Step one. Make friends.

Dai Sugawa, crossing the tracks in Kyoto. Photo by The Ramen Backpacker

When I left school to backpack around Australia a friend gave me a piece of advice;

"When you get to a town, walk into the local pub, buy a beer and make some friends. Then you'll really see Australia" (Deb Tate, circa 1998).

My Japanese Ramen adventure would not be possible without the help of one of my best friends Dai Sugawa. Dai, or Dee as he preferred to be known, and I met online in January 2008 after he unwittingly became the only respondent to a notice I placed on a Japanese pen pal site. I never made that trip around Australia, joining the circus instead seemed the more attractive idea..(it wasn't).

A few years ago, I decided to use a trip to Japan as a motivational tool to help me reach a personal goal. My friend had given me the travel tip that meeting new people was the best way to unlock new experiences. So, I started to think of ways I could make some Japanese friends. I thought I could swap some local knowledge of the Gold Coast with a pen pal looking to holiday there in exchange for some local knowledge of areas I wanted to visit in Japan. But most importantly I was looking to build a network to lead me to the ultimate bowl of ramen.

The ultimate ramen network never took shape, but I did meet a ramen officianardo when Dee responded to an ad I placed on www.japan-guide.com/penfriend/. From a quick introduction email to about 20 different Japanese Nationals who lived in various parts of the country, aged between 25 and 35, mostly male. I got one response; Dee. His emailed response was brief, he said that he spoke and wrote "a little English" but wanted to learn more and was happy to exchange information about Japan because he wanted to come to the Gold Coast and was interested in looking for work there. He also said he ate ramen everyday, he called it his "past time" and asked if there was ramen in Australia. THIS WAS MY GUY!

After sending numerous emails back and forth, Dee decided to come to Australia in November 2008 on a 12 month working visa. He stayed with my family for a few weeks until we helped him land a job at the Hard Rock Cafe in Surfers (thought he was a rockstar) and a share house with some of my mates (party central). Over the next year we had some amazing adventures that included the planning and execution of a very inexpensive backpacking journey around Japan eating every bowl of ramen I came across. With every bowl of ramen I not only learned about Japan, its people and their food, I also made some great mates.

Step one in my book is always making friends. I'm not a brown nose, but making friends is one of the first things we do in formal education. Making friends opens doorways to new experiences and helps you empathise with others situations. I'm pretty sure meeting Dee and the introductions he facilitated dramatically changed the way I saw Japan, and I'm certain that meeting him enriched my life and offered a new experience to my family. So it's only fitting that the first post on this blog is in dedication to him.