Kobuton Ramen is located five minutes on foot from the Keifuku Electric Railroad’s Nishioji Sanjo Station. This shop is well known for its “all-natural” (completely free of chemical seasonings) pork bone ramen, with all the concentrated goodness pork-bone cooking has to offer. Kobuton Ramen offers “light” (thinner) and “heavy” (thicker) broths, and based on these two main foundations, a variety of ramen dishes are made for customers to enjoy. Mysteriously, while all the ramen dishes at Kobuton Ramen feature rich flavors, the gamey smell often encountered in pork bone soups is all but absent. Instead, the fragrance is a refined one of pure pork stock. The combination of deep, rich flavors and refined fragrances are most likely thanks to the shop’s “all-natural” approach (completely eschewing the use of chemical seasonings) and the slow, careful stewing of the broths over time. Not content to stop with their soups, the shop also puts significant effort into its noodles, always offering at least five different types and matching the right noodles with the right broths, cooked to perfection for customers. There is a general impression that many ramen shops in the Kansai region put a lot of effort into their broths to the detriment of their noodles, but this shop’s consistent attention to its noodles makes it something special, and the combinations of broth and noodles will have you coming back time and again for that amazing experience. The shop is small, with only eight counter seats available, but the service is excellent and the shop is always bustling with regulars as well as foreign sightseers who wander over from the nearby guest houses.