Going out to lunch everyday can get expensive, as all of you probably already know. So where’s the best place to get a good bang for your buck? Costco is probably the cheapest place to eat near Mountain View. Just two dollars can you get a giant slice of pizza, and with an extra fifty-nine cents you can get a drink as well. McDonalds offers mini meals at just $2.99 each! Taco Bell also offers cheap meals that will fill you up for the rest of the school day, most of which are under $4.

For the days you’re a little more hungry than usual, and need a little more food to keep you truckin’ through the remainder of the day, there’s plenty of options for that! Both China Doll and Aloha Café, right next door to each other, offer huge plates of food. Five dollars at China Doll will get you a to go box completely piled up with delicious chinese food. Aloha Café is a little more expensive but well worth it for a variety of Hawaiian style barbequed food.

A lot of students actually bring sack lunches or snacks and go out at lunch to get a soda, coffee, or energy drink. As cold and flu season is lingering about, more students are arriving at Jamba Juice to relieve sore throats or get extra fruits in their diet to keep them healthy. Everyone needs a boost of energy every once in a while to get them through their last half of the day, check out Human Beans flavored Rockstars for just $3. A little bit less common, but still delicious, Dutch Bros can put together a flavored Red Bull for about the same price. Let’s not forget about Starbucks, a smidge more expensive but worth the cost for America’s favorite coffee, blended, or iced drinks!

Subs and Sandwiches galore at Subway, Quiznos, and Safeway! Get exactly what you want on your sandwich at all three locations. These three sandwich favorites may take a little longer to get but are definitely worth it to those students looking for a healthier meal.

In the mood for a good slice of pizza? Search no more! Cibelli’s offers a giant piece of pizza for $3.50. For those of you who don’t want to venture so far, Little Pizza Paradise right down the street has excellent pizza ready for Mountain View students come lunch time.

Mountain View is extremely lucky to be close to so many delicious lunch spots! Everyone has their favorites, but it’s fun every once in a while to get out there and try something new. Make sure you’re back to class on time, and enjoy your food Cougars!

So the question comes up, what does the anime club do? Well, the anime club is group of people that comes together to enjoy the sensational fad from Japan that is sweeping the nation in growing numbers. People often think because it’s a cartoon, it’s for children. And a lot of the anime, such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! don’t really help the cause.  But other such animes such as Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach, and To-Love-RU backs up the fact that Anime isn’t just for children, but also for teens and adults as well with a more “intelligent” story and more mature situations, and the manga (Japanese style comic) for Yu-Gi-Oh! Is a darker and more mature version of

the Anime. Sometimes members are asked, “What’s the deal, don’t you have a life?” or “Can’t you do something worthwhile?” Well, Anime and Manga is a hobby, it’s something fun to do. It’s something that people really enjoy.

“I like Anime because I’m a ninja!” said Joshua Wilson, sophomore. “

It’s something different from everyday life!” Kris Hasbun, sophomore.

“It’s…awesome! It’s exciting! It exceeds all expectations. Eduardo Anguiano, freshman.

”Love it! The stories are awesome! The artwork is beautiful! Julia Martinez, Junior. “It’s awesome!” Kelly George, Junior.

There are many things that people like about Anime/Manga that aren’t considered.

Fan fictions, Cosplaying, Conventions, etc, that make a fan, a fan.

FanFictions are stories that a fan of a show writes a story about the show that doesn’t really happen in the series. Cosplay, short for “costume play”, is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and Sci-Fi as well as other pop-culture. Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, and fantasy movies. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.

Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centered around role play. A broader use of the term cosplay applies it to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context. And for those who don’t already know, a convention is a large assembly of people coming together to enjoy a certain interest, for example, ComicCon is assembly of people that like comic books. Conventions usually have things that are related to the convention, like booths, food, merchandise, etc.

Fans come from Naruto and One Piece (Ninja vs Pirate fad) to Inuyasha and Code Geass. Anime comes in all the genre groups that you can think of. comedy, horror, action, romance, sci-fi, etc.  People should go out and try new things and so should you!

In a building downtown that has served as a movie theater and several different restaurants is Soba Noodle. Soba Noodle is a local restaurant with several locations in Bend and Sisters.

Walk into Soba and you are greeted by dim lighting which somehow still manages to be friendly with the help of large windows in the front of the building. The brick walls are ornamented with Asian themed photos and paintings by local artists.

Judging by the customers at Sobas’ downtown location, the restaurant is popular with all types of people. There are trendy looking teenagers in skull caps and skinny jeans, young parents with small children and older couples who give you the feeling they once participated in more than one war protest.

One of the reasons for this is probably the prices at Soba Noodle which are much less than the average restaurant downtown and more than say, a slice of pizza at Pizza Mondo. The plates average around six dollars depending on sides and drinks. This makes it affordable for almost everyone and keeps Soba Noodle busy when other businesses and restaurants downtown are being forced to close their doors with the economy on the downturn and rents on the rise.

The quality of the food is pretty in line with the pricing. The meals are very tasty but not so remarkable that you want to jump on the table and start singing.

In my opinion the best part of Soba Noodle is the variety of things on the menu. There are noodle and rice dishes, salads and soups. The cool thing is many different ethnicities represented in the food. From Thai to Chinese to Jamaican whatever you are in the mood for you can probably find on the menu. Another great thing is they are more than willing to substitute any meat for tofu, making it vegetarian friendly.

If you have never gone in Soba Noodle then I strongly suggest giving it a try.

By: Tamara Lee