About 30 years ago, a friend of Kaa-chan's husband — who grew up in Kyushu — ordered "ramen" at a Tokyo restaurant. What arrived was a clear, delicate shoyu broth. He looked at it and said: "This isn't ramen. This is shoyu ramen."

Back then, tonkotsu shops were almost nowhere to be found in Tokyo. Kaa-chan had never even heard of tonkotsu ramen — so honestly, his frustration didn't quite land at first. 😄

But later, it all made sense. For people from Kyushu, "ramen" meant tonkotsu. For people in the Kanto region, it meant shoyu. Same word. Completely different bowl.

That's what makes Japanese ramen culture so fascinating.

Today, Kaa-chan's sharing a regional ramen guide — the kind of knowledge that makes travelling around Japan ten times more fun.

The Soup Starts With What You Use for Umami

Ramen broth is built from animal, seafood, and vegetable ingredients — onion, negi, garlic, ginger all add depth and sweetness. But what gets combined, and how, is completely different from shop to shop. The ingredients, the heat, the simmering time — that's where each shop's personality lives.

Broadly speaking, here are the main categories:

Tonkotsu uses pork bones to create a rich, milky white broth. Kyushu is its home.

Torigara (chicken bones) produces a clear, mellow broth — a style that works across every region.

Seafood-based broths use katsuobushi, niboshi, or kombu for an aromatic, fragrant style. Common in Tokyo and the Tohoku region.

Double soup combines multiple bases — a modern evolution found in specialty shops.

Try paying attention to the dashi when you eat ramen. That first sip hits differently when you start to notice: oh, the seafood is strong here or there's that mellow torigara base. Even within tonkotsu, the vegetables and dashi combinations create completely different results. That's where the real discovery starts.

The Noodles Are Worth Noticing Too

It's easy to focus on the soup — but the noodles are just as much a part of each shop's identity. Thickness, shape (straight or wavy), firmness — all chosen to match the broth. Some shops make their own noodles in-house with a unique blend; others use noodles from a well-known local maker.

Hakata's tonkotsu pairs with thin, straight noodles. Sapporo's rich miso pairs with wavy noodles. Iekei and tsukemen tend to go thick. Don't just taste the soup — compare the noodles too.

Regional Ramen Map

Hokkaido — Sapporo, Asahikawa, Hakodate

From what Kaa-chan has looked up, Hokkaido is remarkable for how clearly each city has its own signature style.

Sapporo is considered the home of miso ramen — the classic style with corn and butter on top. A rich, hearty bowl built for brutal winters.

Asahikawa is known for a double soup that combines shoyu and pork bones. It looks light, but the umami deepens with every sip, apparently.

Hakodate is shio ramen territory — a crystal-clear broth where the ingredients speak directly.

If you're travelling across Hokkaido, try a different soup in each city.

Tohoku — Sendai

Sendai's signature is spicy miso ramen. A bold, chilli-forward flavour — and at some shops, the spicy miso arrives on the side of the renge spoon, so you dissolve it into the broth yourself as you eat. The kind of bowl that was made for cold northeastern winters.

Tokyo & Yokohama

This is Kaa-chan's home territory.

Tokyo ramen tends to combine torigara and seafood in a double soup, finished with a shoyu tare. Light on the surface, but layered with umami underneath — the kind of bowl you finish to the last drop without getting tired of it.

Also worth knowing: Iekei Ramen（家系ラーメン）, which originated in Yokohama. A Kanto-born evolution that combines pork bones and shoyu, finished with chicken oil（鶏油）and served with thick noodles. You'll spot shops with "iekei" in the name all over the Kanto region.

...Honestly though, Kaa-chan hasn't been eating out for ramen much lately, so the current scene here might have moved on without her. 😄

Fukuoka — Hakata

The home of tonkotsu. Kaa-chan actually knows this area well — her husband's family is nearby.

The classic combination is milky white broth with thin, straight noodles. But here's something interesting: the tonkotsu you eat in Hakata actually tastes lighter and cleaner than the tonkotsu you find in Tokyo. Tokyo's version has evolved into something quite different over the years.

