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Last Sunday, I went to see the annual Toyohira River Raft Race, so this time, it’s a vlog!

Well, here it is… my report from the third and final week of the Sapporo Tsukemen Festival!

Since this was the last round of shops, and the end of the event, I decided to go for broke and try twice as many shops this week.

First up is “Keisuke”, from Tokyo. I wanted to get this one out of the way first for one reason: the soup broth is taken from lobster!

This was pretty good. The lobster really stands out, and I guess you could say that it delivered what it promised. In the end, though, I felt that it was basically a “gimmick”, something worth trying once at least.

Next up was “Setagaya”, also from Tokyo.

Their soup was a salt base flavored with seafood, with the key ingredient being dried scallops.

I was very satisfied with this dish. Not only was the soup interesting, it had just the right balance of seasonings. It was just a little spicy, and the flavors matched very well. My only complaint was that the toppings (charshew pork and “menma”) were a little salty. Great job!

After that, I decided to try another “gimmicky” choice from “Ichiryuan”.

Their soup was miso based, but it was mixed with tomatoes! A very unique choice for tsukemen soup!

I had to give them points for presentation; just look at those noodles, with a cute little cherry tomato on top! Also notice that, unlike most of the previous dishes, the noodles used here are basically the same as regular ramen, not big, flat ones. With a smaller surface area, the noodles didn’t soak up the soup as much. Unfortunately, I didn’t find that the tomato flavor made for a good tsukemen dish. Of course, I might be biased since I was raised on tomato sauce with pasta, not ramen noodles. It’s a refreshing change of pace, that’s for sure, but just not to my liking.

At this point, I had already gone through three servings of noodles, and my pace was slowing down. I knew that I could probably only manage one more shop, so I decided to end on a more orthodox note - “Ganja”.

They advertised a thick soup with thick noodles, and they didn’t disappoint!

The very plain and traditional appearance is fitting here, because they didn’t add any kind of gimmicks to this dish. The most unique part of their soup is that it is what they called a “double soup”, which mixes both “surf” and “turf” (seafood and other meats). I felt that it was surprisingly well-matched, and it was definitely full-bodied. After trying some more experimental noodles, I was glad to finish off this three-week event with a classic dish like this one.

And that ends the Sapporo Tsukemen Noodle Festival. I hope there are more events like this in the future so that Hokkaido can show off it’s strength of cuisine. Thanks, Suntory, for organizing this event!

Well, the second week of the “Tsukemen Festival” is over, and here’s what I have to report back:

This is “Tsukemen - Shin”, from Hokkaido. Their soup was a nice mix of surf and turf, giving it an interesting blended taste.

The noodles had a good bite to them, too. All in all, a great dish. It’s good to see that Hokkaido’s noodles hold up well, although the other shops from Honshu were obviously more popular.

I also tried another serving from a noodle shop from outside Hokkaido, but I was not very happy with it. It felt bland and lacked some kind of “punch”. I may be biased, since I’m not particularly a fan of that kind of soup stock (not soy sauce or miso), but it was just heavy and not to my liking.

Now, when will I have a chance to visit the festival this week?

I had never heard of the annual “Tsukemen Festival” until recently, when they announced that this year, it would be held right here in Sapporo!

At this festival, famous ramen restaurants from around the country offer “tsukemen”, which is like ramen, except that the soup and noodles (cold) are separate. For someone who can’t eat extremely hot foods, like myself, this is great since you can start eating right away!

First up was “Ramen - Nagi”, from Tokyo!

Their soup was fish-based, and it was delicious! It wasn’t too heavy, and the charshew (pork) in the soup fit nicely.

Next up was “Butaking”, from Hokkaido.

Their soup was a little heavier, but very flavorful. And just look at all those extra vegetables… they added them at no charge! , The pork in the soup was fantastic! After all, their name is “buta” (pig).

I’m looking forward to seeing what this week’s shops have to offer. Plus, on the third week, “Ramen - Tetsuya” will be there, and they’re right next door to where I live! Don’t miss this great event; it’ll be over before you know it!

Just in time for the Yosakoi Soran Festival, the weather has recovered from an unusually cold Spring. At this very moment, there are event staff members hard at work setting up the area where the parade will come by this weekend. Unfortunately, the H1N1 scare last year might affect the number of tourists coming to Sapporo to watch the festivities. Let’s hope the numbers are good this year!

