I decided to go to Shinjuku for dinner.  I looked for ramen restaurants on Google maps and picked one nearby the station that had good reviews.  Maps led me down a busy street and then turned me down an alley.  The alley was quiet and dark except for a place that was lit up and had a line of people in front of it. 

I had to wait in line for ramen?  Normally, I would not be up for waiting in line for dinner, but a line down the alley had to be a good sign.  So I got in line.

A lady came out of the restaurant and took tickets from a couple a few people ahead of me.  Huh.  How did they get tickets?  Was I in line for take out?  I hoped not.  I wouldn’t know where to take it.  The guy behind me hadn’t done anything so I just stood there, waiting. 

Two people came out of the restaurant and got in line up ahead of me. No one seemed bothered by this.  Oh…..something was going on that I didn’t understand.  After about 5 minutes the guy in front of me went in and came back out with a ticket.  I think I got it – kind of. 

The lady came out, asked him some questions, wrote on his ticket and took his ticket.  She then motioned for me to go inside to get a ticket.

I went inside.  It was a tiny restaurant that only sat 12 people.  I’d only been in one ramen restaurant before and it was tiny too, but without the line and ticket system.  There was a machine and it appeared to have menu items on it.  There was shrimp and miso, shrimp and tomato, and shrimp and dipping sauce.  I pressed the button for shrimp and dipping sauce, but nothing happened.  I pressed another button below it.  Nothing happened.  I stared at the machine for a minute, trying to figure out what to do next.  Finally, I see the lady who was outside and motioned for help.  She showed me where to put money in the machine.  Duh.  It was obvious after she showed me.  The machine lit up and I pressed a button.  A ticket popped out and then my change. 

I think I might have ordered ramen with shrimp, dipping sauce and egg?  I went back out and stood where I was in line.  The lady came to get my ticket and asked what size I wanted.  I said small.  Small apparently came with another topping, pork or something.  I understood “pork” so I picked that.  She wrote on my ticket and took it. 

I watched the system continue with the people behind me as I waited to go in to eat.  Now I was excited.  It was like dinner with a guessing game. Guess what happens next….. This is one the things I love so much about travelling – feeling kind of clueless or lost because something is so different than I am used to. 

When I got closer to the door, I noticed the sign for the restaurant.  It had a huge shrimp on it.  Aha, that must be their speciality and it explained the choices.

When it was time to go in, the lady told me “two” and motioned to a bar stool with a 2 on it.  As I sat down the guy in seat 1 got up and went to a counter behind the bar stools where there was a stack of cups and a water dispenser.  Suddenly I was so thirsty.  I got up, got some water, a packaged wet cloth for cleaning my hands and what I thought was a napkin.  It was the least absorbent napkin I had ever felt.  Wait, it wasn’t a napkin.  It was a bib.  I hadn’t noticed before, but everyone was wearing bibs.  I don’t think I’d worn a bib since I was a kid.  This was oddly super fun.

Proudly, I put my bib on, grabbed my chop sticks and waited for my food to arrive.  They gave me two bowls, one with noodles, lettuce and pork in it and one with the sauce and “shrimp”.  Watching others, I see that you take a little of everything and put it in the sauce to soak for a few seconds, then eat, then repeat.  The shrimp had the consistency of shrimp, but didn’t resemble shrimp in any other way.  The pork was excellent. 

Still not used to the time change coupled with a belly full of carbs I was exhausted. I decided that going back to the hotel and going to bed by 9:00 was the best plan.