Picture of Karen taken by her friend Aleksi Ikonen

Hi, My name is Karen Lewis, and I am a JSPS postdoctoral fellow working at ELSI. My research looks into which moons of extra-solar planets could we detect, in particular moons of transiting planets. However, that isn't what I want to talk to you about today, what I would like to tell you about is one of the adventures that I had as a non-Japanese speaker and a vegetarian.

Before I came to Japan I wrote down a list of things that I wanted to see or experience, mainly drawn from things that I had seen in anime. For example, one of the series that I most enjoy is Naruto/Naruto Shippuden, which follows the journey of a young ninja and his friends as they battle foes and learn new (usually supernatural) skills. At the end of a given story arc, the main characters usually end up at the ramen shop in the hidden leaf village to enjoy one or more bowls of tasty ramen. So, one of the things that I most looked forward to coming to Japan was to go to a traditional ramen shop, pull up one of the high legged chairs at a counter and tuck into a big bowl of ramen. Unfortunately for me, ramen nearly always contains pork, either in the toppings or the broth.

My first attempt was to try to make my own. With the kind help of one of my colleagues, I managed to buy vegetarian versions of all the ingredients required to make ramen. Was it tasty? More or less. Was it authentic? Maybe not so much.

Fortunately for me, Tokyo is a big city, and as with most big cities, you can find nearly anything given that you look hard enough. The first place that I found that sold vegetarian ramen was a neat little store nestled next to the Keiyo line in the Tokyo JR station. As I entered this store, my heart lifted. There were the high-legged chairs. There were the counter-like benches. Waiters and waitresses ferried steaming bowls of ramen past signs prominently displaying that this restaurant did not use eggs, milk, fish, poultry or meat in any of their dishes. So I settled myself down, picked a delicious-looking dish from the English picture menu that the Japanese-speaking staff handed to me and then gave myself over to the guilty pleasure of slurping ramen next to happy Japanese customers.

However, when I told one of my Japanese friends of this discovery, I was informed that this particular shop had a sister store located in Jiyugaoka, one stop away from the university (Tokyo Tech where I am based) by express train. Moreover, this store sold the same ramen either as a special on the lunch or dinner menus. WooHoo! Of course, my immediate reaction on hearing this news was to schedule weekly ramen-eating and Manga reading.

So, if anyone is thinking of visiting us (or joining us) at ELSI, but is vegetarian, vegan or can't eat pork, but would love to try a big bowl of ramen, I know a very convenient place. Also, if anyone is thinking of visiting ELSI and would like to talk to someone about moon detection, and doesn't mind doing so over a big bowl of vegetarian ramen, I know just the person to talk to. :)

Note from editor of blog:
Here is a link to T's Restaurant in Jiyugaoka. http://ts-restaurant.jp/english/
Karen, thank you for your entry! Just be warned, I'm coming with you on your next trip to T's ( ^_^ ) !! ~Hanako Ricciardi