In Japan - Blood Donation (Final Episode)

I'm technically not in Japan anymore; the last few days in Japan had been pretty busy with finals and my parents coming over for a short trip. I had to pay 500 yen for internet access per night so I didn't really want to waste my money on that.

Well, remember the last time I shared my story on blood donation? Two months finally passed, and I finally was able to donate my blood!

... not. I failed again haha. And the reason was that my haemoglobin concentration was not enough *cries*

And I waited for 1 hour to go through the whole process of registering and waiting. 1 hour. Only to be told to rest and come back some time.. later. Yeah. Later.

Anyways, while I was waiting in line, the staff kindly asked everyone if they had had food or enough drink before the blood donation (even though they will still test your haemoglobin level and determine if you can donate blood or not).

I told the staff I had lunch recently but he still gave me a donut. 

I received lots of pamphlets and stuffs as well. Well, this paper is basically a checklist. The first bullet point was the reason I couldn't donate my blood last time: I haven't been in Japan for 4 weeks.

They will also ask if this was your first time donating blood. If it was, they will give you a card that you can hang on your neck. That basically tells the nurse to be gentler and to explain things in greater detail to you.

After I was told that I couldn't donate, the staffs were really kind. They kept apologizing to me (for making me wait and in the end I still couldn't donate, and one staff actually remembered that I came last time and couldn't donate as well). They said it's the heart that counts, and they kept asking me to grab some drinks and donuts on the way home as a form of thanks. 

You know what? I was a little disappointed because I had to wait for so long and go through a lot of process of registering and stuff, but it didn't feel that bad because everyone was so polite and thoughtful. This is one of the reason why I love Japan :)

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In Japan - Tokyo Ramen Museum

I have heard of rumors that the Tokyo Ramen Museum in Shin-Yokohama isn't really worth the trip, but one of my friends here said it was an interesting place. Well, sometimes you ought to try it out yourself before you can decide which opinion you should trust, right?

So here I was, at Shin Yokohama! The trip took about 50 minutes to 1 hour from Ikebukuro to Shin-Yokohama, and it costs in around 1100 yen for a round trip. 

It was about 5-minute walk from Shin-Yokohama station. The museum was kind of hidden within tall buildings surrounding the museum and there was no sign indicating its location on the street. I asked for a map at the station office, and I guess it was really helpful.

The entrance fee was 300 yen, and you can re-enter the museum within the same day as long as you get a stamp on your ticket and on your left hand upon exiting the museum. There are free guidebooks in different languages, but you'll miss a lot of details if you only read the English guidebook. The English guidebook only provides the general information on the ramen sold (how to pronounce the names in English, what the seasonings are and what the ingredients are). Meanwhile, the Japanese booklet includes more detailed description such as the thickness of the noodle, the strength of the soup's flavor, the menu and prices from each shop, and descriptions of the flavors.

My friend said she tried 3 different kinds of mini-sized ramen, each costs around 550-700 yen. Being a foodie, I said to myself I would at least eat 3 types of ramen. Well, despite being called mini-size, they're not really small.

There are different shops located within the museum. I went on Sunday and the line was actually not that bad (the waiting time was about 15 minutes).

Here are the three mini ramen that I tried:

Sapporo miso chashu ramen from Ramen no Eki

I haven't tried eating Sapporo ramen before but this ramen was definitely very very very oily. If you leave the ramen sitting for a couple of minutes, you can see the soup covered with 5mm thick of oil. I'm not sure if this is because it's really cold up in Sapporo so the foods are generally fatty, but I had to keep wiping my lips because there was too much excessive oil sticking on my lips and I don't like that oily feeling. The soup is really thick, it's really hard to drink. The chashu was so-so (and very fatty as well). The noodle itself is considerably thick and very chewy. According to the Japanese version of the guidebook, this ramen has the strongest flavor. Somehow I love the menma (bamboo shoot); it had a really good texture. 

Overall, it was somehow delicious but it was too oily for me. I don't mind eating it again but I won't yearn for it.

Saitama Kara (spicy) tsukemen from Ganjya

The noodle is very thick, almost like udon. And in fact it did smell like udon a little bit. There was nothing spicy about this ramen, and this spicy tsukemen is supposed to be the most favorited dish from this shop. I was a little disappointed because it was like dipping noodles into chili oil. There was some flavor (I'm assuming they use dashi, miso and other flavorings in the dipping sauce) but it wasn't particularly unique or memorable. I do love the texture of the noodle. If only the dipping sauce is less oily...

