After that life-changing tour at KKDAY, our bus dropped us off on the same stop at Shinjuku. It was early evening already. I exchanged thank yous with Carl and then we parted ways (I hope he heard me say goodbye 😅). Then, I was alone again.

After walking for several more minutes under the drizzly and windy weather, I finally arrived at the ramen shop! I actually got confused for a bit because the entrance was not that obvious, and there were only Japanese characters in the signages. I had to check Google to verify if this was the place.

Imagine seeing this sign at a gloomy night in Tokyo. As always, Google saves the day. 😅(📷: Google Maps)

I folded my umbrella and placed it at the stand by the entrance. I noticed all of the other umbrellas placed there looked similar to mine. They say it's common incident in Japan to have your umbrellas stolen because people unintentionally grab the wrong one. Praying that it won't happen to me, I tied a knot with the button of my umbrella to mark it from the rest of the pile.

Upon entering, I recognized that the setup of the restaurant is similar with Mendokoro. Good thing I already had some ramen house experience. Upon spotting the ticket vending machine, I knew what I must do.

Good thing the vending machine had English menu. I survived. 🤟 I ordered Tsukemen and some black tea.

It was a busy Wednesday night. The place was almost packed. I felt comfortable with that, because that means I won't stand out. I think I was the only foreigner inside LOL. I spotted an empty chair and settled there. I then handed my ticket stubs to a staff, and eagerly waited for my order.

As more people arrived in the restaurant, the noisier the place became. There were lots of chattering and laughter here and there. I remember -- on my left, a guy and a gal were happily chattering, while there was a solo man on my right. At that point I thought it would have been fun to eavesdrop on their conversations. Too bad, my Japanese skill is not at par to do that.

This is the first and best tsukemen I've had. (please excuse those splatters of soup 😂)

The noodles' texture was something new to me. The flavor of the soup coats the noodles upon dipping and the taste was just a match made in heavenly taste buds. The meat also tasted so good (my heart is aching while writing this... I badly want to have this tsukemen again now). It's so tender and flavorful. And the eggs...😭 The yolk was just as soft as I liked it to be (I am really torturing myself now huhu I wanna teleport to Tokyo!!!)


Good thing I didn't eat that much throughout that day. This meal was heavy!

With a happy heart and a super satisfied tummy, I finished my meal. I didn't know what I should do with my bowl and stuff so I was waiting for others so I could observe. I saw one customer place the bowl on the counter top in front of him. So that's what I did. I wanted to say "thank you for the food!" but since I didn't know how, I just said a soft arigatou gozaimasu and went on my way outside the restaurant. 😅


I'm happy to confirm that my umbrella was still there. I opened it up and started walking towards the nearest subway station. It was still chilly. While strolling along the busy Shinjuku streets, I went all emo mode again and just contemplated on all the wonderful things that happened today. Everything were all slowly sinking in.

I'm now already half-way the dream sequence. I can't wait to share with you the rest of my experiences in this journey. ❤️ Stay tuned for the rest of my Tokyo posts!