Monday, February 18, 2008

Rokurinsha Ramen, #20 in Japan





東京都品川区大崎3-14-10
3-14-10 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
From JR Osaki station, walk southwest past the Thinkpark building. A note, almost every station in Tokyo has huge illuminated maps of the area. These maps are in both Japanese and English, so just look for the address. For example, look for "Osaki 3", this is the district. Within that area, look for the 14 block. It's pretty simple once you see a map. The 10 at the end of an address is the building number, usually it's not needed, since all these shops will have a huge line when they are open.


OK,
舎 translates to six units of old money house. Random money related coincidence! There were a bunch of yakuza in line with me. After the obligatory hour wait, before we went in, some of them were on their phones. Then 30 seconds later a big V12 Mercedes pulls up and drops off this dude in a furry white coat and sunglasses. Doors are held open, Luis Vuitton man-bags are held, as this pimp looking dude gets immediately bumped to the front of the line.

In the next moments, yours truly and a Yakuza boss were as one, feasting on hot bowls of tsukemen, noodles thicker than any I'd ever had.



I was really famished, so I got the omori size. Some guy next to me got some sort of super omori... didn't know that was an option. Anyways, these noodles had some substance to them.



About a seven on the heaviness scale. Great stuff, but the locale was kinda lacking.

The locale was lacking? What did you do then?

The Osaki area is strictly business parks. I wandered for about an hour, considering which of the eighteen Starbucks in my line of sight I could have an espresso at. Then it caught my eye.



A giant red worm? A telephone pole that got caught in a radiation leak? Maybe some sort of hat?



A... fucking... gnome... hat....



There is a French word, I think it's flambeur flaneur, which means to just wander around. I've been flaneuring around Japan for almost 2 years, and I'm happy to have seen some really weird shit.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, I've been wondering what that gnome thingy was, it's visible from the Yamanote Line (at least the lower half of it is). I was guessing it was a decorative drainpipe or something. Don't suppose you saw what the notice next to it said?

BTW the word you're looking for is flaneur :).

Ramen Adventures said...

From the Osaki Art Village website:

街区を囲む緑豊かな「丘の庭」に設置したこの作品は、森の守り神を意味する庭師(ガーデナー)をモチーフとしています。その長くて赤い帽子は空に向かって伸びる花のようで、また本来小さいはずの森の妖精が大きな体を持っているという対比もユーモラスです。それは神秘的なものと不思議なもの、明確な形態と抽象的な意味など様々な対比する要素を融合させた表現であり、いくつもの相反する事象が共生している現代の様相を表しているようです。この作品は、この新しい街と庭を守りつつ、街全体にアクセントを与える作品となっています。

This work is sited on the Oka no Niwa, the lush garden which surrounds this area, and uses the familiar motif of the garden gnome. The long red hat which the figure wears stretches far up into the sky like a flower and the normally small gnome is rendered on a huge scale. This contrast hides a humorous sentiment which unifies different characters such as the strange and the mystical or concrete shapes and abstract meanings. The work expresses the fragmented nature of the present age and will protect the garden while providing a strong identity.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info, another commuting mystery solved :)

(Sorry for not replying earlier, I'd totally lost track of which blog I found this entry on)