Ramen

We are a big fan of ramen.  We've been to a few good ramen places in the Bay Area.  But here in Tokyo, it's a whole new ball game when it comes to ramen.  Most of the ramen shops near our hotel are tiny with very few seats...a little hole in the wall type.  The ramen shop we were in, our little group of 10 literally filled up maximum capacity. 

First thing you do when you walk in is to go to the vending machine and order your choice of ramen.  Check out the menu in the photo.  After you select your ramen, you pay (cash only) and the machine spits out a tiny ticket.  You put the ticket on the counter in front of your seat.  Then the two "chefs" in the narrow kitchen go to work...boiling the ramen, steaming to heat up the bowls, putting the gyozas in the gyoza making gadget, etc.  Snap, crackle and pop...wa-lah... a steaming hot bowl of ramen with a mountain full of cabbage, sprouts, green onions, carrots gets delivered in front of you by the chef.   Pretty darn good I must say! 

$8.50 for a bowl or ramen.  Combo with gyoza is $9.20.  Not cheap.

  

Those are the little white tickets from the vending machine.

  This particular ramen shop emphasizes on eating lots of veggies.

After you happily slurp up your yummy ramen, you put the bowl back on the counter, you have to clean up your mess, wipe down the counter and say thank you and leave.  Pretty efficient, right?  No waitress jobs in this part of the world. 

You can ask for different hardness of noodles cause some prefer al dente and some soft.  You can get different flavor soups -- miso, salt, soy sauce, meat, etc.  On the vending machine, you can add different toppings...like butter or hot sauce. 

Shaeli, Samantha and Kira nearly polished their bowls.  Tati and Sam gave up about half way.  

No comments re UA food.  Okay...one comment.  I am glad I am not a frequent flyer.

Stay tuned for more...we are headed to the famous fish market today!

Hello from Tokyo - by Shaeli

I can't believe we are actually in Japan. It still hasn't registered in my mind yet that we are in a whole different country with diffrent customs and a new language. It's super hot and humid compared to the bay area. Even when you're standing in one place, you start to sweat. The mini towels helped some with cooling.  Another big difference is that everything and everyone is squished into a small place.  Street are narrow, parking spaces are so few and so small, and the hotel rooms are tiny! I mean, really TINY. It reminded me of the cabin on our last cruise to Alaska.  I won't take the size of houses in America for granted any longer, tiny.  Really happy there's AC in the room though.

The 10hr plane ride over the pacific ocean was mostly uneventful. Horrible food. Sitting in one place for almost half a day. Yeah... pretty boring.  But we watched a lot of movies. 

I was really hungry after the flight because I only ate a little bit of the yucky plane food. Luckily, Coach Yoko and her agent, Masashi, took us to have delicious ramen. It tasted like heaven! Nobody could finish their food because the bowl was big and we were eating at 3 in the morning.

xoxoxoxo from Shaeli Chan

At Narita Airport in Tokyo.  Samantha flew in from the Philippines, about 2 hours after we landed.  Hello! Tokyo!

Kira, Tati, Shaeli and Sam made signs for Samantha's arrival. 

Testing Testing 1-2-3

Still packing!  How about you?

United

Coach Susan said to pack a couple of sandwiches for Wednesday's flight.  Another person I talked to also gave me the same advice.  Apparently, United serves horrible food.  How bad can it be???? 

Konichiwa!

We're on our way to Tokyo, Japan!  

First, let's meet our super amazing host, Coach Yoko Zetterlund.  Coach Yoko San is a Bronze Medalist who played for the US National Team in Barcelona in 1992. She's a long-time friend of Coach Joe Mirabal, our U14 Coach.  Coach Joe and Coach Yoko made our trip across the world possible.  Thank you, both! 

Coach Yoko San

USA #2

"Born in San Francisco, Zetterlund moved to her mother's home country of Japan at the age of 6. She began playing volleyball while a junior high student and helped her school win the national championship. With her mother as head coach, her high school team also won a national event, and Zetterlund went on to represent Japan at the junior level. But even after continued success at the college level, fierce competition made it difficult for her to make the national team and she decided to choose American rather than Japanese citizenship. She went to the U.S., where she successfully tried out for the national team, shortly before graduating university in 1991. After graduation she joined the Fuji TV network but soon returned to the U.S. to train for the Olympics. She also participated in the 1996 Atlanta games before coming back to Japan. She led the Daiei Orange Attackers, Japan's first pro team, to two championships. She retired in 1999.  In addition to her role as a sports commentator, she's also a writer, public speaker and is on the national administration board for the volleyball, basketball and soccer leagues."

Next, meet our Top Gun girls who will be going to Japan!

Our Top Gun entourage includes Coach Susan, Team Mom Kathy, Samantha, Kira, Shaeli, Sam and Tatiana.  We're all so excited about this amazing opportunity to train with Coach Yoko San and play with some high school teams... in JAPAN!.  Coach Yoko San has plans for us to play volleyball every chance we get and to do a little sight seeing in between.   So, follow us on our journey!  We will try to post as often as we can. 

Coach Susan

Team Mom Kathy