(the) Road to the Deep East

According to some sources, in early this morning (July 15), at a ramen restaurant in Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture, one 28 year-old male customer was arrested for assaulting other customer. The casualty was taken to the hospital soon, but he is still losing consciousness.

According to the Police, the 33 year-old victim wasn't satisfied with the decoration of cabbage on the soup, and complaining to the assistant of the restaurant. And his rude behavior made the 28 year-old suspect angry, and in the end, the suspect punched and kicked him until the victim passed out.

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This must be a little mysterious news. It makes sense if the suspect were the restaurant assistant himself, but in this case, it was the 'customer' who got angry about the complaint against the restaurant.

To understand this news, first, we have to understand how deeply Japanese people love ramen.

Needless to say, Ramen is one of the most convenient and popular food among common Japanese people, as well as curry rice. Originally, it was a Chinese food, but after it was imported around 20th century, it was arranged for Japanese people's taste, and it became a national food.

And ramen has evolved into a kind of sophisticated food in the 21st century, especially around Tokyo. Many restaurants establish their own styles with deep philosophy, or the one look like that, and the customers sometimes admire the ramen restaurant they as if they worship a religion . There are lot of restaurants which holds handwriting motto of the shop in front of the building, just like a zen temple.

Ramen restaurants are not as expensive as static sushi restaurant ( I mean the one without conveyor belt), and you can eat a delicious one bowl of ramen with less than 1000 yens. But some kind of people go and eat Ramen to spend a precious, holy, spiritural moment, as if to go to Maxim de Paris.

The most famous chain which is supported by this kind of earnest believers is the one named 'ラーメン二郎(Remen Jiro).' (Wikipedia (ja)). In this ramen chain, customers and the restaurants are tied up with the strongest relationship, and people order the ramen with a kind of cipher which only the regular customers can understand. And customers are expected to obey the unwritten rules set in Jiro.

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So, the suspect must be the believer of the ramen restaurant. He really loved the ramen the restaurant produces, and the ramen he eats everyday must be the part of his identity. Hence, he couldn't endure the slander from unfamiliar customer. In other words, the keyword to understand this news is 'fanship'.

But I don't think it is a shame of Japanese people. This new demonstrates that Japanese people are very sensible to foods, and still creating the own and unique food culture in the 21st century, just as they created sushi or tempura 200 years ago.

If compared with sushi, it looks the name of ramen (not instant one) is not popular in foreign countries. I wish this new sophisticated culture from Japan will spread to the world. ....Of course, they don't have to send this kind of excessive believer to train foreign customers, though.