I finished two bowls of ramen...!! By the way, I’m 73, just three weeks away from turning 74!
There’s a ramen chain called “Menya Musashi” based in Shinjuku. Known for its clean and welcoming atmosphere, it’s famous as a ramen shop where even women feel comfortable dining alone. The president, Mr. Yatogi, has been committed to disaster volunteer work through his chain since before the Great East Japan Earthquake. We’re acquaintances from attending several disaster volunteer events together, and this time he said, “Since your area was affected by the Great Flood of Western Japan few years ago, I’ll come to help out.” (I suspect he might have just wanted to tour the brewery... but that’s my own suspicion.) I can almost hear him scolding me for being so cynical about his kindness!
Well, he came all the same. Using the cafeteria and auditorium of Shuhoku Elementary School, which had suffered great damage with one-fifth of its grounds washed away, he served 350 bowls of ramen to local elementary school children and residents. Of course, our Dassai brewing staff also joined in. A few hearty souls, like K and T, even managed to finished three bowls!
What’s more, it was delicious. This special version included noodles kneaded with plenty of sake lees, broth richly infused with Dassai sake, and an extra-large chashu marinated in Dassai's centrifuge sake lees (no worries—the alcohol had been fully cooked off). The light yet deep-flavored soy sauce broth intertwined beautifully with the noodles. Simply put, it was delicious.
Even I ended up being persuaded to eat two bowls.
That day, I actually had a bit of good news personally. Six months ago, during a PET scan, I was told, “There’s a shadow about 4mm on your pancreas. It’s probably not cancer, but let’s do another scan in six months.” (The doctor at this Shunan clinic is renowned for his imaging skills—even a famous sushi chef from Tokyo takes the Shinkansen here every six months for his scans.)
It turned out, based on this recent scan, that the shadow was just fat. Since I’d been fasting since the morning, I’d eaten a chocolate bar that I bought at a convenience store on the way back to stave off hunger. But with the delicious ramen and the day’s good fortune, my self-restraint slipped, and I ended up finishing two bowls.
Incidentally, when I had the scan six months ago, I heard they’d just upgraded to a brand-new domestic machine that could now detect even the earliest stages of pancreatic cancer, which had been hard to see before. It was a bit daunting, and I even braced myself, thinking that if it were cancer, I’d announce it with grace, just like the economic critic Mr. Morinaga did, and handle things with dignity. But it turned out to be an unnecessary worry.
So, that’s the story behind my two bowls of ramen. Thank you to everyone who’s stuck with this long-winded story up to the end.