Hmm, Grub

Today I tried the famous Tottori 20th century nishi pears. It is round and green and looks nothing like pears back in the states. It tastes sort of like a cross between a pear and an apple: unlike pears, it has a grainy rather than smooth texture; but unlike apples, it is sweet with no hint of citrus sourness and is near-watermelon juicy. It was so damn good I think I should start a campaign to upgrade it to 21st century nishi pears.

(the above comments was from a strictly American perspective; there's a similar breed from Taiwan that looks yellow and tastes just as good; though I have withheld that fact from the Japanese people I've met here--though mostly modest, I find that they are invariably proud to a fault of their local product)

Today I also tried Mizushi, a ramen shop near the Takashi hospital. Ramen is considered Chinese food here, but like every other "ethnic" food in Japan, it is Nipponized beyond recognition (just yesterday I found out that the famous Japanese tempura was actually of Portugese origin). During the car ride yesterday, Nishiyama-sensei and I talked at length about ramen--he is a ramen connoisseur of sorts--and today he took me to Mizushi, which in his trained opinion is the best there is around.

I learned many things about ramen today. I already mentioned that it's considered a Chinese food. I also found out why Japanese slurp ramen. Apparently, as the noodles sit in hot broth, some of the noodle flavors start to deteriorate; to get the full flavor, you must eat the boiling hot noodles as fast as possible, and slurping can effectively cool down noodles by taking in air. I think Nishiyama-sensei ate his bowl at less than 2 minutes, and it took me at least a very sweaty 6 or 7. Also I think that there are 4 basic kinds of ramen: Shouyu(soy sauce, the most basic/common), Tonkotsu(pork bone broth, Kyushu specialty), Miso(Hokkaido), and Shio(salt ramen). I don`t know if there are any Tonkotsu or Miso ramen shops around Yonago, but I`ve found a Shio ramen shop in the bar district. Though I`ve hear that Japanese winters are cold, at least now I`ve found the perfect food for the snowy future.