First night’s sleep in Japan was a very short yet restful 3hr nap after a 24hr of airplane travel. We woke up at around 3am wide awake of course. Since we didn’t eat since the day before 6pm dinner (LA time), my mom was STARVING. In combination with us being in Japan, it was easy to convince her to go eat at my absolute favorite ramen joint in the WORLD: ICHIRAN RAMEN (of course so obvious).
Despite the many locations, most of them are open 24/7 so it makes it perfect for our jet lagged self to snag a bowl of absolutely fatty ramen without suffering the hour wait.
The new thing since I’ve been in Japan over 5 years ago was that their vending machines include credit card payment as an option now. Yay!!!
My mom and I slurped like there was no tomorrow. Omg, it was so good! It was just as good as it was before. Even my mom says it tasted better than in America. The broth is so rich and savory and salty. It is soooo fatty. The chasu pork slices were so tender and soft. Noodles are cooked perfectly.
And we can’t forget that soft boiled egg. It was perfect!!!!
Afterwards, we ventured to the Cup Noodles Museum in the more northern part of Osaka in IKEDA because my mom wanted to go there. We each made two cup noodles. It was fun!!! We felt like we were kids again!
On our way back, we saw an enticing onigiri stand and couldn’t help but each eat two onigiris: salmon and masago. Place was called onigiri-ya hitotsubu. It was packed!
Both were made fresh to order. They were warm and filling. The fish fillings were slightly on the saltier side for me.
Then we stopped by Holly’s Cafe for a sweet and cold treat from walking in the hot and humid weather. My mom got the matcha au parfait and I got the hojicha au parfait.
You know what? Each had a scoop of soft serve vanilla ice cream and I gotta say it’s one of the best soft serves. It was like a cross between soft serve and ice cream. Still very creamy but has an extra icy texture of soft serve. It was so freaking delicious.
After resting for a quick hour, we ventured back out to walk around the Kuromon Market and the nearby shopping streets. We were catching the tail end of it so it wasn’t as bustling but we skipped the crowds!
We shared a small platter of takoyaki with white cheddar cheese and masago mayo drizzled on top. It was sooooo good! This is so much better than in the States. The filling batter was so incredibly soft and creamy, almost like a potato puree texture. There was a full tentacle of octopus inside. The cheese and masago mayo was a nice creamy touch.
Then, we shared an eel skewer, which was SOO GOOD!!! The eel was incredibly soft and tender. So soft and tender. I am reminded of when Vince completely flipped 180 after he had an unbelievable unagi nigiri back when we were in Tokyo. Prior, he didn’t care for it either.
Then, I treated myself to a strawberry daifuku, which is a mochi stuffed with red bean and topped with one strawberry. Usually, I wouldn’t care for it but that one bite in SD not too long ago was crazy good. This was good and soft too. Not too sweet!
And to end, we shared a cup of coffee soft serve to enjoy while walking back. It was lightly coffee flavored and the texture is so good! It was like the vanilla soft serve earlier with my hojicha. There is just something about soft serve in Japan that’s like an intertwine of soft serve and ice cream texture. Thirst quenching yet icey-creamy.
And that concludes our eating at 6pm Japan time. I had plans for a katsu dinner for us, which we were looking forward to but we were so tired and crazy full. It’s okay, it’s only the first day! 🙂