Kurume mukashi tonkotsu ramen from Taiho Ramen

This was by far my most favorite ramen from the museum. It has the most unique flavor and I haven't had anything close to this. The flavor was very rich and yet the soup is thin and drinkable. The noodle is thin and not curly, similar to that of Ippudo's Hakata ramen. When I first drank the soup, there was an unexplainable aroma and taste, very unique and tasty, and at the same time I felt strangely nostalgic about it. It turns out that they are using chu yu cha (or in Indonesian, ampas babi) in the soup. I don't know the Japanese name for it but it was awesome. I felt like I was at home. Chu yu cha is basically the remains of deep fried lard. Well, not those processed lard sold in cans, but the subcutaneous fats from pork meat. This was the last ramen I had that day and I was really full, and yet I could say this was very delicious. That means under normal circumstances, I think this ramen is extremely delicious.

There were in total of 9 shops within the museum, and it appears that the shops change periodically. Here is the list of shops and rough details on the kind of ramen they sell:

1. Yamagata area (north east), Ryushanhai.
- Specialty: miso ramen
- Very thick noodles (10/10), curly
- Strong soup flavor (9/10)

2. Saitama area (east), Ganjya.
- Specialty: tonkotsu shouyu ramen and tsukemen
- Very thick noodles (10/10), straight
- Strong soup flavor (8/10)

3. Tokyo area (east), Toride.
- Specialty: tonkotsu ramen
- Very thin noodles (1/10), straight
- Strong flavor (6.5/10)

4. Kurume area (west), Taiho Ramen.
- Specialty: tonkotsu ramen
- Thin noodles (3/10), straight
- Strong flavor (8.5/10)

5. Kesennuma area (north east), Kamome Shokudo
- Specialty: shio ramen
- Somewhat noodles (4.5/10), curly
- Weak flavor (3/10)

6. Kumamoto area (west), Komurasaki.
- Specialty: tonkotsu ramen

- Thin noodles (2.5/10), straight
- Very weak flavor (2/10)


7. Sapporo area (north), Ramen no Eki.
- Specialty: miso ramen
- Thick noodles (8/10)
- Very strong flavor (10/10)

8. Yokohama area (east), Shina Sobaya.
- Specialty: shouyu soba
- Thin noodles (2.5/10), straight
- Weak flavor (3/10)

9. Tokyo area (east), Nidaime Genkotsuya.
- Specialty: shio ramen
- Thick noodles (6.5/10), straight
- Medium flavor (5/10)

The Ramen Museum has a unique setting of Edo period. The museum is underground and the lights were dim so I didn't quite enjoy the atmosphere. I felt rather stuffy even though I assume that they are well equipped with proper ventilation system.


If you are young enough you can play games. This card (I think you pay for the card but I don't know how much) allows you to collect stamps by winning a janken (scissors paper stone) with certain people stationed at certain locations.

If you lose, you'll have to give one of those hearts and I guess if you lost all of your 'hearts' you lose. But since it is meant for kids, even if you lose you will be allowed to keep trying until you win :)

And then there was also this shooting game, which you can also find whenever there are festivals. 300 yen for 10 cork bullets. I managed to shoot a pack of candy down on my 5th shot! The trick is to aim straight (not sideways to the left or to the right) and aim a little lower than your target. Theoretically it's easy to say but hard to execute.

On the first floor you can buy goods and souvenirs. I was a little broke so I didn't buy anything.

And in case you're wondering what dashi, tare and abura are, they have pictures describing each categories.

Will I come back to this museum? Well, probably, if I had so much spare time. It's a little far and I'm too lazy to spend two hours back and forth just to eat these ramen because there are so many delicious ramen around Tokyo anyways. 

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In Japan - UFO Catcher & Game Centers

Yup, I got everything from various game center's UFO catchers. It's kind of hard to approximate my success rate because I've developed skills to catch small plushies and large, relatively light boxes. Medium sized plushies are a little harder to get but if my mood is good and my luck is decent, I could get one out of 10 tries (100 yen per try). As for big dolls... I've never had one. The stuffs I caught above probably worth about 3500 yen, and I think it's pretty darn cheap because that Hatsune Miku figure costs 2800 yen if you buy it at stores in Akihabara.

It started 2 years ago when I visited Japan over Thanksgiving break. As you would expect, Japan's game centers are filled with game machines of the latest technologies. I'd love to post a lot of pictures of the machines but photos are not allowed inside game centers. I'm not sure what the exact reason is but I think it has something to do with the gamers' privacy.

Unlike in other countries I've been to, UFO Catchers if Japan offer wide varieties of goods, and almost all of them are possible to get. In the US, the UFO catcher's hands are too weak and I've never seen anyone successful. Here in Japan, the success rate of getting something out of these machines is much higher. It makes you happy and confident that you could get something else the next time you play, and in the end whenever you see an UFO catcher machine you'd be very tempted to try it out.

Most machines cost between either 100 yen or 200 yen per play. I think I've seen 300 yen per play before but they are pretty rare. If you think about it, it's not very expensive, but if you keep going to game centers, sooner or later your wallet will suffer.

