Shibuya Ramen Challenge: The wisdom of age

Hi everybody,

In the previous post, I mentioned that it took me a long time to overcome my trepidation and make my way down to Shibuya.  What was it that finally gave me the push?  Was it because I wanted to experience such an important part of Tokyo culture?  Was it because I resolved to face any trepidation I had head on?  Or was it because my friend Alan told me about a place in Shibuya that has a challenge to eat three bowls of ramen in half an hour?

What do you think?

This challenge is serious, serious business.  Three bowls of ramen (and these are not tiny bowls), thirty minutes.  Beat the challenge, and they just straight up give you $50 in cash.

You have to sign a contract before you can begin

Winners get to sign the wall 

You even get a little flag in front of you so everyone knows you're on the challenge

So, how did the challenge go?  Well, let me just say that I could totally eat three normal bowls of ramen.  Easily.  But these are not normal bowls of ramen

Eight-inch (sixty-four gigawatts) diameter, they are not playing around

The bowls are big, the bowls are deep.  They are piled with so many extra noodles that you have to take more than a dozen bites before you even see broth.  Oh and they are covered with rice porridge, which, although incredibly delicious, adds to the whole carbo-stravaganza that is a mere one of these bowls.  The challenge is to tackle three of them

Good news, bad news.  The bad news is that I failed.  And more than failure--I was forced to accept that this challenge is simply not possible.  It will take a greater man than I to defeat that challenge, I can't hide from that fact

So what's the good news?  The good news is that I can be content with the fact that slightly-more-adult Noah displayed much much better decision-making skills than, for instance, 18-year-old Noah.  The kinds of decision-making skills that got Tamas and him into hilarious situations (although come to think of it, Tamas was 19 years old at the time, so he should have known better.  Tamas, I know you're reading this, why weren't you the mature voice of reason, huh???)

I reached the halfway point of the second bowl, and at that point I paused and thought to myself, "ok now.  This is one and a half, and I am feeling pretty full.  Two bowls would be doable.  Two and a half might be possible, but it would hurt.  And at about two point seven-five bowls I would actually keel over from my stomach exploding" . . . at which point I stopped eating.  18-year-old Noah would have refused to give up, and would have failed spectacularly.  Slightly-more-adult Noah walked out of there, pride slightly damaged but stomach lining intact.  It's a decent tradeoff

Noah out