Hakata Ippudo Ramen - A Ramen Lover's Paradise <3 (Fukuoka Part 2)

If you've been following my blog you would remember me mentioning about a great ramen place in Fukuoka. Well...Ramen Lovers, this is it! This entry is all about that great ramen place I've been talking about ^_^

When we arrived in Fukuoka we didn't know where to eat. So Reid rang his friend and asked for suggestions of where was the best place to eat in the Tenjin area and she recommended that we go to Ippudo. Ippudo is located in Tenjin near KFC and Mont Blanc :p right across from the Iwataya department store. Just ask around when in Tenjin. Everyone knows where it is.

Ippudo in Tenjin, Fukuoka

It's a small place with one counter seating area and about maybe 4-5 rows of long tables and benches. The place gets really busy during peak times so be prepared to wait in line for a table and to share tables with other people. But trust me, it's worth it!! Ippudo is the best ramen place I've ever been to so far! The ramen here is to die for! I'm already drooling and dreaming of the day that I'll get to have a bite of their exquisite ramen. There aren't any branches here in Okinawa *cries*. However there are branches throughout Japan like Tokyo and Osaka.

Once seated this is the set-up you will see at your table

On the far left you can see a container with goma (sesame seeds) in it and you can use it to grind the goma. I love it in my ramen. Then you have your sauces. Towards the left are two jars. One is filled with pickled veggies and the other with bean sprouts marinated with spicy hot oil and sesame. It is soooooo good!! I can practically eat the whole jar :p

Deb Deb trying to decide which ramen to order
There are only 3 types of ramen to choose from.

I ended up ordering the Shiromaru Classic

The Shiromaru Classic

Tonkotsu base ramen is what Fukuoka is known for. Apart from that they have their own type of ramen noodles. I like these noodles better. They are much thinner than the other ramen noodles that I'm used to. Oiishi!!! =^_^=

Reid ordered the Ippudo Karaka-men

Ippudo Karaka-men

The next one is the third choice of ramen - The Akamaru Modern

You see the red/brown little ball in the middle of the ramen bowl? Well Reid thought it was umeboshi (pickled plum) and told me not to get it because I don't like it. And as you can see from this menu it is rather ambiguous and does not mention if it is umeboshi or not :p Oh and I later (back in Okinawa) learned that that little red sticker meant that this dish was the most popular one. I did observe people ordering more red ramen bowls :p

Aaaah...it was sooooooo delicious the ramen!!! As Reid always says, "It was scrumptious!!" Anyways, we loved the ramen soooo much that we decided to come back the next day for dinner again!!! LOL Yeap, it was THAT good!! Hey after all Ippudo is owned by the King of Ramen himself - Shigemi Kawahara and Fukuoka was the birthplace of Ippudo ^_~

The next night I ordered the Karaka-men instead and the Karaka-men actually comes with a side like this. It's a slice of pork, half a boiled egg, rice and a sheet of nori. Sigh...sooooooooo good. Love love love it!

We also ordered gyoza!! YUMMMMM I LOVE the Hakata gyozas though because the size is perfect!! Bite-size!! So it's really easy to eat

The story behind the Hakata bite-size dumplings

Fukuoka is also well-known for mentaiko. Mentaiko (明太子) is the marinated roe of pollock. So I thought since we're here in Fukuoka why not try the things that it's known for apart from Ramen ^_^

So we ordered this Mentaiko Rice. Mentaiko is the red stuff in the middle

Reid and I didn't like it though. It was salty and tasted 'fishy' to me :p Hey at least I tried it! :p

Oh and ONLY after we made all our orders I found a detailed English menu that describes and explains in detail the story behind each and every dish sold at Ippudo...

Well you remember Reid thinking that the red ball in the middle of the ramen ball being umeboshi? Well it wasn't!! Fail!! Epic Fail!!! LOL It is actually umami-dama ("flavor savor ball") after reading the detailed info. But I already ordered my ramen!! Now that I knew it wasn't what I thought it was, I was DETERMINED to try it!!

And yes you guessed it, we went to Ippudo AGAIN!!!