Also, most grade schools have their sports festivals at this time of year. This seems quite strange to tourists from mainland Japan, since they usually have their sports festivals in the Fall.

We also have similar events in America, called “Field Days”. Unlike Japan, though, American field days are for students only; no parents or relatives come to watch. This means that the students can enjoy various games and activities without their family watching, especially since these field days are typically held on a school day (especially Friday), as opposed to the weekend like in Japan.

In either case, I’ll have to start getting into shape, because in another few years, I’ll have to participate in some of the events along with the rest of the students’ fathers. I feel tired already…

Sorry for the belated update, but according to the news, the plan to halt the sales of lottery tickets has been retracted! I guess it was a significant part of life for just too many people to stop, at least for now.

I head some startling news the other day that among the national programs being inspected in the government spending audit is the Lottery!

Apparently, the Lottery Commission is, like many other government-funded organizations in Japan, rife with “amakudari” (when high-ranking government officials retire into lucrative executive posts in private or semi-private corporation). This, coupled with questionable spending of the profits of the lottery, cause the government-appointed team to call for a halt in the sales of lottery tickets until the issue could be worked out.

This is very unfortunate, since the lottery itself donates very large amounts of funds to the schools and other worthy causes. Although I understand the need to stamp out amakudari, I also share the sentiment that without the lottery, we’ll all have one less “dream” to look towards, something desperately needed in this day and age.

Hello everyone, and welcome back! Hope you had a nice Golden Week holiday!

This year, I didn’t have much of a budget for travel, etc, but I still managed to enjoy the holiday. I mostly visited shopping areas and park around town. Speaking of shopping areas, there was a free show at Ario on Monday…

That’s right! Yoshimoto comedians came up to Sapporo to give a free show! This is “Tekken”. He draws funny pictures, and he used topics that kids are into (like “Anpanman” in the picture there). He even wrote “Ario” in Japanese on his forehead for this event!

Next up was Naomi Watanabe. She dances and imitates Beyonce, and she also does funny impressions of other Japanese singers. She was really funny!

Also, on May 5th, “Children’s Day”, I went out to lunch because my daughter got to eat for free! There are all kinds of discounts for children on this day every year, and I’m glad I finally have a chance to benefit from them.

Later that evening, we had a special bath prepared at home:

There is a bag of cut-up “sweet root” floating in the bath there. This is called “shobu-yu”, for the plant’s name “shobu”. Although the holiday is named “Children’s Day”, May 5th is more centered on boyish themes, especially since “Girl’s Festival” is on March 3rd already. This plant’s name is similar to words for “fighting” or “militarism”, and the leaves also look like swords, so it’s seen as representing boyish or manly things. Therefore, a “shobu-yu” is typically drawn on May 5th, but it’s sweet and fresh smell is welcome any time of the year, especially at my house!

Yes, IAY is now on Twitter. I was wondering what was going on myself, so I decided to take a look around. It turns out that a lot of Japanese comedians have accounts and are “twittering” right now!

I browsed through some of my favorite comedians (”following” them), and I noticed that one comedian in particular actually took the time to respond to all of the messages that fans had sent him. He especially made sure to proposition any of the female fans that called him “hot”.

His handle is @suzukiQtaro. Do you know who he is?

“So, Alex… when are you going to buy an iPad?”

When news of the new gadget from Apple came out, Tak (our manager) asked me this right away. He was right to ask, because I have an iPod Touch and he sees me using it all the time.

I probably won’t… okay, definitely won’t be getting an iPad. First of all, there’s the price. Secondly, while it can do a couple of things that my iPod Touch can’t do, it’s not as portable. That’s the main reason that I carry it everywhere. It’s as light as a cellphone; in fact, it practically is a cellphone (iPhone). And it works perfectly as a companion to my cellphone.

My cellphone is very “bare bones”; I only use it for sending short e-mails or making phone calls. I never use “applis”, or listen to music, or use any of its other many functions. Why? Because most of them cost money, and they all use up the battery very quickly, and I don’t want to be caught with a dead battery because I was playing a game waiting for the subway, or listening to music on my way to work.

This way, I have my iPod Touch for all of my extra things: watching movies (especially English ones), listening to music (recently, stand-up comedy for a change), playing games, reading news, and even checking words in the dictionary like Ikuko! And I never have to worry about my cellphone battery.

Of course, that iPad does look really slick…