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Hakata ramen is one of many dishes served at outdoor food stalls in Fukuoka City.
Hakata ramen is one of many dishes served at outdoor food stalls in Fukuoka City. Image: KAZE/Pixta
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Slurp noodles and savor the sights of Japan’s ‘top 3 ramen’ regions

6 Comments
By Laura Payne

Sapporo ramen, Hakata ramen and Kitakata ramen are known as Nihon sandai (Japan’s top three) ramen. This distinction’s exact origin is unclear, but Japan's top three ramen earn their fame.

Sapporo — the capital of Japan’s northernmost prefecture Hokkaido — is the birthplace of miso ramen. Hakata ramen comes from Fukuoka Prefecture — the birthplace of tonkotsu (pork bone stock) ramen. The city of Kitakata in Fukushima Prefecture, meanwhile, is one of the best places in Japan to experience asara (breakfast ramen) culture.

Traveling to try these ramen at their sources provides a chance to explore Japan’s regional food culture and hidden sightseeing gems. If you want to experience places outside of eastern or western Japan, let these three ramen open up new horizons.

Miso ramen and a famous soundscape

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Hokkaido-produced corn and butter are two popular modern toppings for miso ramen. Image: ささざわ/Pixta

After World War II, Morito Omiya and Takayuki Nishiyama created the famous Sapporo ramen — a miso-enriched broth with curly noodles topped with vegetables and ground meat. For people experiencing the food scarcity of post-war Japan, this was a delectable, nutrient-rich meal.

The original Sapporo miso ramen recipe can still be eaten at Aji no Sanpei, the shop founded by Omiya. To taste modern interpretations, head to Ganso Ramen Yokocho Sapporo (Ramen Alley) where 17 restaurants offer dishes such as miso butter ramen or seafood ramen. Festival lovers, meanwhile, should seek out Hokkaido’s food culture at seasonal events such as Sapporo Autumn Fest.

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The Sapporo Clock Tower is a National Important Cultural Property and houses a museum on its first floor. Image: まちゃーPixta

After tasting Sapporo’s ramen, check out the city’s other attractions such as the Sapporo Clock Tower. In 1996, the ringing of the tower’s bell was counted among the “100 soundscapes of Japan” by the Ministry of the Environment.

Meant to encourage preservation and the reduction of noise pollution, this list includes natural and manmade phenomena believed to represent Japan. Alongside this designation, however, the clock tower is also called one of Japan’s “three most disappointing attractions” due to some travelers claiming it is smaller than pictures imply. Only those who see the tower with their own eyes can determine whether this reputation is fair.

Breakfast ramen and ‘Samurai City’

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It’s believed curly noodles hold lots of soup when slurped. Some Kitakata ramen noodles are curled once by machine and again by hand to create an extra curly shape. Image: okimo/iStock

Fukushima Prefecture is unfortunately best known globally for the Great East Japan Earthquake, but there is more to Japan’s third largest prefecture than this tragedy.

Nestled in the mountains of western Fukushima, Kitakata is home to less than 50,000 people and dozens of ramen shops. The father of Kitakata ramen was Ban Kinsei, a Chinese immigrant who moved to Fukushima in the 1920s and later founded Genraiken — a ramen shop still open today. Now, Kitakata is known across Japan as a ramen hub and some locally-grown restaurants such as Bannai Shokudo (also called Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai) have even opened branches overseas.

Kitakata ramen is famous for a light broth made by combining bases such as pork bones, chicken bones, vegetables and dried fish with seasonings like soy sauce. The dish is then completed with curly noodles. If you want to eat Kitakata ramen like a local, have it for breakfast. Kitakata has cold mornings for much of the year, and asara (morning ramen) is a warm, filling breakfast. Some restaurants serve ramen as early as 7 a.m. and customers often line up before the doors open.

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Three kilometers of the discontinued Nicchusen railway is now a walking and cycling path lined with cherry blossom trees. Image: TAKEZO/Pixta

Visit Kitakata in the spring or autumn to enjoy its natural wonders alongside its food. In November, visitors flock to Shingu Kumano Shrine to see its centuries-old gingko tree turn golden. Around late April, weeping cherry trees bloom along the former Nicchusen railway. At any time of year, travelers can pair visiting Kitakata with a trip to Aizuwakamatsu. Nicknamed “Samurai City,” Aizuwakamatsu is home to Tsuruga Castle, Nisshinkan (a school for the children of samurai) and numerous other sites connected to historic Japan.

