The Tokyo Ramen Show is a festival dedicated specifically for ramen and is the largest of its kind in the country! For ¥850, you can buy a ticket that will get you one bowl of ramen (which was a pretty decent size!)
After trying the ramen bowl(s) of your choice, you can then vote for which one(s) you though tasted the best!
(You can visit their official website for more info on future events/this years line up: http://www.ramenshow.com/index.html )
I visited the festival on the last day (simply because I had other events I wanted to go to as well) But it ended up working in my favour! It was a bit of a rainy day, but that doesn't stop anyone from enjoying a great event. As I entered, I quickly located the information booth so I can buy tickets! (I bought 2 tickets) Thankfully there was an English version of the menu (but no English version of the program/schedule for the day).
I looked at the menu and read over the flavours, noodle types, and tastes. There were 18 different booths to choose from! I simply chose based on "did the photo look delicious?" and "I dont want it to be spicy". LOL pretty simple. I then made my decisions.
Stall #15 - Otatsu x Jimbocho Kai serving: Okayama Kasaoka Ramen
I went for this because the photo looked really good and it also said light in taste. Since I got 2 tickets, I knew I didnt want to eat anything that might have been too filling, so I figured choosing this was good. The line up wasnt long, so I got my serving quite fast. Inside was thin noodles, thin sliced chicken, bamboo shoot, and green onion. The taste was fairly bland. Not much to it. The broth itself didnt have too much flavour either. I guess thats what they meant by a light flavour!
Stall #18 - Kanazawa Mentatsu Kenrokukai serving: Rich Miso "Flame and Broil" Noodle with meat Kanazawa 100 year miso ver.
After finishing bowl #1, I had made my final decision to go to this place (because I was actually considering it while in line for bowl #1). This had a longer line up, so I probably waited for about 15 minutes? After taking the first bite, it was FILLED with flavour!! Inside was middle thick noodles, thin sliced pork, green onion, and bean sprout. They used black pepper to season the whole ramen and the pork itself had such a delicious flavour that seeped into the broth!! Im really glad that this was the one I ended off with! It was such a big jump from bland to flavour blast.
After eating such yummy ramen, I walked around and visited the Gari Gari Kun booth! I bought a cookies and cream ice pop! It was very yummy~! With every purchase, you get a special Tokyo Ramen Show coaster/sticker!
I walked around a bit more after finishing eating, saw the show's mascot, and watched the stage performances. There was a stage for kids to "prepare the best ramen noodles", where they pretend to use the noodle strainer. The kids will win prizes! (The one kid who came in 1st place was really funny!)
After that was finished, I notices there were some idol performances!! Little did I know there were idol performances happening throughout the whole duration of Tokyo Ramen Show!
And even better, the group Tokyo Flavor, who performed at Japan Festival, was also there!! They even remembered me! :D It was such a cooincidence and I was really happy for it! I bought cheki for one member (Mayumi~!) Unfortunately, I didnt realize that there were no photos or videos allowed during the performances. (No one stopped me, or else I would have put my phone away!! There were no signs or warnings other than in VERY small print on the bottom of the last pages of the program book, which I didnt notice until I was looking through it to write this blog. I noticed a few people looked at me....and now I know why) So because of that, I wont post any photos to be respectful, but here is my cheki!!
I really enjoyed the day and actually wish I attended multiple days so that I could have seen other performances too!! (But I didnt know what was happening until today....I didnt check their website LOL Oops!!!) I'm really glad there are so many events happening while Im here! I hope that I can continue to find more cool events!