Japanese Twitter user finds his udon has something to say to him.

With all the enthusiasm for Kobe’s beef, Kyoto’s tea, and Osaka’s takoyaki, the city of Nagoya sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of Japan’s culinary landmarks. However, Aichi Prefecture’s biggest city has a number of gastronomic claims to fame.

One of them is kishimen, wheat noodles which are similar to udon, but flat instead of round. Kishimen is a hit with locals and travelers alike, thanks to the noodles’ unique texture and also the way their broad shape absorbs plenty of flavorful broth.

It turns out, though, that kishimen’s extra surface area can serve one more purpose, as shared by Japanese Twitter user @juzca.

https://twitter.com/juzca/status/676744265456738304

It’s not clear whether @juzca was enjoying this bowl of kishimen at a restaurant or in his own home, although the casual design of the bowl suggests it’s the latter. In any case, looking closely at the noodles revealed that they were covered with Japanese text.

So what’s the message? “Join our cult?” “Buy more kishimen?”

Nope, it’s Ike ike Doragonzu, or “Go! Go! Dragons!”, in support of Nagoya’s professional beasbeall team, the Chunichi Dragons.

▼ Whose most popular mascot is, ironically, a koala.

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Other noodles in @juzca’s bowl bore similar pro-Dragons sentiments, such as “Hit a home run!” and “Become the best team in Japan!”, so it’s pretty obvious that these are officially licensed Dragons souvenirs.

The text is added by engraving it into dry kishimen, thus avoiding the use of artificial colorings. However, this also means that you might not notice the writing at first glance, prompting @juzca to tweet “Nagoya is crazy…They have subliminal messages on their kishimen.”

To learn more about subliminal messages, ask a licensed psychologist. To learn more about the Chunichi Dragons, contact Hollywood actor Tom Selleck.

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Source: Hamster Sokuho, Twitter/@juzca
Insert images: Twitter/@juzca, Chunichi Dragons, Wikipedia/Quentin X