Or, there ARE reasons to poke outside the Yamanote (besides going to Hakone).
Today, I had a Y1450 bowl of ramen. More accurately, a bowl of chasiumen. It was a big bowl with a lot of cha siu in it.
I found my way to Harukiya, a famous old, old old (1949!) school ramen shop in Suginami-Ku. It was an adventure getting here, since all I had was the address and since this wasn’t a major part of Tokyo, my atlas was useless. I took the Chuo Rapid to JR Ogikubo station. Left the JR station and wandered around. Strange how everything on this side of the station looked new…and this is supposed to be an old place! On a hunch, I went back into the station and double checked the map for landmarks. Ah! There’s a koban on the side I should be on! Kobans have cops inside! And cops ALWAYS know where the food is their beat. Yeah, that’s it.
I walked in and spoke my best polite pidgin Nihongo. And you know what? He understood me!! Or since it was 14:00 and I probably looked hungry, he knew what I was looking for when I said “Sumisen, Harukiya, doko desu ka?”, probably with all the wrong inflections. He said it was a three minute walk. Although now I know where it is, it would take 2 minutes. Easy to get to. Here’s how to get here:
Take the JR Chuo Rapid (beeeg orange train!) to Ogikubo Station. Exit on North side.
Walk through bus/cab area to main street. You will see the Koban on your left. Turn right. Walk on sidewalk (it’s one of those covered sidewalks). You will pass a 7-11. Toward the end of the block, you will see a small ramen place, usually with a queue. It’s directly across the street from a Family Mart.
But more importantly, when you come here, get the corner seat by the door. That puts you right next to the big ass stockpots full of ramen goodness. The one in the foreground is where the noodles are cooked. The cook uses a strainer to pull the noodles out of the pot, bounces them around to drain them and plops them into the waiting bowl of broth that was just poured 20 seconds before.
The noodles were fresh made and the broth was delicious without too much of that MSG ickyness that lower quality places have. And since it was soooo big and pricey, guess what? That’s dinner!
Harukiya
1 Chome-4-6 Kamiogi,
Suginami City, Tokyo 167-0043