Ramen Jiro opened in 1968 near Keio University. Fifty years later, hungry students and fans still brave the queues and time-worn interior for enormous portions of Ramen Jiro. The faithful return because this shop kick-started the Ramen Jiro trend – and all of Tokyo’s other 30-plus Ramen Jiros are descended from this one in some way. Thick noodles, chunks of fatty pork, a mound of cabbage and bean sprouts are enhanced with garlic and karame, a special soy sauce-based seasoning, to create the classic dish. The bread flour noodles are coarser than normal ramen, in diameter and uniformity, and the pork stock is fatty but lighter than a Fukuoka-style tonkatsu broth. At the original shop, with its red Formica counter, a row of bar stools and an antique meal ticket vending machine, Ramen Jiro creator Takumi Yamada cues up piles of ingredients and trains apprentices, who go on to open branches around greater Tokyo.