Arashi Parfait and Vegetarian Ramen

This is a food post. I hope you don't mind.

Wandering around Shinjuku station this past week, I came across a parfait that is very relevant to my interests.

An Arashi parfait named after one of my favorite songs??? HECK YES I NEED TO EAT THAT. I went with my dears Tracy and Marissa to partake of the epic dessert. Cafe Est! Est!, home of this parfait, also bills itself as an establishment that employs very handsome j-boys. I'm not sure what else I could ask of a cafe.

Comes to your table with a sparkler!!!
As sparkly as MatsuJun!

OM NOM NOM!!!

Yes, that is an upside-down ice cream cone on my parfait.

And a slice of chocolate cake.

Hidden bonus: the cream puffs are filled with vanilla ice cream~

Our chocolate cake took a fatal spill.

Delicious~ and worth the 1250yen omg. The cafe made us order one item each, so we also ordered happy face fries to cut the sweetness and I got a milk tea. I do have one complaint -- my milk tea came to me as regular tea and the pretty boy handed me a non-dairy creamer to make it *milk* tea. Cheap bastards. But if you want to pay them a visit, go to the Odakyu department store in Shinjuku station.

Onto something savory~ There's a ramen shop chain, Kagetsu Arashi, that has a special limited-edition vegetarian ramen on their menu. Since it's very difficult to explain any sort of dietary restrictions to Japanese people, I was interested to try it. I'm definitely a carnivore and I was not expecting to enjoy this dish at all (I even ordered a side of gyoza in case it was a bust), but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was!

I've had their tonkotsu ramen before and I thought it was okay by Japanese standards, but the noodles were a bit thick for my tastes and the broth left my mouth feeling dirty. The vegetable ramen managed to keep an unmistakable ramen flavor with a lighter broth and thinner noodles. Aside from one very aromatic vegetable I couldn't identify, I liked the veggie ramen a lot more than the tonkotsu ramen.

Standard tonkotsu ramen for comparison. My new coworker had that one.

My Nana vegetarian ramen! Smelled like salad lol.

I have no idea what's in this!

Mmm vegetable broth~

Green noodles~

Seriously, it was delicious. It's a little pricey at 780yen a bowl, but OM NOM NOM GO EAT IT.

SPAM BONUS: This Lawson near Shinjuku station is clearly advertising SPAM MUSUBI.

Keitai Photos Post

Because none of these things deserve their own post, they all get lumped together in a random photo post! Yay laziness to produce content! 

Spotted these lightly lined beer zip bags at the supermarket.
Was tempted to buy one, but then I'd have to get drunk by myself with all that beer...

So many things right and wrong with this.

I'm sure he did have a giant apple he'd pop out of
like a stripper from a cake at a bachelor party.

Those are two digitized photos of the farmers from where these
strange kumquat-like fruits came from.
Supposedly it encourages trust between the customer and farmer
since you get to see the man who grew the fruit.
Not interested until Arashi starts farming and I can buy Aiba's crops.

I'd have purchased this ridiculous Hello Kitty toy violin if it were smaller
and better suited for whipping out when I want to display
how little sympathy I have for some people.

Ma always said she'd never buy cake mix til it went on sale for less than $1.
630yen ($7.50?) dear God I don't even have an oven to bake it in.

The weather's starting to get warmer and I want to get out more! Open call to whoever might want to meet and hang out in Tokyo or Saitama. Chee hee, bu.

Conversations with My Students: More Inappropriate Than Usual

I know I write about the same kids all the time, but they are hilarious and deserve their own TV show or corner on a Japanese news program.

LOL Google image search.

Last chapter we were describing people's looks. Not just hair but also facial features, eye color, etc. I asked them about celebrities, their families, and other significant people in their lives - including their teachers.

Me: BOY. What does Brohei-sensei look like?
Boy: He has short black hair, black eyes, and... uh...
Unrequited Love Girl: HE HAS RED FACE.
*Class devolves into laughter*
*Brohei-sensei just so happens to teach in the room next door, disapprovingly peeks in*
*Cue uncontrollable laughter*

After class ends, Brohei-sensei barges in.
Brohei: *In Japanese, with fake anger* Who made the red face comment? Huh? I have a red face?
*More uncontrollable laughter*

Brohei: *Still in Japanese* YOU HAVE A RED FACE, TOO, UNREQUITED LOVE GIRL.

That's how you protect identities in photos, right?
Black line across the eyes? LOL.
We both had the same amount of alcohol, notice who's still white as a ghost~

I like to ask this class random questions throughout the lesson. They're all very high-level so I try to keep them talking.

Me: *Shuffling cards* Twihard, what's your favorite color?
Twihard: I like blue.
Me: Alice in Wonderland, what's your favorite candy?
Wonderland: I like Natchan candy!
Me: Unrequited Love Girl, what's your favorite ramen?
Unrequited Love Girl: I like salt ramen (shio ramen).
Me: BOY. What's your favorite yakiniku meat?
Boy: MY MEAT.
Me: *Cute EXCUSEMEDIDYOUJUSTTALKABOUTYOURWEEWEE face* I was looking for something more along the lines of tongue, beef, chicken...
Boy: Oh... beef.

I can't get my high school boys to even talk about Valentine's Day but somehow I managed to get the middle school boy to make an inappropriate joke. Great.

New 'Do

So a gaijin walks into a hair salon with pretty j-boy staff. She asks the prettiest j-boy there, "Hey, can you take these two completely different hair styles and make ME pretty somehow? And let me use this discount card for half off?"

My hair will never be this long naturally.

Bangs like that are a pain to keep in place throughout the day.

But through some sort of magic, he makes it work.

I may or may not have taken the after photo in a rush to send it to a boy. Heh. Obviously there will be more photos of my hair later. The moms have been complimenting me all week and if I didn't know better I'd say I even got an awkward statement of approval from my male coworker Brohei!

Eiji at DAWS is adorable and talented and made the effort to chat me up, despite my broken Japanese. He'd have a crazy gaijin after him if he spoke any English ;)