Big ramen bowl in the shrine
We knew there are some ramen shops in Kitakata, but we did not know there are so many. We knew ramen is very popular in Kitakata, but we did not know there is a ramen shrine. We had a pleasant surprise when we walked into the Kitakata Ramen Shrine and saw everything about ramen in there. It is the only ramen shrine in Japan with many distincts from a normal shrine.
The Kitakata Ramen Shrine
Some of Kitakata’s famous ramen shops and their various ramen kinds
Before walking into the shrine, we noticed the different-looking shrine gate —- unlike a normal shrine that has two parallelled blocks on the top of the gate, the Kitakata Ramen Shrine has two chopstick-shape blocks instead, with some ropes at one end looking like noodles. Everything is about ramen in this shrine. A big ramen bowl lies near the entrance that visitors can pretend to be ramen ingredients and take pictures within. The shrine is also decorated with ramen and ramen pictures everywhere. On the wall at the side of the shrine, there are over 80 different kinds of ramens listed with names and pictures. Those ramen are all from local ramen shops in Kitakata, including some interesting ramen kinds we had never heard before, such as mapo tofu ramen and ramen burger.
The city hall tour guide told us that Kitakata is one of the top three most famous ramen cities in Japan, and has around 120 ramen shops in town. “If you come to Kitakata, you have to try the ramen here!” says the tour guide, whose favorite ramen is mapo tofu ramen.
The various kinds of delicacy ramen in the pictures made us hungry, and we decided to go to a ramen shop afterwards to try the authentic Kitakata ramen. Most ramen shops in Kitakata are small but delicate.
The delicious mapo tofu ramen!
We followed the tour guide into a small ramen restaurant. As others were having trouble deciding what ramen they want to try out, I was dedicated to the mapo tofu ramen —- a combination of Chinese spicy dish with Japan’s most popular noodle kind. I chose the extra hot and spicy kind of raman to give myself some challenges. As a fan of spicy noodles, I had not gotten into any trouble finding ramen in Japan too spicy so far. The ramen dish came in a big bowl with tofu immersed in the red and spicy sauce, and the noodles were covered in the bottom. I had a spoon of tofu in my mouth and let the delectable taste spread out in my mouth. It was not spicy hot at the first try, but when I started to get “greedy” and eat faster, the spiciness began to get on me.
The savory taste of mapo tofu made a great combination with the chewy ramen. Although I had to drink a lot of water while eating the ramen, I had no intention to stop. Finally I finished the ramen with my face red and lips swollen. I looked funny but I enjoyed the ramen so much!
“Many people came here for our ramen and we have an annual ramen festival”, says the tour guide, “you can even have morning ramen here!” I was amazed by how many ways people can enjoy ramen in Kitakata and also felt happy and lucky that I could have an authentic ramen experience in my first visit to Japan. As we walking around Kitakata and seeing ramen shops lined up along the street, I start to have deeper understanding of Japanese food culture and Japanese people’s passion about ramen. Ramen is not only a type of food in Japan, more importantly, it contains the culture and eating habits of different areas and passion about food from Japanese people.
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