My boyfriend went to Korea again (to leave the country, again, since his 90 days were almost up), so I accompanied him to the airport on April 22. It’s kind of funny, because a week later he would accompany me to the airport for my Taiwan trip, but I digress…
We left home around the same time as we usually do tho, so we could have some leeway and have time to get food. I was going to get boba on the way home as a bus-home drink, but my boyfriend wanted to get a drink before going to the airport. This also sounded good to me, because I hadn’t had anything to eat yet that morning, and so we stopped by The Alley again because I have a small coupon applicable to the seasonal drinks. I was going for the Tropical Fruits slush that day.
His flight was at 4, and originally his goal was just to be at the airport by 2, but since I know he likes ramen, I picked out a ramen place at the airport ramen street to try, Ichigen. Ichigen seems to be a pretty famous ramen spot in the Susukino area, known for their shrimp stock ramen broths with the option to add richness with tonkotsu broth. They also have thick or thin noodle options, and apparently they suggest ordering an onigiri to put into the leftover broth. When we got there around 11:30, there was already a bit of a line forming, though it moved relatively quickly, and as we moved up in the line, there was even more of a line forming. I think I read somewhere this is the only shop in the ramen street that actually accumulates a line. In Japan that’s a good sign, right?
I went with the shrimp miso, because when you’re in Hokkaido, miso is the go-to, and the richest broth, Ajiwai, which is the one that adds the most tonkotsu broth, since I like tonkotsu and I’m not a super shrimpy person, and the thick noodles. I’m usually a thin noodle person, but I wanted to try out their unique looking thick noodles this time around. If I ever go back I can get the thin ones. As with most of my recent ramen adventures, I also ordered their gyoza.
Even with the added tonkotsu broth, the broth was still very shrimpy, which probably speaks to the authenticity of the broth. As a shrimp-is-ok person, I still quite enjoyed the experience, so for any shrimp and ramen fans out there, you’ll probably love this ramen. I especially liked the little crispy shimp bits on top; the experience felt like the small tempura bits you get in an udon dish, but even smaller and tasted like the best part of a shrimp chip. I loved the thick noodles in this dish, with a bit of a chew and went very well with the rich soup. Gyoza were pretty good, like a good standard Japanese gyoza.
After lunch we just headed towards the international departures with nothing else to do in the domestic area. We had quite a bit of time, as my boyfriend couln’t even check in yet, and we just chilled for an hour on a bench in the lobby until his check in time. In the meantime, we just chatted for a bit, and also filled out a survey for a grad student wandering around the international lobby. Turns out I couldn’t fill it out though, because I’m a resident and the survey was about tourism.
After dropping him off at the international departures and watching him pass security, I headed back to the 2nd floor lobby to go pick up some more exclusive snacks that are on my airport bucket list, this time from Kinotaya Ringo. There’s actually two Kinotayas in the lobby pretty close to each other: the other one is the regular shop, which sells soft serve, cheese tarts, and blueberry cheese tarts, and this one, connected to a small souvenir stand, is officially labled Factory to differentiate the two (but the label in person is RINGO), producing apple pies and soft serve, but regular milk and matcha! I’m going for the matcha ice cream, and the apple pie. I had the apple pie and soft serve from the Pole-Town Kinotaya in the underground passage in Sapporo, and I’m hoping that the apple pie experience this time around will be better, and this version is an airport exclusive (the promo pic does look different, this one is more open-faced and long and the Pole-Town Custard Apple Pie is more of a fold situation). Perhaps I’ll give that one a second chance some time…The milk soft serve I had from that Kinotaya was absolutely amazing, and I think only this location has a matcha flavor which is exciting as a matcha fan. It also comes with red bean in the center (produced in Tokachi, which is known for red bean). Apparently, this matcha won #1 best soft serve in an ice cream ranking.
Last time I went to pick up my boyfriend from the airport, I browsed the second floor to scope out where exactly this location was so I could find it the next time, and when I finally found the location there was a bit of a line! I hoped that the line would be doable this time around…when I got there, there was a bit, but wasn’t too bad, and as I moved up, the line got longer.
I obviously ate the ice cream right away, and it was amazing. It was creamy, just the right amount of decadent, and wasn’t too melty (I have no idea why, but the Wakasimo ice cream last time melted pretty fast). The matcha flavor was a little on the lighter side, but still pretty noticeable. I kind of expected there to be more red bean on the inside like the Wakasimo one, but I guess since that’s not the main focus or selling point of the ice cream, I just think of it as a nice bonus to the treat.
You might be able to tell from the picture, but as I as inching closer to the register at the front, I was wondering if I would get the last of this current batch or be able to snag a one from the new batch that literally was being prepped to come out. Unfortunately (?), I think I either got the last one or the second to last one of the almost empty tray, because the guy in front of me only ordered one or two, and I was only getting one. Not that it mattered a whole lot, because I ended up just putting it in the fridge when I got home and reheated it the morning after as my breakfast. After toasting it in my fish grill, the outside pastry was so crispy and flaky, and was so delicate every time I tried to hold it. The apple chunks were pretty good, super soft, and not too sweet, with a bit of a custard filling on the bottom.
Anyway, after I finished eating my ice cream at the airport I got on the train back to Sapporo, and arrived around 3:30. Originally I was thinking about just killing time and walking in the area until the 5 bus, but after I took a quick look at Earth Music & Ecology and bought a couple items from Natural Kitchen, I figured since I’m trying to save money after my Tokyo trip there’s not much else I wanted to do in the area before 5, and just got on the 4 bus home. On the ride home, I thought about it some more and thought I could have walked around some more to burn off the ice cream, but really, I don’t know how much worth it would have been, and I was able to get home just a bit earlier.
Leave a Reply