Ramen Safari

Apologies for missing last week. I had a unusually time-consuming trip back to this dark, noisy, rude, overall bad city.

I’m also thinking “Thursdays,” maybe, for newsletter drops going forward. My best sources tell me “no one reads anything on Fridays.”

To bring everyone up to speed: I went to Japan to eat ramen and kill the dream and this is what happened:

Ramen Hiro (Shinjuku), 12/10 no notes

This TikTok is actually the reason I pulled the trigger on the trip and she was correct about literally everything. I’ve been meaning to stitch her, and will one day do that.

Mintai (Shimokitazawa) — 8/10

We showed up at the ramen place we were aiming for as they literally closed the line so we hit this Chinese restaurant instead. It was all right

Ramen Nagi (Shinjuku) — 10/10

This was the best bowl I had in 2019 and they’ve gone… further with it since. Anchovy broth (now featuring an actual anchovy on top). You have to climb a stairway at their new location that is like the reverse of going into hell. Wild stuff

Ozu’s grave. No ranking. Nothingness

5am breakfast ramen (Ichiran) — that’s a 6/10 ramen but a 9/10 experience

Look I underdressed this. I also wasn’t planning to do this. Jet lag is wild. Anyway the fact that this resource isn’t available to us in Canada remains one of the top five reasons this country is a fucking disaster

Ramen Bonten (Nikko) — 7/10

At my hotel in Nikko there was a Family Mart across the street, a place called “Cheese Garden” kitty corner, and a ramen shop next door. I might have rated this higher except it reminded me profoundly of Crafty Ramen, so, kudos to those folks for ginning up home-ramen kits that are close enough to the real thing that I’m thinking about them on a mountain in Japan.

Dashiro (Sendai) — 7/10

Flying fish broth. This was technically very accomplished but not really my thing

Look it wasn’t only ramen okay (Yamadera)

Look how cute! (Also Yamadera rules. More next week)

Kaichi (Sendai) — 10/10, no notes besides FUCKKKKK

Fully did not expect this elegant chicken broth ramen to come out and so thoroughly hand me my ass, but (scores notwithstanding) this is the one I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Oh fuck, it was perfectttttt. A chicken soup so good it made me wish I was sick so that it could heal me.

Ramen alley (Sapporo) — 8/10

There’s a whole ramen alley and I’m not going to go?!

(*apologies to whomever the proprietor of this one was for not getting the restaurant name; the alley was thronged so I just picked the shop with the shortest line.)

Ramen village (Asahikawa) — strong 8/10

There’s a whole ramen village and I’m not going to go?!?

Here, I picked the one with the longest line, and let a lovely Japanese family practice their English on me.

Bonus ramen: Asahi-dake station (Hokkaido)

Look, as a ramen it’s probably a 5/10 but as a place, as a thing that happened, this was maybe the best bowl of the whole trip. Serenity

Ramen… of the future (Shimokitazawa) — 9/10

The thick, handmade noodles and the shrimp wontons?! Divine. This is my brother’s favourite shop in the Tokes

Bonus ramen: the airport (Haneda)

Look, you try showing up plenty early for your flight that is then delayed a further four and a half hours and not saying “fuck it” when you see the ramen shop in the autumn-decorated terminal

Boy. That was a lot of ramen

You have no idea. Moving on, I’ve been away a while so some of these links and recommendations go back. But anyway:

• More heartwarming Japan stories: I open up my main souvenir from the trip, Am from Star Wars Visions! (Giant Green Space Hand)
• Probably the greatest trick Peacemaker’s second season pulls is going from revealing its new title sequence in episode 1, where every single viewer is like “this is fun but I miss ‘Do You Wanna Taste It,’” to episode ~6ish where “Oh Lord” is so integral to not just the show but the emotional character of the season that you’re like “do I want to taste what exactly?” (In any event,Peacemaker remains superb, watch it)
• One can think about nostalgia a lot of different ways, but Emily St. James is on a real one here (Episodes)
• Right before I took off One Battle After Another happened. I saw it twice in 3 days. This podcast about it, including a PTA/LdC interview, is good. (The Big Picture)
• Genuinely shocked to read about Toronto Police doing a ticketing blitz on motorcycles in the bike lane, mostly because I can’t actually recall the last time Toronto Police took any action on public safety, generally, let alone road safety. Not to knock the Star’s’s reporting standards unnecessarily but there are so many liars these days; does anyone have (independent) confirmation? Photos? Video? (Toronto Star)
• On the generational misunderstanding of “entitled” younger workers (TikTok)
• New term alert: “vocational crisis” (Ann Friedman Weekly)
• WHAT THE FUCK?! Bob Iger has now killed Star Wars more times than I’ve watched Star Wars (Hollywood Reporter)
• This is how ya do it (BW/DR)