Japanese young people are addicted to Ramen Jiro

Do you like Japanese ramen? Ramen is now a japanese soul food, but there is a trend depending on the period. When I was a student Tonkotsu ramen,pork-bone Ramen. Now Ramen Jiro is popular among young people. Ramen Jiro is a ramen chain that is much popular in Kanto area. People who love Ramen Jiro are called  “Girorian” as passionate fans. The amount of ramen Jiro is huge, so there is a rumor that the calorie exceeds 2000 kcal, it is a very powerful ramen.

However, it seems that there are many people who do not know how to Jiro. In Ramen Jiro there are rules for ordering and asking the shop assistance. So I will introduce how to enjoy, eat and arrange, so that anyone can enjoy eating.

First of all, Ramen Jiro is very popular, so you have to queue for your turn. In Tokyo there are some shops of Ramen Jiro, it depends on branch shops but you have to wait for around 30 minutes and over.

As the manners it is not allowed to stand in line by one person for his/her friends. All people who are going to have ramen have to wait together. This is because the shop assistance can not know the number of people who eat ramen. Be sure to have all the eaters in line.When you come to the front of the shop, you will buy food tickets by a ticket vending machine. You have to prepare ready cash. Usually most Ramen Jiro shops do not accept credit cards.

Sometimes the shop assistance asks "What size do you want?" during waiting.Usually, people decide the size, buy a meal ticket and hold it, but it is necessary for the shop assistance to know the amount of noodles to boil, so you will be asked before entering the shop.

There are two answers: "Shou" which means small size and "Dai" which means large size. Please be careful to answer easily. Even Shou is about twice the noodles of normal ramen shops, you have to eat 300g-noodle, so it is safe for beginners to buy "Shou". If you order "Dai" you will suffer from the amount of noodle. It depends on the branch shop, you can also say "less" or "half noodles". If you are not confident whether or not to eat all of noodles, please tell it to the shop assistance.

 You learn how to Ramen Jiro as follows:



You can order topping as follows:
Ninniku (garlic)
Yasai (vegetable)
Seabura (backfat)
Karame (seasoning)
Astonishingly they are all for free, but you must not to get greedy, you have to see the monster ramen like this.

The price is very reasonable in any branch shop. A rumor says that if you eat Ramen Jiro three times you will be addictive to it unconsciously.

Shibuya scramble crossing is a sight worth seeing.

Shibuya ia a popular town among young people alongside of Shinjuku, Ikebukuro. There are famous department stores, which are Seibu, Tokyu, 109, Parco etc. Shibuya is conveniently located in terms of public transportation. There are Yamanote Line, Saikyo Line, Shonansinjuku Line, Narita express,Keio Inokashira Line and several subways at Shibuya station. When you come to Shibuya you will get lost at the platform. Even people living in Tokyo do not know everything of Shibuya station probably.

 

Shibuya ia a date spot for couples. They can enjoy shopping, movies, lunch, dinner and so on. Shibuya station is always crowded by commuters, travelers, young people dropping across Shibuya. Couples usually go to a meeting spot that is called "Hachiko Mae". Hachiko is a dog made by bronze. Mae means "in front of". I do not know the details of Hachiko unfortunately.

You can see Shibuya scramble crossing close by the bronze statue. The scramble crossing in front of Shibuya Station is used by about 500,000 people a day and the number of people can reach 3,000 people during green light time at peak time. It is a natural sight for Japanese who are familiar with Shibuya, but it is strange for foreign tourists to pass without collision. There are many people who come to see this intersection. Along with Times Square in New York, it is "the most famous intersection in the world".



There are several view spots of Shibuya scramble crossing. Most people take pictures from coffee shops around the intersection. it is OK. I recommend you to watch at the route from the ticket gate of Keio Inokashira Line to the ticket gate of Yamanote Line（Tamagawaguchi ticket gate). The route is a part of Mark City Shibuya. It is for free of course.

I recommend you not to go to Shibuya scramble crossing during the festival such as Halloween,World Cup etc. The place is very crowded by young people and chaotic as follows.

Cat cafe, Neko cafe makes me feel very happy

When I was a child, one day my parents brought a small pretty kitten from somewhere. They told me that their friend had a cat, and it bred some kittens, so my mother got one of them for free. I could not imagine that a small kitten would stay at my home every day. I was excited that I knew my family would have a pet. The small kitten got used to my house, but unfortunately one day it went out from my house and did not return to us.