Plushies, figures, figurines, keychains, wallets, takoyaki maker (I've gotten it once for 300 yen from an UFO catcher), snacks, cute utensils, blankets, and even ice cream.

UFO Catcher machines normally takes about 1/6 to 1/3 of the total space in a game center, and if the game center has multiple floors (which is normally the case), the first two floors are probably designated for UFO catchers. 

On higher floors, you might see the Medal Games section, which is pretty much slot games and pachinko games. I've never tried any of the machines because I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke. Usually you'd have to buy medals or coins before you can play those games.

Sometimes you'd also see Rhythm Games section. Rhythm games refer to something like Guitar Hero, but Guitar Hero seems to be unpopular in Japan. Rhythm game machines here are very advanced, starting from something simple like the Project Diva Arcade (4 buttons) to something more advanced like  ReflectBeat (touch screen), BeatMania DX II (DJ-like equipment), JukeBeat (4x4 panels), Taiko no Tatsujin (Japanese drum), Dance Dance Revolution (4-panel steps), and Dance Evolution Arcade. 

Basically, if you've played Dance Masters in Kinect, this is the arcade version of it, with very up-to-date songs like AKB 48's Heavy Rotation. No panels required. The bad point about this machine is that it's definitely not designed for noobs because you will look very very bad if you don't know how to move properly. You can score an A by doing the poses shown on the screen at exact timing and it's not that hard, but... you look like a loser. Really. Well I DID LOOK LIKE A LOSER. LOL.

Some other cool games are the GUNDAM Pods. They don't have this in a lot of game centers. I'm sure one of the game centers in Akihabara will have this, but I didn't see this in TAITO Games in Shinjuku and SEGA in Ikebukuro. I found this GUNDAM Pods at Diver-City, Daiba, where Gundam Front Tokyo is. Obviously, the game center there would have this game.

The interiors are pretty cool, just like the ones you see in Gundam anime / manga minus the panels and switches and fancy keyboards. I think I've covered this GUNDAM Pods when in my previous post about Diver-City's Gundam Front Tokyo.

Another cool machine is actually the card-based machine. So far I've seen three types of this card-based machines: football, RPG and war-based games where you have to control groups of army units using cards. Every single movement of the card has a meaning.

If you're interested, perhaps you could google Lord of Vermillion (made by Square-Enix) and I'm sure someone has uploaded a gameplay of it on YouTube.

Game centers are probably a little boring for non-gamers, but at the very least if they like cute stuffs, they could try playing UFO catchers and hope for the miraculous beginner's luck :)

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In Japan - Free Tissue Paper

Who doesn't love free stuffs?

I had known about this free tissue paper 'culture' around Ikebukuro, and yet I was still surprised at how much free packs of tissue paper I received yesterday. A guy handed me 3 packs at one go.

Free packs of tissue paper? Friggin' awesome. It saved me a lot of money buying handkerchief-sized tissue paper. So far, I know no other country that does this aside from Japan. I had received free samples of goods like lotions but definitely not tissue paper.

These tissue packs act as mini pamphlets for advertisement. It makes a lot of sense people are more willing to accept these tissue packs than plain pamphlets/flyers because they can make use of these. I've seen so many people rejecting these free tissue papers and I began to wonder why, but if you think about it, they've lived in Japan probably for decades and if I could get 15 packs of these in less than 5 minutes, how many packs can you get in a year? Tons.

And some people probably prefer higher quality tissue papers.

But anyways, it's been very helpful. I don't read the ads at all just because I can't, but I have to thank these companies for adopting such advertising strategies xD

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In Japan - Diver-City Gundam Front Tokyo

I'm alone, I'm done with class, I'm done with my homework and I couldn't find anyone back at the dorm because their classes start in the afternoon. Then what? Time for some adventure and travelling, of course!

Diver-City is actually a nice pun on Daiba city ("diver" sounds like "daiba--" when pronounced in katakana language; or some people call it Engrish, I guess). As you can guess, Diver-City is located in Daiba city. It was opened on April 19th 2012, but I didn't have the chance to go there until yesterday.

What makes me want to go there? Well, a life-size Gundam is a priority, but I actually watched a program called "every" on TV on Thursday during the Golden Week holiday and heard reviews of this yummy and affordable tonkatsu (deep fried pork) that is made by layering 25 sheets of very thinly sliced pork meat, and it's very juicy. So the adventure began.

I started from Shinjuku-gyoenmae Station, taking the Marunouchi Line up till Ootemachi and switched to the Hanzomon line up until Shinbashi Station. After that, I took the Yurikamome Line, which is actually a monorail, towards Daiba.

The view from the monorail was brilliant, so even though it's quite a long ride, don't miss it :)

And then get off at Daiba station, U-07.

