Hiwamatanoboru
- 陽はまた昇る -
Begin by buying a ticket at the vending machine inside the restaurant. Insert your money and select the Ramen of your choice, then push the button. If you’re stumped, proceed further into the restaurant and ask for help in English. They’ll give you a printed menu of the vending machine in English, which you can use to easily decode the buttons. Since the restaurant is near a tourist location, they are ably equipped to support you in English, a welcome benefit.
If you want to adjust the volume of noodles, you won’t practice the usual Oomori or Tokumori upgrades found at traditional ramen restaurants. At Hiwamatanoboru, there is a Kaedama system. The Kaedama refers to a fresh batch of noodles being brought and served into your existing Ramen broth when the noodles run low. The advantage of this is that, unlike Oomori, the excess noodles won’t get soggy as they sit in the bowl.
If you want to opt for the Kaedama, tell one of the wait staff, “Kaedama wo kudasai.” just before your noodles are about to run out. For ¥100 and five minutes’ wait time, a freshly-boiled batch of noodles will be brought over. If you absolutely know you will be ordering a Kaedama, you can buy a ticket printed Kae-dama from the vending machine and tell them, “Ato de Kaedama wo mottekite kudasai,” which means they will bring it later – quite a smart move, we might add. The staff will check your progress and smoothly bring you the noodles when the timing is best.
