Ramen

In America ramen noodles are kind of a pathetic food.  It something that poor starving college students eat because it's cheap (usually no more than 20 cents per serving) and easy to make (3 minutes in the microwave).  It's also pretty pathetic as far as nutrition and flavor goes.  However, here in Japan you're not limited to just instant ramen, like we have in America.  They actually have restaurants that sell ramen, and it's really good too.  At a fairly decent ramen shop, a bowl of ramen goes for around 500 to 700 yen, which is approximately $5 to $7.  But it's great.  It has flavor and substance.  It's not just noodles and flavored water, it's actually a soup.  I'm posting a couple pictures here.  The first one is a bowl of nori-ramen (nori is seaweed) and the second is actually soba, but it's close enough and it's sold at ramen shops sometimes too.  But they're both very good.  I also had curry ramen while I've been out here, but I didn't take a picture of it--sorry.