Upon arrival at Daiba Station, it doesn't matter if you turn right or left. The sign board says turn right for Diver-City, but even if you turn left, you will still reach this huge space with Aqua City building connected to it:

Before you proceed to Diver-City, if you turn left and keep walking for about 2-3 minutes, you will see a weird sight: the Statue of Liberty in Japan. Yes. The photo below was taken in Japan LOL. I was using my phone camera so I couldn't zoom in closer.

Once you're done, head back until you see this yellow figure below, and you should reach Diver-City.

And you should be passing this building :)

On the entrance of Diver-City I saw this notice. Well, the huge Gundam is actually not on the 7th floor but on the 3rd floor. The 7th floor is a Gundam museum, in which you have to pay for 1200 yen per person just to see Gundam-related merchandise. I'm tight on money and I'm not really a big fan of Gundam so I skipped it.

Before I went to see the Gundam I was looking for the tonkatsu shop mentioned in the TV program, and I found it: Kimukatsu.

I ordered the cheapest menu, Kimukatsu-don:

6 slices of tonkatsu, a half-boiled egg on top of white parts of shredded leek, and rice. As mentioned in the TV program, it was really juicy and flavorful, with no traces of undesired pork smell. And there was a good balance in flavor as well. This menu comes with miso soup and since it is located at the food court, water is free :)

Definitely worth the money!

Ok, next, the Gundam on the 3rd floor of Diver-City. I just need one word to describe it: MAJESTIC.

It's 19 meters tall, and it's supposed to be the life-size Gundam. Yup.

If you'd like to buy some Gundam merchanidse, there's a small shop next to the Gundam model. They sell plastic models and gachapon (instert 100 yen to get an egg-shaped container that has a random keychain / model / figurines / other stuffs). And it acts as a money changer as well, if you don't have 100 yen coins with you.

This is what it looks like from the front.

To the right of the Gundam model (next to its left shoulder) is a Gundam Cafe branch (I saw another branch in Akihabara previously).

It sells pre-packaged as well as ready-to-serve foods. And other miscellaneous stuffs, like this book:

I also saw a poster about beam kuchen, which is actually a word play on baumkuchen, a layered ring-shaped cake (look it up on Google if you don't know what it is; it's actually a German word). 70cm... you can definitely use it as a toy sword LOL.

Gundam-yaki:

On overall, the shop was decorated with silverish / steel-like interiors.

I think one of the popular menu on this cafe is the latte, with a picture of Haro and some other stuffs I don't recognize (probably some famous characters' faces).

Everything in Japan becomes a sellable item once it's linked to a character or an anime. Or a manga. I don't know if it's good or bad, but it's certainly innovative and interesting.

After that I decided to stroll around. I found this special Rilakkuma nuigurumi (dolls) to promote Tower Records.

Cute dessert-shaped plushies:

Maid Cafe. Hmm.

And of course, a game center called Round 1.

As I expected, it has the Gundam pod simulation. It costs 300 yen and I decided to be brave and give it a try. I still wasn't able to fully figure out the controls, but I somehow made it and got a rank B in the end. After I played this, I suddenly remembered about a scene in Gundam SEED where Kira Yamato, a normal civilian, stepped into a Gundam and was confused with the controls. I can understand a little bit of his feelings now. I just experimented with the handles and the pedals, and somehow it worked.

Another awesome game machine I found was this card-based game. You still have to press some commands on the machines, but at the same time you have to keep moving the cards. In this case, I believe that each card represents a football player on the field, and you have to control each card simultaneously while pressing the button on the left and right and side (most likely to pass the ball or something like that). It's a game that requires high level of concentration and excellence in multitasking. I really want to try it but I'll have to buy the cards and they're probably very expensive :(

Anyways, back to the Gundam pod game. I tried to take a picture of the interior but it was a small space (if you watch Gundam then you probably can imagine how crammed the cockpit is; it can't fit more than 2 people). The screen was made such that it's dome-shaped, making the scenery look somehow three dimensional.

There are two handles and two pedals, and there are 2 yellow buttons on each handle, one that can be pressed with your thumbs, and one that can be pressed with you index finger. Additionally, there are up and down buttons on the handle so you can choose commands during battle. And to the right of the right handle are start button and up and down buttons that have the same functions as the up and down buttons on the handle.

Additionally, you can also give commands through a voice speaker attached on the right side of your seat. It's positioned such that if you turn your head to the right you can speak directly into the speaker. If you turn on the assist mode, you can also hear voice assistance on enemy locations near you from the speaker.

I'm not entire sure what the right pedal is for but I think it was a gas pedal. The left pedal allows you to jump over a certain height (yep, it's not a brake pedal).

Last but not least, the Gundam Museum. I'm not too impressed with it but if you're a Gundam fan you'd probably appreciate it more than I do.

1200 entrance fee. Yup.

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