Chapter 151 Ramen
Day 11 of the road survival game!
Upon hearing this, the others who were groaning in pain immediately looked up at Matsuda. They had already experienced the power and speed of his punches. A face even more handsome than a top male host? Uh... looking at that slightly pale skin, sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes.
The group of men, who had just been brutally beaten, had to suppress their jealousy, which made them want to vomit blood. They thought to themselves, "He really is handsome, much more handsome than the top male escorts they saw on the signs in Ginza."
"...Get lost!" Matsuda originally wanted to teach these guys who bullied girls a lesson so they would think twice before doing similar things again, but he didn't expect to hear that nickname that made his teeth ache again. He immediately raised his foot, his face darkened, and he told them to leave.
Looking at his childhood friend's sullen face, Hagiwara laughed loudly: "A boxer as swift as the wind, truly deserving of the title!"
"Hey! Hagi, if you say it again, I'll call them by the nicknames they gave you!" o(￣ヘ￣o＃) Seeing his best friend laughing so happily, Matsuda was very annoyed and couldn't help but complain in his heart that those guys had nothing better to do.
Why do they like giving people nicknames so much? They're agile and have powerful punches, so they're given this nickname. Others who are fast are given nicknames like "Golden Legs," and those who are good at soccer are given nicknames like "Diamond Feet"...
Even Hagi, that smiling tiger, got a nickname. I don't know why people in Japan love giving others nicknames. At that time, he never imagined that in the future he would be the one giving others nicknames and enjoying calling others by their nicknames.
"Fine! I won't call you that if you don't like it." Hearing Kojinpei say this, Hagiwara, who didn't want that nickname to be used at all, quickly suppressed a laugh and said helplessly. After saying that, he muttered as if he didn't understand, "Your nickname is proper and nice-sounding, I really don't understand why you get so angry when you hear it!"
"Because I got goosebumps after hearing it!" Matsuda said as he bent down to pick up the other items scattered on the ground.
Hagiwara cooperated by taking the shopping bag from the middle school girl and catching the items he picked up.
Watching their actions, especially seeing the handsome young man with a roguish air who had beaten up those bad students and walked over, even though he spoke in Japanese that she couldn't understand, his expression looked somewhat exasperated.
He was also fierce-looking, appearing stern and short-tempered. As the junior high school girl approached, she instinctively showed a wary expression. However, when he came over, the first thing he did was to help her pick up the things she had dropped on the ground.
Her wariness vanished instantly, and she immediately joined in picking up the items. After putting all the supermarket purchases back into bags, she smiled and thanked the two in Chinese: "Thank you so much, you've been a great help."
"You're welcome!" With Hagiwara's keen observation skills, he naturally didn't miss the changes in the junior high school girl's expression. He thought to himself that although this junior high school girl was unfamiliar with the general state of Japanese society, she hadn't quite grasped the situation earlier.
But she wasn't stupid. She could tell from a single, unintentional gesture that beneath Jinpei's fierce appearance as a gangster was his true character. This shows that if she understood the social and national conditions in Japan...
The earlier misunderstanding definitely won't happen again. In fact, given that she encountered others fighting for her, instead of running away, she recklessly tried to join in the fight. I guess she figured out the situation after all.
Unlike most Japanese women, she wouldn't tolerate the harassment from those guys. Instead, she would just pick up her mini extendable baton and hit them, just like before! Look at her well-nourished, healthy figure; she doesn't seem to be dieting to control her weight or height.
Compared to those boys who grew up with a bit of hunger at every meal according to Japanese custom, and most importantly, those junior and senior high school students who never ate freely, even though they were seventeen or eighteen years old, they were not as tall as this girl and were as thin as bamboo poles.
It's really hard to tell who will ultimately lose and who will win! He has a feeling that this middle school girl is quite strong; when they made physical contact earlier, he could feel that not a single inch of her flesh was soft or flabby…
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Just as he was thinking about these things, the middle school girl very proactively said, "By the way, have you had dinner yet? As a thank you, I'll treat you to a nice meal tonight! But you'll have to choose the place."
I've just arrived in Japan and I'm not very familiar with what good food is around here. I only found a few roadside stalls and food trucks. The takoyaki on that food truck was pretty good. There's also a roadside stall near the intersection that cooks oden, and the beef tendon they cook is especially tender, delicious, and flavorful.
The rest is just so-so! These kinds of snacks are okay to eat a few bites as roadside treats, but they don't count as a proper meal. You need to recommend a place that serves proper meals. And let me make it clear, not a ramen shop!
