The (Fukuoka) Ramen Diary

As a big fan of ramen, the fact that Fukuoka is the birthplace of tonkotsu ramen made spending a couple of weeks there an attractive proposition. Tonkotsu broth, where pork bones are boiled for hours to create a rich, creamy broth, is definitely my favourite kind of ramen. Back in London there's been an explosion of ramen restaurants in recent years, many of which serve the tonktosu-style dish (such as Shoryu Ramen) but of course when I came to Japan, and specifically to the Kyushu region, I simply had to try the real thing.

Ramen restaurants are popular all over Japan as a quick and easy place to grab a bite to eat: and it's one of the cheapest meals you can get. A bowl of filling ramen for 600 JPY (around £4) is not uncommon. In London I think you'd struggle to find a bowl for under £10. As I stayed in Fukuoka for the last couple of weeks of my holiday between winter and summer jobs, when my bank balance was starting to look less than healthy, ramen was a great go-to option for a cheap meal.

Below is a run-down of the ramen I tried in the Fukuoka area. I only wish I'd had the time to try a few more!

Kanada-ya
When researching ramen in Fukuoka, I'd read about a place called Ramen Stadium, located in Canal City, a shopping mall in Hakata. This seemed like a good place to start my ramen journey, as it has a variety of different vendors serving ramen from around Japan, including quite a few from the local area. The ramen 'food court' is a convenient way to have a variety of choices all under one roof. The day I went it was raining torrentially all day, so going to a shopping mall and eating ramen seemed like a sensible option!

The entrance to Kanada-ya, with vending machine to buy your meal ticket

After looking at a few of the different Kyushu-based ramen shops, I gravitated towards Kanada-ya, mainly due to the promise of a broth made from 100% black pork bones, which I'd never had before. I did immediately wonder if it was the same Kanada-ya that can now be found in London. And it turns out that it is! Kanada-ya was actually one of the ramen shops in London I never got around to trying, so it was great to try it for the first time, in situ in Japan.

Original ramen topped with charsiu pork, spring onions, nori, wood-ear fungus, soft-boiled egg

First up, this was definitely the most delicious broth I've ever had in a ramen. It was ridiculous rich and creamy, unctuous with the fattiness of the pork and full of the savouriness of those long-boiled pork bones. I could drink the broth alone for days. The noodles, which I ordered hard (I find if you order them regular or soft they simply don't have enough bite as they continue to cook a little in the hot broth) were cooked to perfection. The boiled egg was a bit too strongly flavoured for me. It was one of those eggs that is marinated in a soy-based sauce. I prefer an unseasoned boiled egg in my ramen so you can just enjoy the texture of the soft boiled egg as it soaks up the main flavour of the broth. But all in all an incredibly satisfying bowl and one that I would order again and again.

Ippudo
Ippudo is one of the most popular ramen chains in Fukuoka, and I visited the branch in Hakata station. It's actually in the huge commercial complex attached to the station, Amu Plaza, whose 9th and 10th floors are dedicated to restaurants: a good destination for the hungry traveller.

Although we did have to queue for a seat, the queue disappeared quickly and we were served in the hasty style you expect from a proper ramen joint. I went for the Shiromaru Classic for 720 JPY, the original tonkotsu ramen of the brand. The broth is cooked for 18 hours and then left to infuse for a further 24 hours to enhance the flavour.

Although the broth was very flavourful it didn't compete with the smooth richness of Kanada-ya's (although it did have a greater depth of flavour). The plain soft boiled egg was much more to my liking although a little on the runny side, so that the yolk escapes immediately into the broth upon delving into the egg, never to be seen again. It was a solid bowl of ramen, but not particularly memorable, nor one I would bother queueing for again. Given that Ippudo is hyped as one of the best ramen restaurants to hail from Fukuoka, and with its first branch opening in 1985, before I was even born, it was slightly disappointing. Like Kanada-ya, Ippudo is now a chain with branches around the world.


Manichi Gold Label
This ramen restaurant is actually in the city of Kurume, a stone's throw away from Fukuoka, which apparently is the original birth place of the tonkotsu ramen. Manichi is also a long-established brand, originating in 1953. The branch I went to was in Kurume station. Ramen restaurants are often located in stations, I suppose because it's something you can eat quickly in 10 minutes before catching your train.

I ordered the ramen bowl with spicy miso and black garlic oil. I love a plain ramen but sometimes it's nice to throw in some toppings with a little kick, to counteract the richness of the tonkotsu broth. These toppings did just that without overpowering the entire dish with their flavours. The bowl arrived with the toppings adorably assembled to look like a smiley face.

The restaurant served the best charsiu pork I've had in a ramen: beautifully melt in the mouth and rich in flavour. However, there wasn't very much of it (it's barely visible in the photo above! I think it's hiding under the miso. There was a misleadingly generous amount of pork depicted on the photo menu, as always). The soft boiled egg was the perfect texture, so I could enjoy the yolk without it disappearing into the broth. The only downside I have for this ramen, and it is a big downside, is that there was simply not enough broth! One of the primary reasons to have ramen is the broth, and I love the moment when you have finished the noodles and can simply savour the remainder of the broth. But there was so little in this bowl, that it was pretty much absorbed by the noodles by the time I was finished. I'm not sure if this is common in this restaurant or whether my server was being particularly stingy. Nonetheless, it was a memorable bowl which I thoroughly enjoyed... I just wish it had lasted longer.

