I was craving ramen today, and happened to stumble upon a chain ramen shop by the Tachikawa station. Unfortunately, I felt a little embarrassed at the restaurant since I couldn’t find the “Call” button (it was located on the wall behind me), and a nice man gave me a coupon that I couldn’t read/understand until after I ordered my meal. Oops.
But, still, the ramen was tasty and quick. Wish there were ramen shops like this in the US.
It was one of those days where I pretty much felt that Fate/Destiny was telling me to not go through with my plans for the day. Originally, today I was supposed to go to an interview session for an English-teaching company. The emails bounced twice when I tried to reply to the company confirming my attendance, but I decided I would still go to the session to notify them of this situation. I hoped that they would still let me attend the session since the bounced emails is a problem with their system, not mine.
Ah, but then an acquaintance notified me of the chaos ensuing within the train lines; apparently, there was a fire along one of the train lines (perhaps, Chuo), and many of the lines were either stopped or severely delayed. I became a little worried since I had to take the Chuo and Yamanote lines to get to where I needed to go (Osaki). I thought maybe the train situation would be fixed by the time I reached the ticket gates, though…..
Arriving at the Tachikawa station, I approach the ticket gates and notice the swarm of people going in and out of the Nambu line entrance. It looked massively insane and headache-inducing. Since the Chuo was the main line towards Tokyo from Tachikawa, everyone had to resort to taking the Nambu line and finding alternate routes to get to central Tokyo. I sat outside of the ticket gates, watching the madness for a few minutes, until I finally decided, “I can’t go to the session. I’d probably show up late if I went through Nambu; plus, there’s no confirmation that I ever made it onto the list–why bother with all the trouble to arrive at the office when there’s no real confirmation?”
I took a risk and decided I would not deal with the matter. The Chuo line was supposed to start back up at noon, which was when the interview session would begin anyway. I decided I would save myself some money (1200 yen for a round trip to Osaki from Tachikawa! Whoa.) and trouble.
It was probably the best decision I made for the day. After all, I then had the day to relax and reflect on the busy week I have had.
It seems that most Japanese cafes have something with green tea in it; I ordered the green tea latte (cold, this time) and was mesmerized by its great flavor. There was an abundance of desserts on display, too, but I decided to go with this blueberry cheesecake. It tasted dry, however, so it didn’t really satiate my sweets craving today.
I probably should have gone for a different cake…but I guess I can’t turn back now, huh.
I remember going to this cafe a lot when I was a student in Japan. There was a Cafe Jr. by the Ontakesan station (where my guest house was), so I’d frequent the cafe a lot, ordering their pizzas and iced lattes.
Going back to the Cafe Jr. in Harajuku made me feel nostalgic, since I remember going here a few times with some friends. This time, however, I was alone, and I did feel a little lonely thinking about memories. This pizza was the first somewhat ‘healthy’ thing I was able to eat in a few days–the pizza had vegetables on it, which made me feel a bit happy.
I made the mistake of sitting upstairs with the smoking section, though. I was trying to just find a better seat for myself, but in turn, I ended up sitting with all the smokers. There were two young schoolgirls sitting a few seats away from me; one girl had a rather husky voice, which amused me. I don’t think they were smoking either; probably just wanted a comfortable, somewhat private place to sit and chat.
Cheap prices for high quality food; that’s how things are like at Gasuto/Gust. I went to this restaurant beside my friend’s apartment and tried it out for the first time tonight.
I was pleasantly surprised at the prices for meals such as Hamburg sets, curry rice (what I ordered), etc. Most of these dishes were around 500 yen, which is unheard of in most other family-style restaurants. There was also a drink bar (have to pay extra for that), and the service was quick.
I felt happy with my meal here; the desserts also looked tempting, but they were a bit pricey for my tastes (I hate how I’m always thinking about money/the cost of things).