Japan Trip 2013 - Day 11

Another new day meant, "What should we eat?"  We had not yet had a decent bowl of ramen since we came to Japan.  If you remember, our previous ramen experience in Odaiba was a let down.  We had a packed itinerary with a lot of hiking, so Ducky decided to look up a place that served decent ramen.  He stumbled upon Honke Dai-ichi-asahi which served Kyoto style ramen and was close to the Kyoto train station.  

Signature Special Ramen

Kyoto style ramen uses a thicker shoyu base and pile on the onions as you can see in the picture.  This ramen definitely hit the spot that morning.  The soup was rich shoyu taste that was just right and not too salty like our previous ramen experience.  The savoriness of the soup was enough to flavor every bite of noodle and the pork slices.  Ducky noticed that they give a lot of pork compared to other ramen places.  Other places give maybe one or two slices, but Dai-ichi had at least enough pork slices to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl.  The green onions were definitely a nice tough and added a nice sweet crunch to the ramen.  The noodles were firm and had a nice springy texture.  Just a word of warning, they do give A LOT of noodles with their signature ramen.  Kitty could not finish her bowl and should have opted for the mini bowl option.  Overall, it was a very delicious ramen.  Not the best, but far from the worst.

We then set out to hike Mount Kurama which was literally in the middle of nowhere. But even in the middle of nowhere there was a cute little stand that sold warabi mochi.

Green Tea Warabi Mochi

It was generously covered in matcha powder so that they wouldn't stick together but once you got to the mochi it was a real treat. Warabi mochi has a less chewy consistency than normal mochi and better resembles a very soft gummy. It was only subtly sweet, but it was what we needed to boost us through the day after a long hike.

We finally came back in the evening to meet Kitty's friend. He took us to an izakaya called Zipangu for all you can eat and drink. Like many izakayas we were taken to a little private mini-room where we had to take our shoes off. And there's a button for you to call your waiter/waitress every time you wanted to order. The time limit to order as much as you want was 2 hours. The menu was quite extensive and we ordered a lot....

Zipangu

Salmon with Mayo

Squid and Wasabi

Stewed Beef and Konnyaku

Cube Steak

Deep Fried Fish Cake Sandwich with Cheese in the middle

Potato and Cheese Pancake

Deep Fried Oysters

Fried Chicken "Potstickers"

Soba Noodles

Fried Fish (Fish eggs inside)

Karaage

Potato Gratin

(Left)Grape Sorbet, (Middle) Yogurt and Jellies, (Right) Hojicha Ice Cream

Blueberry Angel Ice 

Rolled Egg

Overall the food was good, and like any izakaya many of these foods are meant to be eaten with alcohol. Ducky stuck with his non-alcoholic drinks but I tried some chu-hais. It was a merry time and we both patted our full bellies in the end.

But that's not enough..........because we wanted to experience getting Japanese pizza delivery so our host helped us order one from Pizza Hut.

Japanese Pizza 

This pizza had...4 sections: 1) Shrimp and corn 2) Potatoes 3) Bacon, and 4) Sasuage/Pepper. It was everything we thought it would be in a Japanese pizza.........all toppings were fair game and it tasted a lot like Kewpie mayo. Yum for late night snacking.