WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!

Hello everyone, welcome to the Traveler's Guide to Sapporo Ramen. My name is Mike, and I have been blessed enough with being given the opportunity to live in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan as part of the Hokkaido University Short Term Exchange Program. In the program, I was allowed to design an independent study, under the guidance of Eijun Senaha, my professor. This is my semester project.

Now... a bit about the guide:

Sapporo is known as one of the culinary epicenters of Japan, but perhaps its greatest, unmistakably wonderful achievement, is its addition to the world of Ramen.

Unfortunately, It seems there aren't very many non-Japanese who know of ramen even as a concept; in America at least it's mostly the 15 cent packs you find at the supermarket. Ramen has a terrible name in America as being college kid fair, and this is so far from what the actual cuisine known as ramen actually is! It's like comparing spaghetti-os to delicious, hand made pasta at a fine dining Italian restaurant. The two don't even compare.

This is evident by just how much Japanese people love ramen. Those who do a quick google search will see this, most ramen shops, even in the town of Sapporo, have large amounts of ratings, there are books, magazines, all about this wonderful concoction of truly Japanese delight. This is a home cooked meal in the best of ways, hand made, fresh, deep, complex, filling, and delicious.

But to the foreigner, finding good Ramen shops is... hard. Very hard. There are almost no materials in English dealing with ramen in Sapporo. No reviews, no data, no interviews, nothing. Something needs to be done about this.

So, using my decent at best Japanese as you guide, I will be compiling some of the best, and some of the worst, shops there are, written for your pleasure and use. I will do the research, I will conduct the interviews, I will ask the questions. And then show you the results, so you don't have to.

This is the Sapporo Travelers Guide to Ramen. Welcome.