I love ramen. Not the instant stuff served in Styrofoam cups, but the fresh noodles served in a bowl of rich soup stock topped with fresh vegetables and slices of pork. I try to eat it several times a month at the various authentic ramen shops across Honolulu. However, as many say, you can only get real New York style pizza in NYC, I believe you can only get real ramen in Japan. And the northern city of Sapporo is the place to get that authentic ramen taste. So during my recent trip to Japan, I made the arduous trek to Hokkaido to eat miso butter ramen.
My Tokyo-born travel buddy, Yoshi, who I met in college in the US, decided to do the ramen travel trip with me. Having him around made it easier to travel to northern Japan as the further away you get from the major tourist cities, the less English you?ll find. Since it would take an entire day to reach Sapporo by train, we opted to take a domestic flight from Tokyo?s Haneda International Airport to New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. From there we hopped on the JR Line that took us straight to Sapporo Station in the center of town. The entire trip took us a little over three hours or so. In late Spring 2016, the new Hokkaido Shinkansen High-Speed Rail service will begin and its said it will take under five hours to get to Sapporo. However, flying is much quicker if you don?t have much time.
Once we got into Sapporo, we headed straight to Ramen Yokocho, or Ramen Alley in the Susukino District. The easily found alleyway, lit b...