Noodles

Eating blue ramen at the sort of Hatsune Miku ramen shop

The virtual pop star Hatsune Miku is an entity that appears in almost any medium you can think of. Her imprint stretches beyond music and is an influential character that even big companies want to have a piece of, appearing in commercials, anime, concerts, a glass tube in people’s homes, and now, even in ramen? Well, sort of.

The shop is indeed decorated with a bunch of Hatsune Miku figurines, but what’s peculiar about this ramen shop is that they never intended this to happen, it sort of, just happened… Before continuing the story, let’s look into the ramen shop and the unique blue dish they serve.

The ramen shop we visited is called Ramen Kippoushi, located in central Shibuya, and their specialty, blue ramen! Its unique color might look both beautiful and scary at the same time, but after having tried it ourselves, I can ensure you there’s nothing to worry about.

Since this is a shio ramen (salt-based ramen), just like the clean and fresh color it gives off, the flavoring itself is very delicate too—a very light salty taste. The thin ramen offers a great texture that plays well with the rest of the toppings: the soft boiled egg, vegetables, and the sliced chicken. Having all these ingredients in a bowl filled with blue broth made a quite interesting sight, “Very instagramable!”, an observation made by my table companions. The only thing that made me doubtful was the chicken soaked in blue, almost as if the meat was feeling unwell, but that, of course, did not affect the taste negatively in any way.

But wait! So how does the blue ramen tie in with Hatsune Miku?

The first thing you might notice is that the color of the broth is similar to Hatsune Miku’s signature color. This is indeed one of the reasons. When we asked the shop owner and creator of the blue ramen, Koizumi Takao, he explained that all the Miku figurines and plushies in the shop were gifts from customers.

We were intrigued to know if Koizumi himself was invested in Miku, his reply to our question was very simple.

“Well, not in particular”

The blue color is actually inspired by things such as the ocean and the sky, invented out of Koizumi’s urge to create something beautiful. The cherry on top of it all is that his beautiful creation is fun and also capable of putting a smile on people’s faces. Judging by Koizumi’s down to earth and honest personality, the fame he received from Miku isn’t something he’s delighted or displeased about, nor will he take advantage of its momentum (maybe a little) as the photos on his Instagram focus on the food before anything else. The decoration appears to be more of an appreciation of his customers and the blue ramen was essentially created for his own enjoyment.

While Koizumi’s blue ramen gained a reputation for being a dish associated with Hatsune Miku, that is mainly an effect created by the Miku fans who visit the shop. But regardless, considering how Miku can be seen in almost any direction in the shop, it looks like Koizumi himself doesn’t seem to mind how things turned out.