Shinjuku locations present a different side to the story that made international headlines.

Last month, tensions flared between Japan and China when the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan. Two weeks after the travel advisory, prompted by the newly appointed Japanese prime minister suggesting Japan would support Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo reiterated its nation’s statements, leading many people to believe it would deal a massive blow to inbound tourism to Japan.

In an effort to assess the actual situation in Japan, our reporters have been out and about visiting some of the country’s most popular tourist spots, where they’ve seen some evidence of decline at Don Quijote and varying levels at other well-known areas. With a focus on investigating places that are known to attract large numbers of Chinese tourists, our reporters decided to move on to a new destination: Ichiran.

This ramen restaurant chain is just as famous for its tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen as it is for its long lines, particularly in Tokyo where queues of hungry diners are often seen. The Shinjuku Central East Exit store, located right outside the exit, is one of the busiest in the city, and so famous for Chinese tourists that an online search about the branch even spits out an AI reply that mentions them.

The underlined section below reads, “There’s always a line in the afternoon. The Central East Exit in particular has many groups of Chinese tourists, and the wait time is 40 to 50 minutes.”

Out of the many Ichiran restaurants in Japan, this location is one of the most popular amongst inbound tourists, so we wanted to know if the Chinese travel advisory might mean it’s now possible to get into the store without having to wait in line.

▼ So we headed straight to the branch just after 1:30 p.m, one of the busiest times of day.

▼ To our dismay, we found it was crowded with people outside.

As we approached the front of the store, we saw a sign that read, “We are now distributing numbered tickets for entry“, with instructions to proceed to the bottom of the stairs.

▼ Filled with trepidation at a potentially long wait time, we descended the stairs.

▼ Reaching the bottom, we discovered the wait time was 40 minutes!

Surely the wait time wouldn’t be this long if Chinese tourists were truly avoiding the country, given that they represent Japan’s biggest tourist market. Still, keeping an ear out for any Chinese being spoken amongst those in line, we couldn’t hear any, with a lot of other languages being spoken instead, including Japanese.

Hungry for more information, we headed to the Nishi-Shinjuku store to asses the situation there, and also try to get ourselves a bowl of ramen. Pausing outside for a visual inspection, we saw that this branch too had a lot of customers.

Despite the long line, there were no tickets being distributed, and staff were quick to let us know that the estimated waiting time was roughly 20 minutes.

▼ Half the waiting time here compared to the previous location..

One other difference here is that you queue up after ordering and pre-purchasing your meal, so once you’re in line there’s no leaving unless you want to lose the money you spent on your meal.

While we waited, we saw a few Chinese people here and there, but they didn’t seem to make up a large proportion of the crowd. Judging from the languages being spoken, people from other parts of the world were dining here, and surprisingly, there were more Japanese people in line than expected.

After taking a seat and enjoying a good long slurp of Ichiran’s famous noodles, we began to realise that instead of hearing Chinese being spoken around us, which is something we’ve become accustomed to here, we were hearing almost only Japanese.

From personal experience of frequenting these two locations regularly, we got the sense that the number of Chinese tourists had slightly decreased, with Japanese diners taking their place instead. Could they be like our own Japanese-born reporter, descending on Ichiran now in the hopes of shorter waiting times after the international dispute being governments?

▼ Thoughts to chew on.

If you were like our reporter, hoping to waltz right in to Ichiran without waiting at all, you might find yourself slightly disappointed. China’s travel advisory might’ve made international headlines, but it doesn’t mean you’ll find restaurants like Ichiran without a queue.

Restaurant Information
Ichiran Shinjuku Station East Exit branch /一蘭 新宿中央東口店
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 3-34-11 Peace Building B1F
東京都新宿区新宿3-34-11 ピースビルB1F
Hours: 10:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m.
Website

Photos © SoraNews24
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