So I have been wanting to relive the what I call 一蘭 Ichiran experience over again ever since I tried it in 福岡 Fukuoka many years ago. This is a classic とんこつラーメン Tonkotsu ramen shop that started from the 60s and have been dishing out ramen all over Japan over the years 24 hours a day.
The 一蘭 Ichiran experience starts from ordering your noodle and extra ingredients using a vending machine (or coupon machine). Then you wait in line for the server to assign you a cubicle. Yes you need to dine in a cubicle ALONE. Haha…
Once you are seated in a cubicle, you will face a wooden window where a server will appear from behind and collect your order. This is also the time when you can indicate your choice of thickness of noodle, hotness of sauce etc. Then you wait for the noodle to be served, again through the wooden window. This, my dear friends, is the 一蘭 Ichiran experience! 🙂
A first-time trip to 京都 Kyoto would probably be incomplete without paying a visit to 錦市場 Nishiki Market. Despite being a Wednesday, where some shops were closed, there were actually still plenty to see, and it was less crowded too.
We went to check out the many Torii gates at 伏見稲荷大社 Fushimi Inari in the morning, and we discovered that there were now many more Torii gates compared to our previous visit in 2011, making it an even prettier sight. As we were entering the shrine close to 9am, we saw a few visitors leaving 😮 There were easily at least another 20 visitors making their way up at the same time as us, but most of them were quite quiet and orderly in their movements, so it was a rather pleasant walk. Despite the cold, we soon got warm as we slowly made our way up to the view point. Our journey to and fro the view point was about an hour. We were glad we came early; by the time we made our descent, it became really crowded!
Mr J recommended this place to us, and warned us about the long queues at the Kyoto Station outlet, so we were pretty excited when we found the main shop near our hotel! There was a little entrance next to Lipton cafe, and opposite Jeugia, a guitar shop, and we had to walk through a small alley before reaching the restaurant.
Other than 黒門市場 Kuromon Market and 道頓堀 Dotomburi, we had no idea what else we wanted to do in 大阪 Osaka, and so had only planned for a one night stay in 大阪 Osaka, mainly because it was easier to catch our 11:00 flight at 関西空港 Kansai Airport. That was when Ms V found out that there was Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWHP) in Universal Studio Japan (USJ), that launched in 2014. To go, or not to go?
We were quite famished for dinner and decided that we should have a great meal for this last night in 四国 Shikoku!
We had initially wanted to visit 
We had seen so many restaurants and stalls advertising the signature dish of 香川県 Kagawa Prefecture, 骨付鳥 Honetsukidori, or roast chicken on bone, everywhere we went in 高松 Takamatsu, that we decided that we had to try it!
Despite being a cloudy day, we decided to go ahead with our day trip to 小豆島 Shodoshima Island. We took the 9:30am ferry (return tickets ¥1320) from 高松港 Takamatsu Port to 草壁港 Kusakabe Port on Shodoshima, and one hour later, we arrived at 小豆島 Shodoshima Island!
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 