My first bowl of ramen in Japan

Yes I've lived here for 10 months now and ashamed to admit that I have yet to eat a single bowl of ramen...well until this weekend. I blame it on the fact my friends have all been here for years and the novelty of eating shed loads of Japanese food has worn off. Ramen, for those who don't know, is a a Japanese noodle dish that originated in China.

After knocking back an infiniate number of vodkas, dancing badly at Apres, stumbling out at 4.30am and roaming the streets on Saturday night what better time to try out the infamous ramen! So the three of us fell into the ramen shop. Eating ramen in Japan is probably akin to hitting the kebab shop in the UK after a boozy night out (except ramen is eaten during the day in specialised ramen shops too unlike those nasty kebabs....) Full of drunk men with fags hanging out of their mouths (yes they still smoke indoors here) and falling over themselves to speak English ("Allo, you are total beautiful") Well that's until the ramen arrives and the deafening chorus of slurping begins.

I opted for the shoyu (soy) ramen (the other was miso ramen), a steal at only ￥500 (about 3 quid) If I'm honest I wasn't that impressed, really salty. I could have made better super noodles at home.

If you want to try ramen in Kanazawa there is apparently a good ramen restaurant called Ippudo. http://www.ippudo.com/store/#koshinetsu. It's just on the street around the corner from Zara in Tatematchi (the paved shopping street in Katamatchi) Good luck!