# 家系も二郎もつけ麺も通った二人が今食べているラーメン

- Show: 限界突破ライフハック
- Published: 2026-10-12
- Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/1866434136_78f00ddc4834.html
- Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/10d527f20/podcast/play/127278582/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-9-11%2F433904546-44100-2-d9b74f703509d.mp3
- Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary.

Kensuu opens the episode by recounting his first part-time job at Yokohama-ya (横浜屋), an ie-kei ramen shop in Yokohama, where as a ninth-grader he split frozen pork bones until his hands bled and peeled up to 1,000 boiled eggs a day. From there, the two hosts trace six waves of Japan's ramen boom, dissect the shops and styles each of them chased through the years, and debate why Kensuu has abandoned broth entirely in favor of brothless noodles — abura-soba, Taiwan mazesoba, and tsukemen — that deliver the texture he now craves above all else.

## What this episode answers

### What was Kensuu's experience working part-time at a ramen shop?

After failing interviews at a nearby convenience store and McDonald's, he ended up at Yokohama-ya by process of elimination, spending his days splitting frozen pork bones until his hands bled and peeling up to 1,000 boiled eggs; by summer's end he had advanced only to salad prep, never reaching the gyoza, fried rice, or ramen stations.

### How has Japan's ramen boom evolved through its different phases?

Kensuu identifies six phases: Sapporo miso during the high-growth era (1st), tonkotsu in the 1980s (2nd), nationwide spread of regional ramen sparked by the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum in the mid-1990s (3rd), ie-kei and double-soup fish-and-pork-bone styles in the 2000s (4th), fish-powder tsukemen around 2010 with shops like Tsujita and Rokurinsha (5th), and today's high-spec chuka soba built on kelp dashi or shamo chicken (6th).

### What shops and styles did each of them frequent over the years?

Kensuu moved from ultra-firm tonkotsu at Tanaka Shoten (田中商店) in Adachi Ward, through ie-kei and tsukemen, to now eating only brothless noodles; Tanaka Kei (田中圭) named haunts including Benten, Chiyosaku, and Bubuka in the Takadanobaba area, Hashigo in Akasaka, and more recently Mizuno Kazuya and Hakata's foamy tonkotsu.

### Why does Kensuu now eat only brothless noodles?

He lost interest in everything except texture, and since broth has zero texture it no longer makes the cut; he now orders only abura-soba, Taiwan mazesoba, or tsukemen — dishes where fish powder, meat, scallions, and egg yolk coat the noodles in a thick, unctuous mass.

### How do they evaluate instant noodles and chain ramen?

Kensuu reframes instant noodles as carrying their own culture "precisely because they are a fake aspiring to challenge the real thing," and his current favorite is Ryukyu Bijin (琉球美人), an Okinawa soba-style dried noodle eaten with Okinawa soba broth, ranked first in a Brutus ramen special; both hosts give chains like Tenkaippin and Machida Shoten credit for consistent, reliable quality.

## Article

## Working the Line at 15: Kensuu's Days at Yokohama-ya

Kensuu's first part-time job came at the end of middle school. After failing back-to-back interviews at a nearby convenience store and McDonald's, he landed — by process of elimination — at Yokohama-ya (横浜屋), an ie-kei ramen shop in Yokohama. Ie-kei kitchens run on enormous quantities of pork bones, and his first assignment was defrosting and splitting those frozen bones by hand under running hot water — work brutal enough to draw blood. The shop sat on a main road and turned out 500 to 1,000 bowls a day, which made peeling 1,000 boiled eggs a daily routine. He got fast enough to shell one egg every five seconds, but by the time summer break ended he had advanced only to salad prep and never reached the gyoza, fried rice, or ramen stations.

## Six Waves of Japan's Ramen Boom

Kensuu maps Japan's ramen history in six distinct phases. The first wave was Sapporo miso ramen during the high-growth era. The second was the tonkotsu boom of the 1980s. The third arrived in the mid-1990s when the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum opened and regional styles — Kitakata ramen among them — spread nationwide. The 2000s brought two forces at once: ie-kei on one side, and the double-soup fish-and-pork-bone style typified by Aoba in Nakano on the other. Around 2010 the fish-powder tsukemen craze peaked, with Tsujita and Rokurinsha drawing long lines. Today the leading edge is high-spec chuka soba — minimal, subtraction-style broths built on kelp dashi or shamo chicken.

## The Shops They Kept Coming Back To

Kensuu's personal ramen arc went from ultra-firm tonkotsu — he favored Tanaka Shoten in Adachi Ward's Rokucho neighborhood, ordering at "kona-otoshi" firmness, one level beyond even barikata — to ie-kei (Yoshimuraya, Rokkakuya), then tsukemen. For Jiro-style he was a Meguro and Jimbocho regular, and he noted the difference between emulsified and non-emulsified broths.

Tanaka Kei listed his own haunts: Benten (弁天) in the Takadanobaba area, famous for its enormous chashu; Chiyosaku (千代作), which closed but reportedly published its recipe on Nanapi, said to have become the blueprint for later ie-kei shops; Bubuka (ブブカ), which also expanded to Kichijoji; and Hashigo (はしご) in Akasaka, a tantanmen-style institution with a following among politicians. Both hosts vouched for Mizuno Kazuya (水野和屋), opened by Mizuno-san of Hara Tosha — dismissed by some as a novelty act yet praised by ramen critics, with queues forming even at 11 a.m. The planned November 3rd closing of Tenkaippin's Ikejiri-Ohashi branch also came up, and both expressed genuine regret.

## Kensuu's Switch to Brothless: A Texture Philosophy

At some point Kensuu stopped ordering ramen with broth entirely. The reason is straightforward: he lost interest in everything except texture, and broth has zero texture. His current repertoire is limited to abura-soba, Taiwan mazesoba, and tsukemen — dishes where fish powder, meat, scallions, egg yolk, and vegetables coat the noodles in a thick, unctuous mass. Clear shio or delicate seafood broths, he says, were never really his world to begin with. That said, when he travels he eats whatever the region is known for — Hokkaido miso ramen and Hakata's foamy, creamy tonkotsu both earn his genuine approval.

## Reconsidering Instant Noodles and Chains

The manga Ramen Hakkenden gave Kensuu a new lens for instant noodles: they carry their own culture precisely because they are a "fake" aspiring to challenge the real thing. His current obsession is a dried Okinawa soba-style noodle called Ryukyu Bijin (琉球美人) — ranked first in a Brutus ramen special — eaten with Okinawa soba broth. For chains, both hosts rated Tenkaippin and Machida Shoten positively: consistent quality, never a bad bowl, and easier to get into than the single-location cult shops worth lining up for. When it comes to ramen intelligence, Kensuu's top recommendation is the Facebook feed of Ide Taichou (井出隊長), an employee at Flyer, who posts detailed monthly roundups of the best new openings.

## Takeaways

- Kensuu's ninth-grade job at Yokohama-ya — splitting frozen pork bones and peeling 1,000 boiled eggs a day — gave him a ground-level understanding of ramen production that shapes how he talks about the food.
- Japan's ramen boom has moved through six distinct phases roughly a decade apart, with the current sixth wave defined by high-spec chuka soba built on kelp dashi and shamo chicken.
- Kensuu's fixation on texture drove him to eat only brothless noodles (abura-soba, Taiwan mazesoba, tsukemen), and that same logic extends to how he enjoys instant noodles — leaning into the texture of dried noodles rather than dismissing them.