Thursday, December 05, 2019

Ramen World Cup Part 4: Come On Sun, Rise Already!

Konnichiwa, welcome to the Land of the Rising at 3am Son.


It takes a pre-sunrise pour over to really tease out the subtle notes of abject exhaustion. At least we're in the country that actually has a name for death by exhaustion. Will save some typing later in the blog.



Daddy, now you're talkin' my language.


The Pipster Hipster is in da house.


Don't knock on the ōtoro boys.



Daddy, are you a salaryman? If I say yes can I go to the pachinko parlor?



I assume you'll be transforming into a giant Gundam shortly?



Is this the Sailor Moon cosplay?


A museum for noodles. Cup noodles. Yes you heard that right. You know a nation takes their instant noodles seriously when there's a five story waterfront museum dedicated to the humble cup noodle.


Hey, as far as installations go it's better than Duchamp's urinal.



The formaldehyde shark has got nothing on this carefully preserved archive of every variant of cup noodle ever released.



Pip we may have some leftovers.



Apparently this is an exact replica of the humble hut where the cup noodle was invented. Is anyone else starting to think the Met needs to lift its game?


Because who needs Tutankhamun when you can climb on a real tuk tuk at a fully operational replica of an Asian night market?


You can even make your own personalized cup noodle. For five bucks! I mean Disney charges 200 bucks to build a custom lightsaber at their park and you can't even eat it when you're done.



After you customized your cup it goes onto the real assembly line where a robot fills it with noodles and seals it up.


Daddy, we can heat these up at 3am while we wait for the breakfast buffet to open.



Unfortunately this was taken at 3pm.


Tokyo, one of the world's great cities. Way over yonder you can see the Lost in Translation bar. This is as close as Rock will get. To the bar and/or Scarlett Johansson.


The Professor has arrived! Grandpa, did you bring that long bedtime story about integrated reporting?



Team Two Phat is back! Has it really been 13 years?


Grandpa, should we tell Grandma the ramen has a pork bone broth?


Oh there's another sport that saw plenty of semifinal failures back in the day.



In Japan there's an exactitude in even the simplest acts, like pulling a soft serve.



Ka mate! Ka mate! Roughly translated: Don't choke in the semifinals mate.


The mighty Metropolitan Government building is the kind of austere edifice that would make any salaryman want to pull an all-nighter. Speaking of all-nighters, it must be just about 3am...



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