Ivan Ramen (アイバンラーメン) sits out in a quiet neighborhood at the northwest corner of Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward. While its physical address has it in Minamikarasuyama 3-chome, in typical Tokyo fashion everyone, including Ivan Orkin himself, refers to its location as “in Roka-kōen”, meaning the immediate vicinity of Roka-kōen Station on the Keiō Line. Originally, I just planned to come for the noodles and a much needed break. I hadn’t thought ahead about how I could integrate this into a transit oriented development narrative. After covering several kilometers of shōtengai in Shinagawa in the morning and afternoon, I hadn’t even considered that I might come across yet one more. It’s reassuring that even with hyper-accurate mapping and GPS equipped smartphones, exploring a new place on foot still holds the potential for pleasant surprises.
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Being just off a station on a major commuter line means Ivan Ramen is easy to get to from many locations on the west side of Tokyo.
As you walk north into the neighborhood, the first thing you encounter is a small shopping district on either side of the street.
Rounding the corner and turning west brings you the rest of the way.
Ivan’s shop is one of the two anchor tenants flanking the main entrance to Marumi Store (丸美ストアー), a short covered shōtengai.
I didn’t realize how long I had stood dithering over what to get until the staff came out to ask if I was having trouble with the ticket machine. Machine was fine, the user had issues.
Ivan was tending his other shop in nearby Kyodo that day, but the capable and affable Shinoda-san had everything under control at the helm. We talked a little about my project. He thought three days was much too short for a visit to Tokyo. Most of the people I met during my trip were in agreement on this.
This was supposed to be an afternoon snack, so just a bowl of ramen, but the roasted pork with garlic and onion rice bowl looked too good to pass up.
Writers with far more experienced ramen eating palates have gone in depth on both the soup and the man behind it (Ramen Adventures, Rameniac). While I won’t duplicate their great work, I think I can add my own angle to the story. I don’t know that there are too many people who have had both Ivan Ramen at one of the Tokyo shops and at the special one night (with a second follow-up) event in New York, where Ivan previewed some prototypes of potential menu items at his planned new location in the Lower East Side. Comparing the two versions of the shio, while both clearly originate from the same parent, where the New York version was more refined in terms of flavor and appearance, the original was gritty and earthy. At the honten, you get fattier, roughly cut slabs of juicy chashu and a swirling cloud of katsuobushi in the broth. Neither is better than the other, just different.
I’ve not met Ivan face to face, but I’ve always gotten prompt and cheerful replies on Twitter. The people I know who have met him tend to recount similar stories: It doesn’t take much to get Ivan to talk about what he loves about his work and the thought process that goes into it. All you have to do is ask. Any downtown or neighborhood shopping district would be lucky to have a business owner as dedicated to providing a quality experience as Ivan. We’ll all be waiting stateside for the beginning of his next adventure.
This post is part of The Tokyo Project. Click here to go to the introduction and table of contents.
4 comments
mhasegawa says:
Jan 29, 2013
Reading your blog always makes me hungry!
On a serious note, I worked for the City of Boston in the development agency and we had begun to look more and more at transit oriented development. One of the differences that I note in your descriptions of Tokyo and what is happening in Boston, is that the neighborhoods near the stations in Tokyo are much more developed than in Boston. I know that the planners are hopeful that as housing is built and people move in, more commercial development will happen. A nice thing about Boston is that much of the new housing is modeled on the old style: housing over commercial so there is generally a jump-start.
Michael says:
Jan 29, 2013
Apologies in advance for any late night snacking I may induce!
Yes, the phenomenon of commercial activity focused around the stations is one of the things I like most about Tokyo/Japan, and what I wish we had more of here. When you have so many people commuting by train, it’s a pretty logical end.. it’s the one place everyone will pass through twice each day.
Christa says:
Jan 29, 2013
YUM! When is he opening his NYC shop???
Michael says:
Jan 29, 2013
Hopefully not too long. The last I heard an update he hadn’t yet heard from the LES community board about the liquor license. Ippudo midtown was supposed to open almost a year ago, but seems to have dropped off the radar! New York doesn’t seem to make things easy for restauranteurs.