Our Pizza Party, Weekly Ramen Night and the Loop

A couple weeks ago, Chad and I tried pizza for the first time since we've been in Japan. We had a pizza "party" at our apartment with two of our friends, and with interesting choices like Seafood with Soy Sauce, Potato & Curry with Tartar Sauce, or Potato Special, we knew we were going to have interesting flavors bouncing on our taste buds. Of course, there were some more normal sounding options, like Hawaiian or Mexican or BBQ Chicken, but even so the pictures of the pizzas looked very different from those back home. We ended up choosing a Large Spicy Tuna pizza and a Large Pepper Roast Chicken Pizza.

Below is the Spicy Tuna. It had BBQ sauce, tuna, red pepper, black pepper, garlic, onion, two types of sausage, mushrooms, parsley and double cheese. At the equivalent of 34.00 USD, it was pretty nummy, believe it or not!

Here is the Pepper Roast Chicken (~$29.00), which was my favorite. It had mayonnaise, mustard mayo, roasted chicken, potatoes, black pepper and double cheese. MMM!

Although pizza is a rare--and expensive--treat, something we spoil ourselves with more often is our weekly trip to Kitakata Ramen. Kitakata, meaning "north place," is originally named after a city in northern Japan that is famous for its delicious ramen. The restaurant in Yokkaichi doesn't disappoint, either. Much better than any package ramen in the US, the ramen sold in shops in Japan is hearty, filling and delicious. Kitakata Ramen offers two noodle choices: futomen, or thick noodles, and hasomen, thin noodles. There are also several types of flavors and ingredients from which you can choose, but we usually go with the basic kitakata ramen with tamago (egg) topping.

We also enjoy gyoza and an occassional beer.

Other than our food adventures, we've had some other neat experiences as well. Friday night we went to a really interesting Japanese arcade called The Loop. Upon entering, you are given a bracelet to wear. Each time you want to play a game, use the crane machines, go fishing (for real fish!), play darts, or whatever you like, you scan your bracelet across the front of that game, and it adds the price to your bracelet. When you leave, the total is calculated and you pay. Below is the bracelet.

(I couldn't get very clear pictures because I couldn't use my flash)

Above is an example of the price box that you swipe your bracelet over. This game would add 350 yen to your total (about $3.50 USD). The first game Chad tried was a boxing game, and it cost 90 yen.

After that, we all played table tennis. It was 300 yen for 30 minutes, plus an unlimited drink bar during that time. SO much fun!

Yasu and Chad playing air hockey:

We also tried Purikura, these little booths in which you take lots of snapshots with you and your friends before decorating them and printing them as little stickers. The only downside is that everything is timed, so you generally have to move pretty fast. Considering how popular Purikura is, the time limit makes sense.

A rather scary aspect of the payment system at The Loop is that there is a whole floor for gambling. Like many casinos in the US that are now offering customers the convenience of paying by credit card, customers here can just swipe their electronic bracelet. Here are some pictures of the horse racing games. In the first one, you can see actual miniature-sized play horses racing around a track. It was crazy! In another game, players bet based on the very realistic animation appearing on the large screen in front of them.

Place your bets!

Needless to say, it was a very fun and amusing night! And to top it off, we made it outta' that very addicting place spending less than $15.00 between the two of us!