I really don't understand. Your Japanese signs clearly say "ramen," so why does it turn into boiled noodles when I actually go in and order it? How can it be called ramen if it's not hand-pulled noodles? It's blatant false advertising…”
When the girl started speaking in Chinese, it was alright. Even though her pronunciation was a bit different from that of Chinese news anchors, they could still understand her. But as her speaking speed increased, they went from being able to understand Chinese to having to guess what she was saying.
Fortunately, most of what she meant was still understandable. At least it was clear that the female junior high school student was quite satisfied with the takoyaki sold by the food trucks and the oden sold by the roadside stalls in their area, but had a lot of complaints about the ramen shops she had eaten at.
Furthermore, they didn't quite understand this opinion. For college students who felt they already knew the world well, the fact that there were things they didn't understand made them momentarily forget to decline the girl's dinner invitation.
Instead, they looked at each other and asked curiously, "What's wrong with the ramen shops? I think the ramen shops in this area are fine, except for the ones at Haruta-san's in the downtown area, which I don't really have the courage to eat. There's nothing shady going on here!"
"Hand-pulled noodles? Aren't all the ramen noodles in ramen shops cooked by hand by the chefs?"
The junior high school girl was initially confused when they heard them speaking in broken Chinese. Then she seemed to realize that they hadn't understood her at all, or that they didn't know how to make real Chinese ramen.
Realizing this, whether it was out of a strong desire to gain local recognition for her feeling of being emotionally deceived while eating ramen, or to educate foreign friends about Chinese cuisine, the girl very proactively took out her phone.
Click to see the picture of myself and my brother visiting a Beijing ramen restaurant before boarding the plane in Beijing during my trip to Japan. I thought the ramen was especially delicious, so I took a picture to show them to them.
While scrolling through his phone screen to show them photos of ramen chefs pulling dough into noodles by hand, he explained, "Look, these are the noodles that ramen chefs pull directly by hand, that's what we call ramen!"
The ramen broth should be a clear yet flavorful beef bone broth, not the kind sold in other restaurants here that's either soy sauce-based, overly thick pork bone broth, or has a strong Northeastern soybean paste flavor, and they even claim it's miso-flavored!
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"Huh! So this is what authentic Chinese ramen looks like?" Matsuda saw the photo on his phone. He was still using a foldable phone, the photo was blurry, and most of the people around him were using similar phones. He didn't care that the middle school girl in front of him was using a smartphone without a keyboard.
The photos on the screen were incredibly clear, clearly showing it was the latest American smartphone, implying the girl was quite wealthy. She exclaimed with a mixture of surprise and longing, "These noodles look delicious, and the soup looks amazing too!"
"Heh... It seems that our ancient envoys to Tang China were lazy when they went to study. To save time, they only learned how to cook noodles and didn't learn how to make ramen!" Looking at these photos and thinking about the history of ramen in his own country, Hagiwara immediately understood what was going on.
Matsuda was quite annoyed: "Tsk! How can you only learn half-baked stuff? You've made everyone miss out on so many delicious meals!"
"It seems that if you want to eat authentic ramen, you have to travel to China to find it!" Hagiwara thought that he had visited many Chinese restaurants when he was at the University of Tokyo, but he had never seen this kind of ramen.
I speculate that there are probably no Chinese ramen shops in Japan, or that people of my means can't afford the high-end Chinese restaurants that sell this kind of ramen.
Listening to the two speaking in broken Chinese, the middle school girl seemed to have found a companion who had been deceived by the Japanese ramen shop. She nodded in agreement and said, "Then when you go to China, I'll treat you to Chinese ramen."
I guarantee it'll be incredibly delicious! There are a few other places I highly recommend, I'll take you there to try them! They're super delicious ramen shops where you'll want to eat and drink every last drop of the broth.
"Hearing you say that, I'm starting to look forward to traveling to China someday." Hagimoto originally felt that it wasn't appropriate to consider traveling abroad before graduating from university and having a stable job.
After listening to the girl's words, he couldn't help but start planning to work and save money. After graduating from police academy, he would work for two more years and should be able to save enough for a trip to China. However, in order to be able to taste all kinds of Chinese food on the trip, maybe he should save more before going...
Matsuda enthusiastically replied, "Then let's go together. I feel like I'll die regretting not tasting this authentic Chinese ramen for myself!"
"Hey! You're exaggerating." Hagiwara couldn't help but laugh when he heard his childhood friend say that.
Matsuda said this was no exaggeration: "Ramen is one of the most popular everyday foods among ordinary people in Japan. We've been eating it since we were kids and never get tired of it. I've always felt that nowhere tastes better than the ramen in Japan!"
Now that we know our envoys to Tang China only learned a half-baked way of making ramen, while there are even more authentic and delicious ramen options back in China, how can we not go and try them? Tsk tsk... those envoys were really disappointing.”
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