Japan Day 2 - Oasis 21 and Dinner at Ichiran

After leaving Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium, we went back to the railway station and rode the train to Sakae, where Oasis 21 and Nagoya TV Tower is located.

View of Nagoya TV Tower right outside Sakae Station

Sakae is Nagoya's largest shopping area, with lots of shops both above-ground and underground. Since we were not very interested in shopping during this time, we headed to Oasis 21, a multilevel park/mall that has a theme called "Space Ship Aqua." It features an interesting, circular glass roof that has a pond in the middle. People can walk in the glass roof around the pond, and we enjoyed our time there taking pictures and enjoying the cool afternoon weather.

Ground floor of Oasis 21

At the glass roof top

Beautiful view

Big pool of water in the middle of the glass roof

Wacky group pic

Oasis 21 also lights up during the night, making it resemble a space ship even more. But we didn't stay until evening since we decided to eat at Ichiran - yum!

The Ichiran Experience 

Ichiran is about a 10-minute walk from Oasis 21. Good thing the weather was fine, and it was also nice seeing the city of Nagoya as we walked. I actually read about Ichiran before we left for Japan - it had great reviews, which is why my husband and I recommended eating there. It is a well-known ramen place that offers a unique experience in eating ramen. They have branches all over Japan, including Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. 

When we arrived, there was already a line - thankfully it wasn't that long yet. 

Lining up outside Ichiran

Basically, Ichiran only features one type of ramen - Classic Tonkotsu Ramen. There is no other kind of ramen available. They have concentrated on one type of ramen to make it as delicious as possible. You have the option of getting additional ingredients, and you also get to customize how you want your ramen to be - more about this later!

Ichiran Ticket Machine

Once you are inside the place, the first thing you need to do is buy your food ticket. Here's where you buy your ramen and additional items you want to add. The basic Ichiran ramen consists of - homemade fresh noodles, classic tonkotsu soup, green onion, sliced pork and Ichiran's original red sauce (but this can still be modified a bit before you give the ticket to the servers inside). For the additional ingredients, you have the option of adding egg, mushroom, extra noodles, etc.

The one with the lighted characters show which seats are available

In this Ichiran branch, there are only 20 seats available. You see which seats are vacant by looking at this information panel. The restaurant features a single booth style place for each person, which lets you concentrate on eating your ramen, and not get distracted by other people. You do have the option of opening the panels in between the booths so you can see your companions.

Most Ichiran branches offer only this style of seating, but there are some which have private booths for small groups, like this one in Nagoya. My parents and one of my sisters with her family were able to occupy the private booth. The rest of us sat on the single booths.

Inside the place, single booth style

My booth - number 6!

Each single booth has a water dispenser, a button for calling the staff, and a window in front that can be opened and closed so they can serve you. You are also given this piece of paper to customize your ramen based on your preferences - make sure to ask for an English one, since they automatically give it in Japanese. 

Customize your ramen

Here, you get to choose your flavor strength, richness of the oil, garlic, green onions, sliced pork (you can choose to remove this), Ichiran's special red sauce, and the noodle texture. You can see which ones I encircled in the above picture. There's also a recommendation for first timers, and make sure not to include the spicy red sauce for kids (or those who don't like spicy food). I only got 1/2 of the Ichiran's special red sauce, but it was already pretty spicy (my husband chose double the red sauce since he loves spicy food).

Finally! Ready to eat!

Finally, our ramen was served! It was really delicious, and there were a lot of noodles! I was pretty full after I finished mine - I decided not to add additional ingredients to my ramen, so I can just enjoy the Ichiran tonkotsu ramen by itself. In addition to the spice, the red sauce definitely adds another depth of flavor to the broth. 

Enjoying our ramen

Busy eating! No red sauce for the kids

At the private booth for small groups (this can fit a maximum of 6 people)

Finally, we all finished our dinner, full and happy. When we left the place, there was a longer line in front.

Longer line when we left!

We headed home afterwards by walking to the train and going back to Nagoya Station. The temperature was pretty cold and we all wore our jackets and hoodies. Watch out for my next post on our next day in Japan - Osaka Castle, Toyota Museum and going to Kyoto. :)