ OMG EW” you opened your eyes and pulled yourself from your boyfriend. He looked at you with wide eyes, a small smile spread his lips knowing what just happened and bursted out laughing, seeing you cover your face with the sleeve of his hoodie.

He pulled you back into his lap, apologizing about happened, while he kissed your cheeks.

Jackson Wang

Jackson loved eating hotpot so when you told him that you had bought a hotpot pot and invited him over he was more than happy to come over.

You guys sat down on the floor surrounded by food as both of you ate the array of meats and vegetable. Since you had Chinese hot pot you had two types of broth, a spicy Sichuan one and a milky one.

Both of you ate in silence enjoying every second of the meal when suddenly Jackson was craving to eat some spicy knowing very well that it would be to spicy for him to handle he decided to cook his lamb into the spicy broth. A decision, Jackson regretted it after his craving was satisfied, and the spice creeped on him and the sweating had started. Jackson looked at you with a tissue stuck to his forehead.

He screamed in pain, sticking his tongue out like a dog letting the spice cool down, when a small ‘toot’ was let out, and Jackson stopped moving, he looked at you slowly thinking maybe you hadn’t heard what has just happened but to his demise you did. You were looking at him in the middle of slurping some ramen, a small smirk formed on your lips as you watch his panicked face, turn into a grin, and both of you started to laugh.

Park Jinyoung

“Y/nnn??” he called out to the seemingly empty house. “ I guess she’s not home he thought”. Jingyoung had just come home from working out and was on his way to the kitchen to make his post workout smoothie.

Jinyoung bent down to grab all the ingredients from the fridge, when you suddenly walked into the kitchen to grab something to eat when you see Jinyoung’s plump ass on full display as he bent down. All you could’ve thought about was “what you doing out here with all this ass?” audio from tiktok and started to giggle at yourself. It was funny and cute until Jinyoung let a big one rip and distracted you from your thoughts. You tried to keep you laughter bay, to not make your presence known to Jinyoung, but then he farts again and its twice as louder than the last and you lose it. You never thought that Jinyoung farts that loud.

Hearing you laugh Jinyoung screamed dropping the container of spinach on the floor and puts his hand on his heart trying to sooth the rapid beating, as he turned to face you.

You covered your mouth with your hand but looking at Jinyoung’s trying to explain that he thought you weren’t home made you laugh even harder.

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alexracheltravel · 6 years

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Rachel and Alex’s Great Adventure- Japan Edition: Going Home!

Activity Favorites

AJM:

#1 Baby monkeys

#2 Fushimi Inari shrine

#3 Tsukiji Market

#4 Akiba Kart

#5 Saiho-ji Moss Garden

RMF:

#1 Fushimi Inari Shrine

#2 Nishiki Market

#3 Arashiyama bamboo forest

#4 Akiba Kart

#5 Baby monkeys

Food Favorites

AJM:

#1 Hanasaki Nishikiten (course meal)

#2 Restaurant in Gion (sukiyaki)

#3 Rokurinsha (ramen)

#4 Sushi Dai

#5 Mizuno (okonomiyaki)

RMF:

#1 Mizuno (okonomiyaki)

#2 Restaurant in Gion (sukiyaki)

#3 Gonpachi (yakitori)

#4 Nishiki Market Mochi

#5 Sushi Dai

Location Favorites

AJM:

#1 Harajuku, Tokyo

#2 Arashiyama, Kyoto

#3 Gion, Kyoto

#4 Ginza, Tokyo

#5 Shibuya, Tokyo

RMF:

#1 Asakusa, Tokyo

#2 Gion, Kyoto

#3 Shinjuku, Tokyo

#4 Arashiyama, Kyoto

#5 Dotonburi, Osaka

Alex’s Overall Thoughts

Going to Japan was a dream of mine since I was little. It was more than just a trip to see manga and anime (the Internet has made it fairly easy to watch television in Japan). Finally going to the country, watching and standing beside the people who are a part of this incredible culture was quite wonderful. The Tokyo culture, with its dignified order was strange to watch. Of course, Japan is more than a number of cities. The beauty of Kyoto was in its contrast of gorgeous mountains right in back of the city. We got to hike some of these mountains, like Arashiyama, where the monkey park was located. On this trip, I saw a ton more nature than I had anticipated. Despite not being formally engaged with Shinto and Buddhism, it was inspiring to see the sights important to the culture, especially since many of these shrines and temples (although restored) are centuries old. The monkeys were only a little bit of the unique aspect of Japan that I was engaged with and entertained. It is truly a country like no other.

And I can’t even get over the food. I hope I’ll be able to enjoy the food at home, because even the soy sauce tastes different out here! Every restaurant, every convenience store, had such great food, from the simple noodle soups, to sushi, which requires a delicate and trained hand. I tried many new foods, many of which I loved. I experimented with new ways of eating dishes that I had not done before, such as pickled root vegetables, or hotpot-cooked pork. I knew that Japan had amazing food, but who knew it would leave such a lasting impact on me?

Finally, the people are what made this trip amazing. Of course hotel staff are always inviting and welcoming—it’s their job. But when you enter a store, or a restaurant, you are greeted with a loud cheer: irashammen, which means welcome. Everyone, from a convenience store worker, to someone who deals with tourists all day, were very kind, and very helpful. English was spoken, or at least understood to a degree where we would be able to get around, pay for dinner, eat, and drink. On the train, people are quiet, polite, mindful of each other’s space. It’s a crowded city, and everyone knows that it’s hot in the summer. Even though we were tourists, I often felt like I was part of the city, and that felt good to me. I really thought this trip achieved everything I wanted to, from seeing sights to participating in the vibrant atmosphere.

Rachel’s Overall Thoughts

We have been talking about this trip for almost a year now and I can’t believe it is over. I never thought I would be able to afford going on this kind of vacation. And I tend to worry about leaving work for extended periods of time but that has led to the fact that I have not taken a two-week vacation in, I think I figured out, nine years. So to say this was a very special trip to me feels like an understatement. Alex did the majority of research before going on the trip and I really wanted to be there and every morning decide what sounded fund and I think the research and doing what felt best was an amazing combination and led an amazing time. I know I talked about this a lot in the day to day recaps but I cannot express how tired my legs were. We walked almost 100 miles in ten days but we needed to, in order to see everything we wanted to see and do all the things we wanted to do. Because more than anything else, I feel like I had fun. We did fun and silly things. We ate the food we wanted to. We wandered around. We went to amazing food markets. We saw beautiful places and this was only ten days.

I could go on and on about specific things and how much I liked them but really this trip felt more like an invitation to continue to explore, have fun, and eat delicious food not only on vacation but in the rest of my life too. So I guess my overall thoughts are: what an amazing adventure, can’t wait for more!

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