And of course — kaedama（替え玉）. When your broth is still in the bowl, you can order extra noodles to add to it. Kaa-chan mentioned this in Part 1, but it's worth saying again: try it.

Kumamoto

Kumamoto ramen is its own thing — not the same as Hakata tonkotsu. It uses a double soup of pork bones and torigara, finished with mayu（マー油） — a fragrant burnt garlic oil. Richer and mellower than Hakata, apparently. If you eat tonkotsu in Hakata and then try Kumamoto, the difference is hard to miss.

Hiroshima & Onomichi

Onomichi Ramen（尾道ラーメン） is the local specialty. A shoyu broth with backfat floating on top, served with flat noodles. It looks rich — but the shoyu and seafood umami are said to be in beautiful balance underneath. Worth seeking out if you're travelling through Hiroshima.

Knowing the Regions Changes How You Read a Menu

Coming back to the story at the beginning — that moment captures something real about Japanese ramen culture. The "default" flavour shifts completely depending on where you are. Once you know that, you start reading menus differently everywhere you travel.

Kaa-chan's Tip: Order What the Locals Love

Head to Kyushu and the whole city smells like tonkotsu. Go to Hokkaido and miso and shio are everywhere. Wherever you are, the fastest way to taste a place is to order what the locals there love.

Ramen's Cousins

Tsukemen（つけ麺）

Noodles and broth served separately. You dip the noodles — chilled and firm — into a concentrated dipping broth, and eat them together.

The big difference from ramen: more noodles, and a very different way of eating. The portion is generous (Kaa-chan is always full by the end, every time 😄). The broth is made from the same kinds of ingredients as ramen soup, but concentrated — built to coat the noodles with every dip.

Kaa-chan's favourite version is loaded with vegetable toppings. All those noodles, plus plenty of vegetables — that combination makes Kaa-chan happy.

Two menu words worth knowing: hiyamori（ひやもり） means the noodles are served cold as-is; atsumori（あつもり） means they're warmed back up after being chilled. Some shops let you choose — cold on a hot day, warm on a cold one.

When you finish the noodles, ask for soup wari（スープ割り）. The shop will add warm dashi to your remaining concentrated broth, turning the last of it into something you can drink to the end.

Tanmen（タンメン）

A salt-based noodle soup loaded with stir-fried vegetables. The umami from the vegetables dissolves into the broth for a clean, satisfying bowl. What Kaa-chan didn't know until writing this article: tanmen is actually a regional specialty, found mainly in the Kanto area. You won't see it in Kyushu or Kansai. Kaa-chan always assumed it was everywhere — turns out, not so much. Surprise. 😄

Champon（ちゃんぽん）

A Chinese-influenced noodle dish from Nagasaki, packed with vegetables, seafood, and meat — more of an "eating soup" than a noodle dish. Technically its own category, not ramen. But the chain Ringer Hut（リンガーハット） serves it nationwide, so a consistently good bowl is never hard to find.

Soki Soba（ソーキそば）

Okinawa's iconic noodle dish. Despite the name "soba," the noodles are made from 100% wheat flour — no buckwheat at all. The broth is a clear, gentle salt-based dashi made from pork bones and katsuobushi, and honestly, it's the kind of broth you want to drink to the very last drop.

The topping — soki — is pork spare ribs, braised low and slow in a sweet-savoury sauce until they fall off the bone. A bowl born from Okinawa's rich, distinct food culture. If you're travelling to Okinawa, this one is non-negotiable.

Kaa-chan's Tip: Slurp If You Can

In Japan, slurping noodles is completely normal — it pulls the soup and noodles into your mouth together and brings out the aroma. Go for it.

That said, Kaa-chan is genuinely bad at slurping. Tries every time. The noodles don't cooperate. Mostly just inhales air and nearly chokes. Every. Single. Time. 😄

Kaa-chan's workaround: scoop the broth with a renge spoon and guide the noodles in that way. Just as delicious. If slurping isn't happening, don't worry about it at all.

— Mogu Mogu Kaa-chan
A Japanese mom who grew up thinking tanmen was everywhere — and just found out it isn't.

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