Somehow I ended up going to Hawaii. I was flying out of Narita Airport on a night flight, which meant dinner had to happen at Narita. To be honest, Narita Airport is pretty dated and there really are not any restaurants worth getting excited about, but by chance I spotted a decent-looking ramen shop that had just opened and went in.

Ramen

Kukai’s shio ramen. The clean broth is what stands out. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to be able to eat ramen of this calibre before leaving the country.

The tsukemen noodles

I ordered the tsukemen too, and the toppings were good and the noodles had a wonderful bite. Depending on my mood there are days I want tsukemen and days I want ramen with broth, and on this day the tsukemen tasted better.

The tsukemen dipping broth

Haneda, after its big renovation, has plenty of places worth eating at, and Narita is changing too, little by little.

The souvenir counters at Narita

I was surprised to find Jiichiro, the baumkuchen specialist from Shizuoka, here. I had no idea this shop was this popular. The day it starts showing up all over town cannot be far off.

Real or fake

There was a time when I could barely tell the two apart, but now I can spot which is real and which is fake at a glance. Of course, that is only because they are brand new; telling apart something that has been used for a year or two is no easy task.. but somehow this feels like how you become an adult.

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