Ramen Yokocho Festival
You know you can find me at any food event, especially a ramen festival! Lucky for me, for Nisei Week, the Ramen Yokocho Festival was in town. Yokocho is Japanese for "Alley Way" in Japan since there are many alley ways packed with ramen shops right next to one another. If you recall from my last ramen festival visit, the place was packed! There was barely enough standing room! So, this time I went right when they opened to avoid the crowds. 
It was empty! I was so happy. I literally walked up to each booth. The wait was never longer than 5 minutes. The weather, on the other hand, was so hot. I was drenched in sweat. Definitely not ideal ramen weather! I only ended up getting 4 bowls of ramen this time. I only ordered the new and special ramen creations I hadn't tried before since I had 10 bowls of ramen last time. I played it safe this time! lol.
My favorite of the 4 bowls that I had was definitely Iroha Toyama's Black Shoyu Ramen. It was plain, simple, and classic just like a ramen should be. They didn't try to do anything fancy schmancy, which I really appreciated. I initially went in thinking that my favorite ramen at the event would be Tsujita's. And although it was very good, it was a bit fishy. It ended up being my second favorite of the day.
It was also nice that there were other food items besides from ramen. Unfortunately, it was just way too hot for ramen. I wish it was fall or winter because I could have easily downed 10 bowls like the last time. I was sweating up a storm. 
And of course I drove home in my new Hello Kitty car!!! I wish! Hello Kitty was there at Nisei Week promoting Hello Kitty Con, which will be happening in October. You'll probably see me there covering the food depending on how my schedule is.
If you're jealous of my ramen adventures, be sure not to miss out on the next ramen festival which will be October 18th and 19th at the Pomona Fairgrounds. The next one will feature a number of ramen vendors straight from Japan so I'm super excited! See you guys there!
