My first full day in Japan and there was no way I could let the day go by without downing a hot bowl of Ramen. While adventuring around the area that I am staying in, I randomly encountered a cool little area with back alley restaurants of all sorts.

I knew that eventually a Ramen shop would appear in the midst and lo and behold, I was right.

I learned a couple of new words this evening:

• こってり (kotteri; rich, thick, heavy)

• あっさり (assari; light).

I ended going for the thicker broth and I am certainly glad I tried it. I realised after that I should have ordered a bowl of rice to go with since literally everyone else in the shop did, which they would then put the thick soup broth on their rice after finishing their Ramen.

The broth, surprisingly, still had a lighter taste to it, but at least to me, had hints of a chicken flavour. I ordered extra onion on mine so that onion flavour is still lingering with me right now as I write this.

The best part for me, aside from trying something new, were the noodles. They were about average thickness and the chewiness was superb. If anything, I should have ordered more noodles to go with the soup after the fact.

I thought about drinking the entire bowl to see if a message was printed on the bottom of the bowl, but I couldn’t bring myself to drink all that thick soup.

Already looking forward to the next bowl!