It was my first time. The sounds inside the small, ancient, wooden Kyoto noodle restaurant were deafening.  The weather outside was 32C with 90% humidity.  Inside were tables of men dressed in uniform grey salaryman suits and ties, sticks snatching clumps of chilled Soba, dipping once quickly in tsuyu sauce before bowing their heads over bamboo plates and viciously sucking the living buckwheat out of this ultimate […]