Mention Minami-Uonuma in Niigata Prefecture, and rice will come to the mind of most Japanese. Minami-Uonuma Koshihikari is famous as Japan's top brand of rice, prized for its exceptional taste. When it was suggested that restaurants in this town make their biggest rice bowls made with Minami-Uonuma Koshihikari, top-class chefs rose to the challenge, offering their own versions of Majidon, or "serious" rice bowls!

In Kyoto, there is Kyo-Ichi Honten, a cafeteria established in 1948.
With the motto of Umai, Hayai, Yasui, or "tasty, fast and cheap", this working-class eatery has been loved by the locals for many years.
Here, you can eat noodles and rice bowl dishes for around ¥700.

“Dotonbori Shinza” is a popular ramen restaurant which currently has 46 locations in Osaka, Kansai, and the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The recipe for the delicious ramen here was made by the restaurant’s founder, who has worked as a chef at French restaurants. His goal was to make a soup that is easy to digest that you could eat every day. Supposedly the ramen here has a unique, habit-forming taste.
This time, I visited the “Ario Otori” store in Osaka Prefecture’s Sakai City.

Ramen is one of the most quintessential dishes of Japan that all tourists should try at least once—though I’m sure once won’t be enough. It’s a perfect harmony of noodles, soup, and other ingredients. And what better a place to try it than at the Tokyo Ramen Show, where you can try ramen from popular local shops from all over Japan in one stop! You can also try original ramen that you won’t be able to find anywhere else!

“Ramen Asahiya” was first founded in 1988. When lunchtime hits, you can be sure that there will almost always be a long line of salarymen waiting for their meals. I’d heard that they offer great service and delicious ramen, so I decided to drop by.

Hello, I’m Misano. I would like to share my experience of several singular & superb ramen restaurants I visited during my recent stay in Osaka and Kyoto.

“Kashiya” is a popular ramen restaurant in Osaka.
While it’s a small shop with a mere 8 counter seats, it’s such a popular restaurant that it’s even been featured on TV.

There is a ramen restaurant I have loved for a long time.
Named Ten-Ten, Yu, it's a sister shop to Kyoto's famous flagship, Ten-Ten-Yu.
A lot of regular customers seem to come to this ramen shop every day to enjoy the free Nira Kimchi, a spicy Korean pickled cabbage with Chinese chives (Nira in Japanese).