Daiichi Asahi is a famous ramen shop near Kyoto Station. It opens first thing in the morning, and it’s famous for its long queues.

A queue like this

They open at six, so I turned up around 6:20 to find about fifty people already lined up. This photo is from when the queue had shrunk by about half. I thought it would take an hour or two, but a lot of people gave up while waiting, so I got in after about an hour. If you look closely you’ll notice quite a few families queueing with children, and parents who wake their kids at six and stand in line an hour to eat ramen.. do you really have to start their education that early..

The sign

The name is on the long side.

Ramen in the making

They were making ramen at full tilt from first thing in the morning.

Soy sauce for the gyoza

Inside

The turnover is faster than you’d expect; it was purely the length of the queue that ate up the time. Coming a bit later would have meant a shorter wait, but then we’d have set off later on the trip, so that wasn’t an option. I imagine everyone else was in much the same boat. And I heard far more Korean than I expected.. everyone’s impressive.

The ramen

One taste and it’s a tough shoyu ramen. The level is high, but there’s a funky note to it, like sundae-guk, the Korean pork blood sausage soup, that will split opinion. I found myself thinking this must be what the popular ramen of the Tampopo era tasted like. I can see why it’s a classic, but honestly there are plenty of places doing this much these days, and I did wonder whether it’s worth coming all the way to Kyoto and queueing from the morning for it.

The noodles

If you enjoy tough flavours like Jiro-style or iekei, this tastes like the original template, so given its historical significance I can understand people making the trip on purpose. I ate it happily enough myself, but a queue like that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing as far as I’m concerned.

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