Visited with old friends from the University of Maine – Sachiko, a former student from the Business School, and Hitomi, a post-doctoral student in the sciences. Odawara is a small Pacific Ocean coastal town with fabulous fresh local fish. Shared stories and updates over a sushi lunch at tiny establishment the Food Channel would never find!

Instead of returning to Tokyo, we boarded a Shinkansen bullet train for Yokohama and a visit to the Ramen Museum. A unique place, the Ramen Museum documents the history of Ramen, explaining the complexity of its preparation and other interesting information. Highlight of the visit is sampling one (or more) of the six different regional kitchens that offer their version of the dish in an “old” Japan recreated environment. We sampled two different versions – one from Oita, a very complex salt and pork based soup; the other from Kitakata, a clear, smooth soy-based broth.

We retired well-fed and happy from our day-long travels at a hotel next to the Yokohama rail station looking forward to a good night’s sleep and our coming trip to Hiroshima.