Akamaru Modern ^_^

Oh and this was the "umeboshi" hahaha - Umami-dama ('flavor savor ball')

Reid and I are nuts about this place. we ended up going to Ippudo a total of 3 times during our short 4 day trip to Fukuoka. It was just THAT good! Oh and I also bought take home souvenir packs of those ramen noodles. They come in a small box with the uncooked ramen noodles and packets of soup mix. It still tasted AWESOME!! Of course not as good as when you eat it there though. Plus the take home pack is a little complicated to make @_@ I gave some of the take home packs to Akane as well and she loved it too and wanted to visit a Ippudo branch when she went on a trip to Tokyo!

If you LOVE ramen, I definitely recommend you to try Ippudo if you ever get the opportunity to. Oh and good news for those living in the United States. There is an Ippudo branch there. Yeap you heard me right. It's the first international branch that they have so you don't have to fly all the way to Japan just to try it *wink* - you'll just have to fly to NEW YORK! :p that is if you aren't from there hehe.

I don't know if the New York branch is as good as the ones in Japan though. But hey if you get the opportunity to try it or if you have already tried the one there, let me know about it! ^_^

A big warning though:

Once you've tried the Ippudo ramen

No other ramen will taste as good anymore *sigh*

For more information about Ippudo, check out their New York branch website:

.:: Ippudo New York ::.

Nago Cherry Blossom Festival

It's been quite sometime since my last entry..about a year actually LOL but I've decided I'm gonna restart writing my blog again. This way I can keep all my friends updated on what's happening here in Japan.

One of the biggest things for me is the opportunity to view Cherry Blossoms. When I think about Japan, cherry blossoms are one of the things that come to my mind. The cherry blossoms usually bloom in Okinawa during mid January and can extend to March. During this period of time, people will go "ohanami" (cherry blossom viewing).

However, things are a little different here in Okinawa compared to mainland Japan like Tokyo. For one, the cherry blossom trees are a slightly different species. I was told that the cherry blossom trees here are from Taiwan. They are bright pink in color and are much heavier and tend to just fall off the trees as opposed to the ones from mainland which are much lighter in color and 'float' off the trees.

This is what they look like here in Okinawa

Apart from that in mainland Japan, families, friends and colleagues usually have picnics under the cherry blossom trees whereas in Okinawa, things are more festival like. It is more common for Okinawans to go for a drive in the country and view the cherry blossoms from their car. There are also cherry blossom festivals carried out throughout this season in different parts of Okinawa. This year we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival at Nago. It was about an hours drive.

Me mucking around with my camera during the drive.

Rolls and rolls of colorful stalls are set up along the roads of a particular area that is full of cherry blossom trees. The stalls consist of game stalls and food stalls. Most of these stalls sell pretty much the same thing. There is also a stage whereby there are performances and music so it's really festival-like.

See the colorful stalls on the right of the pic? The whole stretch of road is just lined up with these stalls.

This is what I'm holding in my hand - a strawberry covered in candy and sugar. Close-up of what the stalls look like. They pretty much sell the same things like yakisobi, yakitori, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, chahan, hot-dog and fries etc.

Here you can see people cooking at the stalls.
We had this grilled scallop and chicken from the stall operated by the Marriott Hotel. I know the pics don't look that appealing but it tasted good though!

At the end of the stretch of road and stalls, is a hill with a flight of stairs all the way to the top. All along the hill are cherry blossom trees. Very pretty!

Here are some pics...
Half-way to the top of the hill, Reid tried to take a decent pic of me but we failed. It was just too windy!

At the very top of the hill is a little shrine. We prayed or made a little wish by first putting monetary offerings into the box. Next, ringing the bell once and bowing twice followed by clapping twice in prayer and thinking of your wish. End by bowing once. Although I don't practice the Shinto religion, it was nice to take part in the ritual.

Here's a video of how it's done

How-to-pray
by japan4000

I was really surprised that I managed to make it to the very top and back down with my high-heeled boots! LOL (^_^)

Seijin No Hi - Coming of Age

Every year on the second Monday in January, young adults celebrate the coming of age. Turning 20 in Japan is important like turning 21 in the US and turning 18 in Australia, it signifies a new era of rights and responsibilites - adulthood. In Japan, turning 20 means legally becoming an adult in the eyes of the law thus being able to vote, drink, smoke and even marry without their parents' consent.