That's it for my delving into the world of Kyushu's regional tonkotsu ramen, in Hakata and Kurume. For ramen lovers such as myself, I strongly encourage further reading in the form of Lucky Peach's Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan.

How do you like your ramen? Do you have a favourite broth or topping?

Ainoshima: Japan's legendary cat island

Relatively little has gone wrong over the course of my travels in Japan so far. The country is safe, people are friendly and helpful, and there's a surprising amount of English language signage to help you find your way about. However, whenever you go away to another country, particularly somewhere that you speak little or none of the language, there inevitably comes a day when you just can't seem to get wherever it is you're trying to get to. As various attempts to glean information from local people, that map you picked up at the station, and google (if you can figure out how to connect to the local wifi network, that is), all prove fruitless, your sense of frustration comes to a head and you have a strong desire to hop back on the train/bus you just got off of, go back to your hotel, bury your head in a pillow and pretend none of this ever happened. This is how I felt at one point when trying to find the legendary Cat Island.

Apparently, there are in fact 11 Cat Islands in Japan. The one I was trying to visit is called Ainoshima, and is an island off the coast of Fukuoka. Getting there seemed easy enough. Simply get the train to Nishitetsu Shingu station, then hop on the community bus to the port, from which ferries transport feline aficionados from all over the world to the island, multiple times a day.

However, after a cursory look around the bus station upon arrival, it became clear that there was absolutely nothing written in English, so it was impossible to work out which bus to take to the port and at what time it would depart. I went back to the station to ask the staff there, who taking a look at us, immediately knew where these two foreigners must be headed: Ainoshima Cat Island. I asked which bus number to take and he said that the bus had no number, and simply pointed at a picture of a green bus on the wall. He also told us what time the bus would depart. 

Perfect. So we walked back to the bus station and awaited the arrival of this mysterious green bus. The departure time came and went and still no sign of the green bus. I started to wonder whether the bus had to be green, or if the same model of bus in say a shade of blue or pink may be going the same way?

At this point a local man, also waiting for a bus, started talking to us in broken English, pointing at the bus timetable and informing us that there were 'no ferries'. Wonderful. However, given the fact that the weather was fine and it wasn't a Sunday or public holiday, I didn't quite believe that this could possibly be the case. Then, a bus arrived, and I asked the driver whether it was going to Shingu Port, and he also informed us that no it wasn't, and that there were no ferries.

This is when the strong desire to simply give up and get back on the train back began to rear its ugly head. However, I decided that since we had made it all the way out here, we may as well try to find our way to the port by foot, and then if there were indeed no ferries, we would simply have a look around the port, have lunch and then go home. I wasn't about to give up just yet.

It was actually straight forward to walk to the port by foot, taking only about 20 minutes. When we got to the ferry terminal, we saw that there were indeed no ferries, for three hours from 11.30. However, at 14.30 a ferry would depart and take us to our final destination - hurrah! 

This meant that we had roughly 90 minutes to spare. Luckily there was a restaurant, Bistro Le Port, directly opposite the terminal. I had pretty low expectations of this mediterranean-inspired bistro opposite a ferry terminal in the middle of nowhere, but happily I was proved wrong. The owner only spoke Japanese and French (no English!) but I did discover that he had lived in France and obviously took pride in this little bistro he had opened. We opted for the pasta set menu, and he also strongly suggested that I try the osusume (recommended) starter, which turned out to be an incredibly delicious garlic butter vegetable medley topped with filo pastry. The main was a simple but tasty clam spaghetti.

Bistro Le Port, with my ghostly reflection in the door

The recommended starter: filo pastry on top...

... and garlicky veggie goodness in the middle

After our lunchtime trip to the mediterranean, we hoped on the ferry to Ainoshima. The port area where the ferry docks is where the majority of the cats hang out, and you can see lots of them without ever having to stroll further than 10 minutes or so from the port. The island is a fishing village, which may partly explain the predominance of cats (lots of tasty fish scraps for them to enjoy!). Despite several signs asking visitors to not feed the cats, I saw a lot of people had come prepared with tasty tidbits to lure the feral cats.

A lot of the cats were snoozing:

Others were seeking shade:

Some were having a snack:

Others were hiding:

Most were just hanging out, happy to pose for tourists:

Even though the main draw for tourists is the cats, the island actually has plenty more to offer. If you can tear yourself away from taking photos of cats, the fishing village and port area is quite scenic to walk through, although there were a few areas where junk had been dumped/abandoned. However, these are often the areas that the cats like to hide in, so keep an eye out for them!

After walking through the village, you can walk to the more remote part of the island. A couple of kilometres away from the main port area, there is a pebble beach with beautiful views of the bay and over to the mainland. There's also an impressive stone arch out at sea.

After a pleasant couple of hours on the island, we caught the last ferry back to the mainland. As much as I enjoyed my trip, I didn't have any desire to find out what might happen to a couple of tourists stranded on an island full of wild cats overnight!

Ainoshima is a must-visit for cat lovers in the Fukuoka area; but also a pleasant island get-away for those less enamoured with the furry creatures.

Unfortunately it was only after my struggle to find Cat Island that I found this really handy post on Zooming Japan, which provides details on how to get there, including explanations of the the bus and ferry timetables. Definitely take a look at that post for further details if you plan to visit.

What do you think of Japan's cat islands?