Karashibi Miso Ramen Kikanbo

What the guides say about Karashibi Miso Ramen Kikanbo

Kanda and Ochanomizu lie west and north-west. Kanda is the older commercial heart, a dense grid of small buildings with ramen shops below and apartments above, served by the JR Chuo and Yamanote lines and the Ginza Line. It eats well for a long stay: Kanda Yabu Soba is the head shop of one of Japan's great soba lineages, Kikanbo does the chilli-and-sansho miso ramen the district queues for, and Kanda Myojin on the hill is the shrine the Akihabara tech crowd adopted. Ochanomizu climbs the hill above it, a university district with music shops and a more collegiate feel. Apartments here tend to be in older buildings, but the location is exceptional. The Chuo Rapid puts Shinjuku about ten to fifteen minutes away and the Marunouchi Line runs straight to Tokyo Station and Ginza.

The food splits by street. Chuo-dori and the station blocks are chains, conveyor sushi and tourist ramen. None of it is bad and most of it is forgettable. The better eating is in Kanda and Ogawamachi, a few minutes south and west, one of the densest ramen districts in the city because it lives off office lunches. Kikanbo for the numbing miso bowl and Kanda Yabu Soba for the opposite end of the scale are both walkable. Ichiran has a branch in Akihabara for solo-booth ramen late into the evening.

The area around the shrine has some of the best old-style eating in the city. Kanda Yabu Soba has served hand-cut soba since 1880 and is a short walk south of the shrine. Expect a queue at festival lunchtime. If you're after heat, Kikanbo near Kanda Station does chilli and sansho miso ramen. mAAch ecute Kanda Manseibashi, a row of cafes and shops in a converted railway viaduct, is a calm place to reset between processions. The shrine's own gate has old shops selling amazake, the sweet rice drink.