19. Ramen & Roppongi Hills

After finding my way to Roppongi, it was getting on to mid-afternoon so food was back on the agenda. It was time to try Ramen noodles, which I discovered are brilliant. Ramen appears as a deceptively simple noodle dish, but the secret is the broth which takes most Ramen chefs a few years of practice to perfect. It is interesting at this point to note that so far the most expensive cooked lunch would only be about $10AUD including tea. The perception that Japan is expensive is a bit of a myth since $10 is lucky to get you a sandwich and a drink these days in Melbourne, let alone something like the wonderful Ramen or Katsudon or Udon etc, etc.

We spent the afternoon walking around Roppongi Hills which is a new development and is architecturally reminiscent of Federation Square, but nicer (boy that isn't hard though, is it?) This is where all the high price labels set up shop so it is full of Versace, Louis Vuitton etc. It was extremely cold so we stayed indoors most of the day. In fact it snowed for about an hour so we didn't venture out long enough to get any cool pics. But it was a great omen since we were about to head to the snow in a few days.

The day was soon over though and it was time to say goodbye to Sanae, Sanae works at the Australian Embassy so she spoke very good English. Before parting though we decided to get a coffee, even though Japan has a plague of Starbucks and other similar chains it took at least 5 attempts to find a coffee shop with any empty seating.