Noodles ── Ramen
Kushiro Ramen
light soy broth with very thin wavy noodles
Very thin wavy noodles in a light soy broth — gentle enough for a port town's morning.
- Origin: Hokkaido Kushiro
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 900 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
Ultra-thin, crinkled noodles drift lightly through a clear, light soy broth. Built from bonito and kelp stock combined with a soy tare simmered with pork char siu, the broth drinks light and finishes clean. The noodle's thinness is said to rank among the finest in Japan, leaving a crinkly bite behind. The lightness of the bowl itself, the moment you pick it up, is the first thing you notice. It never sits heavy in the stomach afterward, light enough to head straight back to work.
How it's made
The noodles are said to be hand-rolled one portion at a time and rested overnight, a method that produces their distinctive crinkle. Cutting them ultra-thin was also valued for sharply reducing boiling time. The broth leans on a light seafood stock as its base, with a pork-based soy tare filling in depth behind it — a build that favors drinkability over concentration. How fast the noodle cooks is itself the reason this particular thinness was chosen.
Why it took this shape
Kushiro was also a town of fishermen who worked through the night and came home at dawn chilled to the bone. Ultra-thin noodles with a short boiling time are said to have been chosen so fishermen could warm up as fast as possible, and stalls reportedly lined the wharf whenever a boat came in. A Chinese-style noodle soup said to have been brought from Yokohama by a cook in the Taisho era is thought to have shifted, over time, toward the lighter flavor suited to life here. Both noodle and broth answer the same single need: warming a chilled body without delay.
Before you go
- How to read a ticket machineShops that use a ticket machine (shokken-ki) often place their most popular items in a similar spot.
- Cash-only shops are commonEspecially at ramen shops, it's common to find places that only accept cash — often through a ticket machine.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
Dishes in the same style
- Aizu RamenFlat, thick hand-made noodles in a clear soy broth. Said to trace back to a Aizuwakamatsu diner owner bringing home a taste learned in Yokohama — a second soy ramen lineage that grew up apart from Kitakata's, in the same Aizu region.
- Edokei RamenA soy ramen topped with a knob of bright red chili miso built on garlic and garlic chives. Stirred in gradually as you eat, it turns a mild bowl steadily richer and spicier — a specialty of Akita City.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
Also from Hokkaido
- Asahikawa RamenSoy-sauce broth built on seafood and pork bones, topped with lard so it stays hot. A response to the region's severe winters.
- Asahikawa HorumenA local dish that crosses Asahikawa's two soul foods — soy-sauce ramen and grilled pork offal. Pork offal, cleaned and prepped to remove its odor, sits on a soy-based broth. It was devised in Asahikawa in the 2010s.
- Gatatan RamenAshibetsu's local dish gatatan, turned into ramen: a salt broth thickened with potato starch, loaded with vegetables, meat and seafood, and finished with a stream of beaten egg.
- Bibai no TorimeshiChicken and onion are cooked into rice with soy sauce, sugar, and sake — said to trace back to a Meiji-era landowner in Bibai's Nakamura district who had tenant farmers raise chickens, then served them to guests.
- Bibai YakitoriOne skewer carries the whole bird — offal, skin and all.
- Biratori WagyuJapanese Black raised in Biratori, Hidaka, founded on breeding cattle brought from Shimane in 1962 — finished slowly through harsh winters, said to give the meat a notably deep flavor.