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| Photo of Tokyo Tower taken at Roppongi Hills |
Roppongi (六本木) is very popular among foreigners as it has a large number of restaurants and shops which are English friendly. There are 2 most famous complexes are Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown where you can find lots of shops and restaurants. Around the area there are also several museums and the National Art Center.
We took the Toei Oedo Subway Line (都営大江戸線) from Shinjuku station to Roppongi Station. After we arrived at Roppongi Station, we got out at Exit 7 which took us to street level beside the entrance to Tokyo Midtown. It was around 2:00 p.m. and we first had lunch at a famous Ramen restaurant, Ichiran (一蘭拉麵). It was only about 1 minute walk from the exit to this restaurant located on the 2nd Floor. Ichiran is a restaurant specialized in Tonkotsu Ramen (豬骨濃湯拉麵) originated from Kyūshū (九州). There is only 1 type of ramen in the menu but you can customize the ramen as you place your order by purchasing a ticket from the vending machine outside.
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| My No.1 Ramen ... Ichiran |
The setting of the restaurant is also very unique. There are 3 aisles in the restaurant and a display board outside shows seats which are empty or taken in each aisle. Each seat in the aisle is partitioned with dividing board to create a private environment. As you sit down, the server will provide you with an order sheet to customize the taste of your ramen with the level of spicy, garlic, oil, green onion and the firmness of your noodle......etc. If you cannot read Japanese, you can ask for an English or Chinese order sheet as well.
The combination of its pork bone soup and secret sauce tasted extraordinary. The first thing you will notice is the aroma with the first sip of the soup. The soup is very rich but not too salty and it was so good to a point that I actually finished the whole bowl to the last drop. I can also confirm that I didn’t felt thirsty afterwards. This means the soup probably did not contain any MSGs or too much soy sauce as I am pretty sensitive to MSG. If I can only try 1 ramen restaurant in Tokyo, I will definitely pick Ichiran. This is a MUST TRY ramen restaurant in Japan.
After lunch, we went to Tokyo Midtown. There are 3 major areas in Tokyo Midtown which are the Garden, Plaza and Galleria. The famous 21_21 Design Sight is in the Garden area, but it was too hot for us to walk outside, so we stayed mostly in the indoor area. We went in to the Plaza and made our way to the Galleria area. There are lots of restaurants and shops in Tokyo Midtown; you probably can spend few hours there if you plan to shop. Some shops are very nice and have products with interesting concepts. After couple hours, we decided to leave Tokyo Midtown and moved on to the other large complex, Roppongi Hills.
Roppongi Hills is a neighborhood area consisting of residences, recreational areas, offices and hotels. It also has a museum, a cinema and various shops and restaurants within this whole complex. We first headed to TV Asahi, one of Japan's private, nationwide TV stations. The spacious atrium is open to the public and features displays of current programs and a shop selling TV Asahi related goods. My favorite Japan anime character, Doraemon, is also featured there as well. Originally I was planning to walk around Roppongi Hills as there are many large artistic sculptures located on Roppongi Keyakizaka Dori, but my mom was getting tired so we had to cut it short. (Okay, it wasn’t just mom, we were all tired, the pain we felt on our feet was just too much…we didn’t even want to walk another step.)
As for dinner, we went to a restaurant that specialized in curry udon called Sugamo Konaya (巣鴨古奈屋) located in the North Tower of Roppongi Hills. This is a small chain of restaurants with a few locations in Tokyo. I wasn’t sure how good this restaurant is as it seems to be pretty heavy to have curry in such a hot weather. However, I saw their signature curry soup base takes 3 days to prepare and composed of 22 ingredients including apples, onions, caramel, sake, and garlic, and milk is added towards to end to mitigate spiciness. This seems to be a very good quality curry and there was also lots good feedback on the web so I decided to give it a try.
We had to wait a little bit as the restaurant was just filled when we arrived. However, the waitress provided us with great service. She gave us the menu and took our order while we are waiting so she can serve us with the food almost immediately after we were seated. We ordered the recommendations list in front page of their menu. Tempura prawn + Udon dipped with Curry and a cold curry udon noodle mixed with summer vegetables. For the dipped style udon, the spicy level of the curry is medium and both the taste and aroma of the curry itself is very flavorful. The udon itself is slightly softer than the ones I used to have but still very chewy, indeed a better quality udon. The waitress explained to us in English that the Tempura prawn which comes with our meal can be eaten from head to toe. It was being deep fried in such a way that the whole shell (including the head) of the prawn are so crunchy. The cold udon noodle was also very good. The spicy level of the soup is mild and has a hint of sweet and sour with many vegetables. My mom found it very appetizing and refreshing. I never though you can make this type of cold dish with curry. In generally, I was pretty satisfied with this restaurant.
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Reference Link:
Ichiran (一蘭拉麵)
Tokyo Midtown
Roppongi Hills
Sugamo Konaya (巣鴨古奈屋)
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