鏡花

(from Tachikawa station walk south, under the monorail station and make the first right. It’s a block or two up)

鏡花 looks to me that it’s just 2 random kanji characters. The first is mirror, the second is flower. But a search shows that its from a saying, 鏡花水月(kyoukasuigetsu) which means, like the moon and flowers reflected in water, something so profoundly beautiful that words can’t describe it. How can they possibly live up to something like that?!?

By recreating the moon reflecting into your bowl of ramen… that’s how! The lights are turned down way low, and each seat has a tiny moveable LED lamp for you to see by. Brilliant.

How did I miss this cool place? The interior alone is worth a visit. The only step up in relaxing would be reclining leather chairs and some jazz music.

Shoyu ramen done right. You can see the layer of oil on top. This is how it should be done. The oil acts as insulation and keeps the soup piping hot.

Hot soup leads to hot noodles and some serious slurping. I love big thick noodles with my shoyu ramen, as opposed to the thin hard ones with my tonkotsu. These delivered.

Oh yeah, this was number 6 of 12 on my stamp rally challenge. 1 more and I get a free rice bowl. 6 more and I get a shirt. The guy sitting next to me had 10 on his stamp card. He also spoke really good English and let me try his abura ramen. This place is recommended!