It's October now, and my last vacation was in March. I'm not sure when my next vacation will be. In addition, some friends just left on their vacation to Japan and I spent an evening reminiscing in detail, so I'm starting to get nostalgic for this year's vacation to Japan. I am wanting miso soup and green tea, and tatami mats and manga. I want mile high department stores and the corresponding department store basements with every food product in the world. I want to be somewhere else.
The next best thing of course, is to just go get something that will make me feel like I'm in Japan for a second. What better way to do that than by drinking Ramune, a distinctive soft drink of Japan? Ramune is as much an activity as a drink, and opening it is ritual enough to satisfy your most addictive personality.
The drink comes in a special glass bottle sealed with a marble. To open it you have to go through a few steps that culminate with plunging the marble into the neck of the bottle, freeing the soda. Then you have to figure out how to drink it so that the marble doesn't stop the flow of the drink.
Ramune has been around since 1876 and is generally a lemon-lime soda, although it comes in other flavors too. It's not the most revelatory flavor. It's pretty much just a sweet soda. But it's fun, and the bottle is pretty, and you can pretend you are Japanese for a minute.
I got mine at Sushi Don Sasabune in Valley Village, and I imagine you could probably get it at Mitsuwa or some of the other Japanese markets. So lets all go get a ramune and sit outside and pretend it's still summer and we're relaxing at the koen.
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