Street food ramen and tea fields

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The straight, thin noodles found in Fukuoka can be prepared quickly. Image: Nishihama/Pixta

Tokio Miyamoto — founder of the shop Nankin Senryo — is credited with creating tonkotsu ramen in the 1930s in Kurume, southern Fukuoka Prefecture. Miyamoto’s ramen broth was clear, but after the owner of Sankyu — another shop in Kurume — accidentally overboiled his pork bone stock, tonkotsu ramen’s iconic cloudy broth was born. Today, a monument to the first tonkotsu ramen stands outside Kurume station.

Nagahama, a neighborhood in Fukuoka City, added its own innovations to tonkotsu ramen, using thin, fast-cooking noodles to serve busy fish market workers quickly. Nagahama also started a custom called kaedama (second noodle servings added to excess leftover broth) and began allowing customers to specify the texture of their noodles using expressions such as barikata (very firm), kata (firm), futsu (normal) or yawa (soft).

The famous Hakata ramen is named after another area in Fukuoka City. Hakata ramen originally featured clearer broth and flat noodles, but nowadays, the name is applied to ramen that features the cloudy tonkotsu broth invented in Kurume and thin noodles from Nagahama.

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Yame Central Tea Plantation is one of the region’s most picturesque sights. Image: イギー/Pixta

There are ramen shops throughout Fukuoka City, but for a truly unique experience, try noodles from yatai food stalls in the Tenjin and Nakasu areas. Rarely seen in other cities, Fukuoka’s yatai serve a variety of foods and are open (weather permitting) from about six p.m. until sometime after midnight. It’s considered good manners not to linger at one stall too long, however, due to limited seating.

Fukuoka Prefecture is also a must-see for tea lovers. Travel south of Fukuoka City past Kurume, and you can discover Yame — a tea producing region with over 600 years of history. Though the volume of tea grown here is smaller than other areas, Yame is one of the most renowned tea producers in Japan, with a reputation for creating teas with less bitterness than others.

The best in Japan?

Ramen is just one example of a common food distinguished by local circumstances. Every region of Japan puts their own twist on the country’s favorite foods. Some of these interpretations gain nationwide popularity while others can only be discovered by visiting a place. Venture away from the parts of Japan that you know, and a new version of the familiar awaits.

© Japan Today

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6 Comments
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Agreed, Aly. Dozens of prefectures and local areas around Japan make claims to Japan’s top ramen. Yamagata is fanatic and fantastic for ramen. Even in Hokkaido, plenty in Asahikawa will tout the superiority of their ramen over Sapporo’s.

Some writer at some point decided to make a top three list, and now we get these derivative top three repeated in dozens upon hundreds of articles.

As one Japanese writer on this topic admitted, there is no real basis for naming these the top three. It’s not clearly defining the broth flavors or noodle thickness. It’s not even really about best flavor as other parts of Japan also have great-tasting ramen. It’s just that these three localities have anointed themselves “top.” But, as that writer admitted, if there weren’t a top three, “then I couldn’t write this article.”

For these three localities, it’s a clever marketing ploy to push themselves in a top three. For lazy food critics, it’s a shortcut to write about three ramens and not have to venture further.

If you like ramen, ask just about anywhere in Japan, “Where’s the best ramen shop locally?” You’ll get a list of shops that don’t require long travel, that often feature unique local twists and flavors, and that will probably rival anything on this list.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Perhaps Ms Payne should do more research before writing info that is not 100% accurate.

maybe you can work as a volunteer fact checker. Personally, I don’t think most Ramen shops per capita qualifies them as top three. I inferred that the rankings were based on savoriness.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

maybe you can work as a volunteer fact checker.

No thanks I have a job.

Personally, I don’t think most Ramen shops per capita qualifies them as top three.

I do.

I inferred that the rankings were based on savoriness.

savoriness is subjective. what you might find savory I might not.

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mikeylikesit- well said.

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Japan’s ‘top 3 ramen’ regions

The prefecture with the most ramen shops per capita and where Ramen is an intricate part of the culture is Yamagata. Tokyo and Yokohama are also very famous Ramen centers

Perhaps Ms Payne should do more research before writing info that is not 100% accurate.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Japanese love the concept of a top three listicle and will force it onto everything, even things better served by a two two or a top five or top ten. Japan's top three castles seems to depend on whose article you are reading. Five of them have been designated national treasures.

I would have though Nagasaki Champon is better known than Kitakata asa ramen. Or Yokohama style "Ie-kei" also known as tonkotsu shoyu. Both types have chains selling them all over the country. Nissin makes Ie-kei packets you can buy in most supermarkets. The Champon chain is called "Ringer Hut".

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