The day starts off early with girls getting ready with hair appointments and getting dressed in their furisode kimono. For many young adults this celebration marks the first time they "officially" wear traditional adult clothing. The first part of the day is usually the more formal public ceremonies followed by private parties or celebration at restuarants.


Unfortunately this year, I forgot about seijin no hi so I missed seeing the young adults all gathered at the city hall. I would have loved to see the girls all dressed up in their pretty kimono and hairstyles... I was lucky though as we were waiting to see 'National Treasure' at the movies a group of young guys were roaming around American Village celebrating and cheering. It was quite a spectacular sight watching them cheer and all dressed up in the traditional hakama. Unfortunately I didn't get to take pictures but lucky enough I managed to have this one pic with the boys. Maybe next year I'll get to see the girls in their kimono ^_^

Before heading off to the movies Reid took me to this really nice little burger place by the beach - Sea Side Jet City Burger's. I loved it there. The atmosphere and ambience was really nice especially sitting out doors facing the ocean... Really gives the whole tropical island sort of feel. Nice place to just chill.

I had the Hawaiian Burger set. It was sooooooo good!! I finished the whole set on my own ^_^. Portion size is perfect for me. Not too big and not too small. However for the guys or people who are really hungry the portion size may not make you 100% full however it'll be enough to satisfy your hunger. Also I think this is a great little place to go on a first date hehehe...

Countdown 2008 & New Year's Day - Okinawa Style

New Year's Eve

The night started with us picking Kevin and Kana at the airport.

They got in around 10.45pm then we headed over to Ole Bar in Matsuyama to countdown the new year!

The bar provided everyone with cups of soba noodles. Kana told me that is it tradition to have soba noodles on New Year's Eve.

Five minutes to midnight, the MC started to get the crowd ready for the countdown. Everything was in Japanese so I didn't really understand but once it was 12 midnight everyone cheered and wished each other Happy New Year. At this point, Japanese drinking songs were being played and the crowd sang along to the songs and cheered and drank. Too bad I don't understand Japanese as I would imagine that it would be so much fun singing and drinking to those songs.

Ole Bar ran an arm wrestling competition both for males and females. It was fun to watch especially watching the females arm wrestle. Both Kana and I were encouraging each other to participate in the competition LOL!

New Year's Day

Around 2am New Year's Day, we all left Ole Bar and headed to Naha Shrine for food and games!There were lots of people at Naha Shrine. I loved it! There were plenty of food stalls and game stalls. My fav is the Yakitori, which are chicken pieces on skewers on a hot fire grill... YUM :p

Once we climbed a couple of flights of stairs to the shrine, we tossed money into the shrine and clapped our hands twice, closed our eyes and made a wish.

The boys then were playing games trying to win prizes for the girls. Lets just say after a night of drinking, it is amusing to watch the boys play hehe...

Iron Man and Stealth Man = inside joke hehehe :p

New Year's afternoon we went to the Futema Shrine. It is tradition to visit the shrines on New Year's and to buy 'Omomori' which are like good luck charms. There were all sorts of charms. Good luck charms for the house, car, relationships and study to name a few. We made a wish again like the one we did at Naha Shrine. Before making a wish it is tradition to cleanse your hands first with water.

You can get your fortune told too for a 100 yen sort of like a fortune cookie but more detailed. You pick a fortune out of a box. Once you've read your fortune, you tie it on ropes like shown in the pic below.

After visiting Futema Shrine, Reid took me to a nice little restaurant for some Okinawa Soba! Yum~~ ^_^

I had the 'San Mai Niku Soba' set (top right hand corner). It is pork with vegetables on rice and Reid had the 'Tonkatsu Donburi Soba' set (bottom left corner) which is fried crumbed pork with egg on rice.

During my stay here in Okinawa, I've noticed that in a lot of restaurants there's this button by the table that you press when you are ready to order and it goes ping-pong when you buzz it.

I'm loving my stay in Okinawa!! It is different from mainland Japan though...it's more laid back and easy going pretty much like the Gold Coast. It is great experiencing life in Okinawa, Japan. I'll tell you more about my trip in my next post.