Japan Trip Day 7.2: Eating Ichiran Ramen at Shibuya

Shibuya Nightlife

After a long train journey from Saitama, we decided to stop by Shibuya before going back to Asakusa to have Ichiran Ramen as our last dinner in Tokyo! This ramen restaurant is very famous and always getting recommended a lot by people, yet we just got the chance to try it on our last day. Well, better late than never right? Hehhe

Blurry Shibuya Crossing

 This is the directions to Ichiran Ramen from JR Shibuya Station:

1. Take Hachiko Exit and go to Shibuya Crossing.
2. You will see a large Starbucks building, go to the right pathway of it.
3. Keep walking that way, you will find several stores. 
4. When you find ZARA (the only brand that is very noticeable for me :P), keep walking. It will just a few steps after you.
5. Pay attention to the red banner of Ichiran, and perhaps a long queue of people to the underground. There it is :)

Underground Stairs

 It's about 8.45 PM at that time. We were queuing for 40 minutes before we could get a seat :')

Finally I could see the DOOR!

Pay attention to the "recommended" banner. I found it quite funny since the one being recommended is the side dishes, not the ramen LOL. In this banner, half-boiled egg with salt with the price of 120¥ is the top recommendation !

The Recommended Food :P

Finally it's our turn! 

First, you need to order your menu via machine, just like 90% of franchise restaurants in Japan. After you are done ordering and inserting your money into the machine, give the coupon to the waiter. The waiter will ask if you are alone or with groups. Since it's crowded, the waiter will also ask you if you are okay being sit separately. But if you keep insist to sit in a rows with your friends, it's okay too.

You just need to wait a little longer.

Hmmmm, the smell is so tempting

One last step, you also will be given a small questionnaire. You have to fill in your ramen preference, regarding the soup thickness, the amount of "red ichiran" sauce, your noodle kinds, etc. For my portion bowl, I chose all of the categories preference to be in the middle 'cause this is my first try! You will also get another paper if you are thinking for another portion or additional side dishes. Just fill it when you are in your seating corner. How convenient is it, you don't have to get out to go to the machine all over again :)

The eggs had been peeled off ~

The taste?

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OMG, it's another heaven on earth. It's just fulfilled my expectations, really delicious just like people said in the internet. The red Ichiran sauce tasted a little bit spicy, so be careful for you who really don't like spicy things or can't tolerate any spicy feelings, like my colleague who ate indomie instant noodle without chilli powder at all. If you are on that level, then you should not use any of Ichiran Sauce. The pork meat is really lean, the soup broth is really sipped through all of my 5 senses.

Drank up clean!

My travel partner, Angel, is quite picky with ramen and dislike almost all kind of ramen franchise in Jakarta since it's too salty her .... total contradiction with me, who loves salty flavor LOL. But this time for Ichiran, she also emptied the bowl very clean! So perhaps for you who dislike any kind of ramen, maybe you should try Ichiran if it could pass your criteria or not :)

Refillable Water for free!

One bowl of ramen costs 790¥. Water is available for free and you could push the water tap as much as you want on your table! Really love the design of this table so you don't have to bother the waiter to pour your drinks, Japan is all about convenience ;)

Hokkaido Milk Ice Cream

We also tried Hokkaido Milk Ice Cream for the desert. It's really refreshing after the hot bowl of ramen ( ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Another angle of Shibuya Crossing

It's about 10.30 PM now. So we head back to JR Shibuya station. We need to go back to our apartment in Asakusa ASAP because we haven't packed our luggage yet!!! Sad and melancholic feeling fills my tummy because tonight is the last night of my trip.

o(╥﹏╥)o

Just in front of the station entrance, there was this awesome street performer. You could go to my instagram to see some glimpse of it. I really love the song! 

This trip is really memorable and precious to me since it's gonna be my last carefree holiday before entering ton of exams and hell in clinical phase. I love every seconds of my time being in Japan and true, there is no other country which could really made me want to go back many times aside of Japan. It's just not me who feels that, hehhe. My BFFs too! Every season in Japan is beautiful, every prefectures has its own unique tourism spot. Oh well, may this become my motivation to work hard, earn a lot of money, and going back to Japan as many as I want!

Bye Japan, see you when I see you 

( ˘ ³˘)♥