Category: Japan

Unboxing Time: MYRAMEN Vegan/HALAL/Natural Japanese Ramen

I was recently contacted by a company asking if I’d like to try their noodles. I get a lot of noodles – but I always want to try them all! These noodles were supposed to be Vegan, HALAL certified, 100% natural and a few other tags like no MSG. Pretty impressive! Let’s take a look at this interesting variety. ...see full post

Unboxing Time: Umai Crate By Japan Crate

Unboxing Time: Umai Crate By Japan Crate

After a short hiatus, We have a new Umai Crate to unbox! To be honest, I really had a lot of fun opening the last one of these up. It’s been crazy lately – the day I did this video I did three other unboxing videos and there are 3 more packages coming in the next week or so.  Continue reading to get a coupon code and to see what’s in the box I just got in this last week! ...see full post

#2711: Acecook Hakodate Shio Shrimp Ramen

#2711: Acecook Hakodate Shio Shrimp Ramen

Found this one at Osaka market up in Richmond, BC. We’ve been going on little day trips to Canada a lot lately and it’s a lot of fun! At this market, we go infrequently enough that they have some neat new stuff every time. They’ve got a special section by the hot food area that has special instant noodles. They’re almost all from Japan and usually on the pricy side. I want to thank Ryuuichirou Arai for helping me with the translation. Here’s a little about shio from Wikipedia – ...see full post

#2705: Ichiran Ramen Curly Noodles including Original Red Dry Sauce【Only in Fukuoka】

#2805: Ichiran Ramen Curly Noodles including Original Red Dry Sauce【Only in Fukuoka】

So a couple months ago I read an article mentioning this high end fancy instant ramen. Having never seen nor heard of it, I thought I’d better investigate. I mean, how can I be The Ramen Rater if I’m not going to hop on board for something like this? I got some eBay gift cards for Christmas and thought I’d seek this one out. ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Japanese Instant Noodles Of All Time 2018 Edition

Recently, I added a chat feature to The Ramen Rater, allowing readers to comment and ask me questions directly. It’s been very eye-opening; great to hear about why people are here and what they’re interested in seeing. One thing I have been asked repeatedly is ‘when will there be an update to the Japan list?’ Well, I heard you. The last list came out in 2014. I’ve been reviewing a LOT of Japanese varieties lately, and it looks like there will be an influx of Japanese varieties for the foreseeable future crossing my desk. This most likely will be an annual list from now on. With that being said I should also mention that with the huge amount of varieties that are released annually in Japan, many are discontinued. While this is the ‘of all time list,’ spanning all my reviews, I try to make sure that what is on it is available. This is very hard with Japanese varieties. Finally, I should mention also that if you’re an instant noodle manufacturer from Japan or elsewhere for that matter and you’d like me to review your products, I encourage you to use the contact form and drop me a line. That being said, let’s take a look at this new list, encompassing my favorite and most memorable reviews from the over 2,500 reviews I’ve done to date. ...see full post

Unboxing Time: Kanto Ramen Shop Set From Ippin

Unboxing Time: Kanto Ramen Shop Set From Ippin

Today we have a special set of fancy ramen. I was asked by IIppin to pick five things to check out from their store to show everyone. Ippin is an online retailer of very fancy Japanese things.  Thanks! This set looked like a good bet. The package arrived from Japan yesterday. Busy day yesterday was – this and two other videos to record. Let’s have a look inside! ...see full post

Unboxing Time: Isoyama Shoiji ’18 Prohibited’ At Hobby Link Japan

Unboxing Time: Isoyama Shoiji '18 Prohibited' At Hobby Link Japan

Many of you will remember the rematch video I did. I tried the ultra spicy Isoyama Shoji 18 Prohibited instant ramen from Japan. It’s one I haven’t been able to conquer and just seriously spicy. I mean, this stuff just throws down and takes no prisoners! Let’s open this box and look within – not only at the instant noodles, but some other products by Isoyama Shoji. ...see full post

#2686: Sapporo Ichiban Coriander & Chicken Noodle

#2686: Sapporo Ichiban Coriander & Chicken Noodle

Once you get outside the United States, cilantro is known as coriander. This is actually the second coriander variety I’ll be trying from Japan. Didn’t expect that to be a popular flavor for Japan, but hey, why not. I really like coriander. This one comes from Zenpop.jp. They have monthly ramen boxes that are a really great deal – definitely, check them out! Okay – let’s crack this one open. ...see full post

Unboxing Time: Zenpop Ramen + Sweets Mix Pack

Unboxing Time: Zenpop Ramen + Sweets Mix Pack

Was stoked to find another box in the mail – this time a box from Zenpop.jp, a company that sells Japanese themed boxes with all sorts of different things in them. Haven’t seen a rfancy box like this one from them before – also wasn’t sure how they were going to fit a lot of varieties of instant noodles in here like the others contained. Let’s crack it open and look within! ...see full post

#2675: Myojo Hyobanya Kakitama Udon

#2675: Myojo Hyobanya Kakitama Udon - The Ramen Rater - Japan

This one took a lot of digging on Google and trying various translations and I think I have the name right. I think this may have something to do with egg drop soup? I really am unsure; the ones I see that sound like this one is only cooked 3 minutes and mention the calories on them. I’m completely lost. So I pushed out an ask on The Ramen Rater facebook page so we will see what that brings. In the meantime, let’s continue! ...see full post

#2636: Acecook Tonkotsu

#2636: Acecook Tonkotsu - Japan - The Ramen Rater - instant noodle soup

Here’s one of those ‘dilemma’ noodles. I don’t know what the heck it is called and the bar code yields absolutely no results which are annoying. Luckily, I do have the resource of my readers and asked on the Facebook page for The Ramen Rater. A few people got they were tonkotsu, which is very helpful, although usually, ones like this are some kind of tonkotsu – like a little more detailed. But people were of the belief this was just their standard tonkotsu. Thanks for the info! Let’s dig in ...see full post