Ramen shops in Japan are hugely popular and can be found just about everywhere. They are either a stand alone building or inside a larger building, such as a train stations. There are so many different types of noodles for ramen, and each one of them makes the dish taste completely different. You can choose whether you want your noodles to be thin, thick, soft, or hard, and what kind of meant you want with them. Ramen is like a customizable food in that you have a choice on how you want your ramen. If those aren’t enough options for you, you can also choose which type of ramen in general that you want. There is soy sauce ramen, salt ramen, pork bones ramen, chicken ramen, spicy ramen, etc. 

Every ramen shop has a very energetic atmosphere, with extremely friendly servers and chefs. Usually the women greet the customers and take their orders, and the men are the chefs. This goes back to how it used to be done, and Japanese people like to stick with the traditional style of doing things, especially when it comes to food. Each Japanese state has its own ramen, which has a unique taste to that particular area. When you order your ramen you can get it one of two ways; either the noodles in the broth, like a typical soup, or you can get the noodles in a separate bowl and just dunk the noodles in the broth as you eat them. Both styles are equally popular; it really boils down to personal preference. Each ramen shop has a picture and description of that store’s ramen out in front of the store for customers to see. People tend to use that as a guide to help them decide whether or not they will eat at there or not. Japanese people enjoy eating ramen with a side of fried rice and pot stickers.