Next to sushi, there’s likely no dish that people associate with Japan as much as ramen. The popular noodle and broth soup is now famous worldwide, with stores in every country.
There’s something special, however, about eating the dish in its home nation. Now, tourists to Japan and residents can enjoy some of this remarkable regional variety in a single location in Tokyo in October and November 2025.
A sampling of Japan’s ramen versatility
The Tokyo Ramen Festa will be held in Komazawa Olympic Park in Tokyo’s Setagaya City, between October 23rd and November 3rd. The Festa will host 39 stores from 26 different prefectures in Japan, highlighting the rich diversity of the seemingly simple dish. The festival will also feature a few restaurants from overseas, so that Japanese ramen fans can get a taste of how the dish is evolving outside of Japan’s borders.
The event will be divided into three “waves,” with 15 different vendors present during waves one and two, and 17 in wave 3.
| Event Date | Event Hours | Same-Day Ticket Sales Hours |
Last Order |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | October 23 (Thu) | 12:00~20:30 | 12:00~20:00 | 20:10 |
| October 24 (Fri), 25 (Sat), 26 (Sun) | 10:30~20:30 | 10:30~20:00 | 20:10 | |
| Week 2 | October 27 (Mon) | 12:00~20:30 | 12:00~20:00 | 20:10 |
| October 28 (Tue), 29 (Wed), 30 (Thu) | 10:30~20:30 | 10:30~20:00 | 20:10 | |
| Week 3 | October 31 (Fri) | 12:00~20:30 | 12:00~20:00 | 20:10 |
| November 1 (Sat), 2 (Sun) | 10:30~20:30 | 10:30~20:00 | 20:10 | |
| November 3 (Mon/Holiday) | 10:30~18:30 (Scheduled) | 10:30~18:00 | 18:10 |
From the Ramen Festa 2025 website (translated into English)
A few of the unique variations on offer include:
- Yokozuna char siu and simmered pork belly Sapporo miso ramen from Tsunatori Monogatari (Hokkaido)
- Rich miso and flame-broiled beef ramen from Kaga Misomen Yukai (Ishikawa Prefecture; Wave 3)
- Fresh clam maze-soba, a brothless ramen variation, from Oruni Matsuyama (Ehime Prefecture; Wave 2)
- Naniwa white chicken broth with grilled pork and char sui from Nakamura Shōten (Osaka; Wave 3)
You can view the full schedule of which stores appear on which days on the official event website. (Sadly, there’s no English translation; however, AI translations appear to work well enough.)
Entrance to the event is free. Tickets for ramen cost 1,100 yen ($7.20) per bowl and can either be bought in advance from any 7-Eleven or on site.
The deep history of ramen—and its troubled present
Ramen dates back to Japan’s Edo era, the fusion of Japanese cuisine and Chinese noodle dishes. Originally a favored dish in Yokohama, Kōbe, Nagasaki, and Hakodate, the dish got its first official shop in 1910, Rairaiken in Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood. (That store closed in 1976 but was revived in a new location in the Shin-Yokahama Ramen Museum in 2010.)
Today, ramen is a staple Japanese dish, with almost 25,000 stores. That’s 19.22 stores for every 100,000 people. Yamagata Prefecture reigns with the most stores per capita, followed by Nīgata, Tochigi, and Akita.
Ramen is also perpetually popular among tourists to Japan. Many surveys rank ramen as the second most popular dish they want to eat here, right behind sushi.
However, the ramen world has struggled in recent years. Rising goods and utility costs have put pressure on stores, many of which feel they can’t raise their prices above 1,000 yen ($6.56). Some stores, however, have started bucking this trend, offering a higher-end experience in exchange for higher prices.
Discover the “unseen” side of Japan
Japan is on everyone’s travel bucket list. Sadly, many end up going to the same places as everyone else. That can turn what could have been a fun, once-in-a-lifetime experience into an exhausting battle with crowds.
We started Unseen Japan Tours for the same reason we started Unseen Japan: To give people a unique glimpse into Japan they can’t get anywhere else. Let us create a custom itinerary of hard-to-find spots centered on your interests. We can also serve as your guides and interpreters, taking you to places that non-Japanese-speaking tourists usually can’t access.
Contact us below to get the ball rolling today!
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Sources
Tokyo Ramen Festa official website
東京ラーメンフェスタ2025、出店店舗を発表。全国から39店が集結. Tabi-Labo
都道府県別ラーメン店舗数. Todo-Ran
祝訪日客受入再開！訪日客が食べたい日本食ベスト10とは？Restaurant Management Pro
