Slurp noodles and savor the sights of Japan’s ‘top 3 ramen’ regions

Sapporo ramen, Hakata ramen and Kitakata ramen are known as Nihon sandai (Japan’s top three) ramen. This distinction’s exact origin is unclear, but Japan's top three ramen earn their fame.

Sapporo — the capital of Japan’s northernmost prefecture Hokkaido — is the birthplace of miso ramen. Hakata ramen comes from Fukuoka Prefecture — the birthplace of tonkotsu (pork bone stock) ramen. The city of Kitakata in Fukushima Prefecture, meanwhile, is one of the best places in Japan to experience asara (breakfast ramen) culture.

Traveling to try these ramen at their sources provides a chance to explore Japan’s regional food culture and hidden sightseeing gems. If you want to experience places outside of eastern or western Japan, let these three ramen open up new horizons.

After World War II, Morito Omiya and Takayuki Nishiyama created the famous Sapporo ramen — a miso-enriched broth with curly noodles topped with vegetables and ground meat. For people experiencing the food scarcity of post-war Japan, this was a delectable, nutrient-rich meal.

After tasting Sapporo’s ramen, check out the city’s other attractions such as the Sapporo Clock Tower. In 1996, the ringing of the tower’s bell was counted among the “100 soundscapes of Japan” by the Ministry of the Environment.

Meant to encourage preservation and the reduction of noise pollution, this list includes natural and manmade phenomena believed to represent Japan. Alongside this designation, however, the clock tower is also called one of Japan’s “three most disappointing attractions” due to some travelers claiming it is smaller than pictures imply. Only those who see the tower with their own eyes can determine whether this reputation is fair.

Fukushima Prefecture is unfortunately best known globally for the Great East Japan Earthquake, but there is more to Japan’s third largest prefecture than this tragedy.

Nestled in the mountains of western Fukushima, Kitakata is home to less than 50,000 people and dozens of ramen shops. The father of Kitakata ramen was Ban Kinsei, a Chinese immigrant who moved to Fukushima in the 1920s and later founded Genraiken — a ramen shop still open today. Now, Kitakata is known across Japan as a ramen hub and some locally-grown restaurants such as Bannai Shokudo (also called Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai) have even opened branches overseas.

Kitakata ramen is famous for a light broth made by combining bases such as pork bones, chicken bones, vegetables and dried fish with seasonings like soy sauce. The dish is then completed with curly noodles. If you want to eat Kitakata ramen like a local, have it for breakfast. Kitakata has cold mornings for much of the year, and asara (morning ramen) is a warm, filling breakfast. Some restaurants serve ramen as early as 7 a.m. and customers often line up before the doors open.

Visit Kitakata in the spring or autumn to enjoy its natural wonders alongside its food. In November, visitors flock to Shingu Kumano Shrine to see its centuries-old gingko tree turn golden. Around late April, weeping cherry trees bloom along the former Nicchusen railway. At any time of year, travelers can pair visiting Kitakata with a trip to Aizuwakamatsu. Nicknamed “Samurai City,” Aizuwakamatsu is home to Tsuruga Castle, Nisshinkan (a school for the children of samurai) and numerous other sites connected to historic Japan.

Tokio Miyamoto — founder of the shop Nankin Senryo — is credited with creating tonkotsu ramen in the 1930s in Kurume, southern Fukuoka Prefecture. Miyamoto’s ramen broth was clear, but after the owner of Sankyu — another shop in Kurume — accidentally overboiled his pork bone stock, tonkotsu ramen’s iconic cloudy broth was born. Today, a monument to the first tonkotsu ramen stands outside Kurume station.

Nagahama, a neighborhood in Fukuoka City, added its own innovations to tonkotsu ramen, using thin, fast-cooking noodles to serve busy fish market workers quickly. Nagahama also started a custom called kaedama (second noodle servings added to excess leftover broth) and began allowing customers to specify the texture of their noodles using expressions such as barikata (very firm), kata (firm), futsu (normal) or yawa (soft).

The famous Hakata ramen is named after another area in Fukuoka City. Hakata ramen originally featured clearer broth and flat noodles, but nowadays, the name is applied to ramen that features the cloudy tonkotsu broth invented in Kurume and thin noodles from Nagahama.

There are ramen shops throughout Fukuoka City, but for a truly unique experience, try noodles from yatai food stalls in the Tenjin and Nakasu areas. Rarely seen in other cities, Fukuoka’s yatai serve a variety of foods and are open (weather permitting) from about six p.m. until sometime after midnight. It’s considered good manners not to linger at one stall too long, however, due to limited seating.

Fukuoka Prefecture is also a must-see for tea lovers. Travel south of Fukuoka City past Kurume, and you can discover Yame — a tea producing region with over 600 years of history. Though the volume of tea grown here is smaller than other areas, Yame is one of the most renowned tea producers in Japan, with a reputation for creating teas with less bitterness than others.

Ramen is just one example of a common food distinguished by local circumstances. Every region of Japan puts their own twist on the country’s favorite foods. Some of these interpretations gain nationwide popularity while others can only be discovered by visiting a place. Venture away from the parts of Japan that you know, and a new version of the familiar awaits.