I felt very sad, my sister cried a lot for a while. Probably my pet got lost and could not find my house again. After the incident every time I saw a cat on the street, I remembered a small kitten which my family devoted a lot of attention to.

Now when I want to touch and do petting a pretty cat I usually use a cat cafe which is called Neko cafe in japanese. Neko cafe recently comes to be recognized in Japan. There was not such a cafe a few decades ago. I lived in an isolated house, so my family could have a pet without permission. If I lived in an apartment building I could not have a pet. If I wanted to have a pet in it, I had to get a permission from a landlord. It is too much work for us. In Tokyo it is difficult to live in an isolated house, because it costs more money than living in an apartment building and it means almost you can not have a pet. I have heard that there are apartment buildings which allow residents to have a pet, but I have never seen them with my eyes.

I knew the existence of Neko cafe for the first time on the internet about ten years ago. At that time I lived in an apartment building, and I began to feel excited to see Neko cafe. It was located in Kichijoji. Kichijoji is a big town which is famous for Inokashira park, GHIBLI MUSEUM, various department store which are MARUI, Paruko, Coppice, Tokyu. When I went shopping in Kichijoji with my wife. I saw Neko cafe "calico". I asked her to enter with me.

In Neko cafe you can see a lot of pretty cats!


The price is determined based on dwell time.
30 minutes 700 yen
60 minutes 1200 yen
90 minutes 1500 yen
120 minutes 1800 yen
150 minutes 2000 yen
And you can enjoy various drink at low price.




Calico is very popular among men and women of all ages, so you may stand in line to enter Calico. Calico is safe for all ages, it is rare as Neko cafe. Usually there is age limit for entering Neko cafe. You can enjoy lovely cats with a baby.

If you want to eat sushi, go to Sushiro.

I sometimes go out for eating sushi for lunch or dinner with my wife and daughter. I have been living in Tokyo for around ten years, so I have experience in eating various sushi restaurants. If you come to Japan for enjoying sushi I recommend you to go to Sushiro. Rich people go to Ginza to eat expensive sushi for example, but it costs a lot of money,more than 10,000 yen per person. If so, that's fine. But I do not recommend it. All the money in the world wouldn't make me satisfied. Sushiro is the biggest conveyor belt sushi chain in Japan. The sales is more than any other chain. Surprisingly it is around 200 billion yen! I think that the reason is the good taste.

Japanese conveyor belt sushi chain ranking
1 Sushiro          200 billion yen
2 Kura zushi      140 billion yen
3 Hama zushi    120 billion yen
4 Kappa suhsi    80  billion yen
5 Genki shusi     40  billion yen
                                                                                   (sales per year)

Recently the taste of conveyor belt sushi formidable. Most sushi are selling for only 100 yen. It is very reasonable, so I usually pay nearly 3,000 yen for three people when I enjoy eating sushi at Sushiro with my wife and daughter. You do not have to an expensive sushi bar. It is not cost-effective.

At Sushiro you can order from a touch screen. It is very useful because you can check the menu in english by making the switch from japanese to english on the screen. It is not necessary to call a restaurant staff. You can order various sushi at your pace,but be careful during busy hours. At that time you have to stop eating sushi during 90 minutes. It may be enough for most people to enjoy sushi.

check this website  → Sushiro website

You can get the infofmation of Sushiro and learn how to enjoy the conveyor belt sushi from start to finish.

Actually Sushiro has a fulfilling side menu. For example a french-fried potato is very delicious and popular. Of course it is only 100 yen. I always order a french-fried potato which I am addictive to. There are several ramens. If you love to eat ramen you can enjoy Shoyu, Miso, Sio(salt) ramen at Sushiro. And dessset are also fulfilling. I can not decide which dessert to enjoy. 

There is a small disadvantage. Sushiro is the biggest conveyor belt sushi chain in Japan, but the number of restaurants is small in tokyo. Only 4 reataurants are around Yamanote Line which are Ueno, Ikebukuro, Takadanobaba and Gotanda. Ueno is located near Asakusa which is famous for a sightseeing place. If you stay in the  hotel around Yamanote Line I recommend you to Ueno for example. It is near Asakusa.