How to order ramen without speaking Japanese

JapanMust Guides · 6 min read

Good news: ramen shops are among the easiest restaurants in Japan for non-Japanese speakers. Most of the ordering happens through a machine, pointing, and about five phrases. Here's the full play-by-play.

Step 1: The ticket machine （券売機）

Most ramen shops — especially the great tiny ones — use a ticket vending machine by the entrance. You insert cash, press the buttons for what you want, take the printed tickets, and hand them to the staff when seated.

The catch: the buttons are usually in Japanese only. Look for photos on the buttons, or match the price to the menu posted outside. The top-left button is almost always the shop's signature bowl.

Common buttons you'll see:

Step 2: Get seated

Hand your tickets to the staff. They'll show you to a counter seat. Put your bag in the basket under the counter — every ramen shop has them.

If they ask something you don't understand, it's almost certainly one of these two: noodle firmness （麺の硬さ — katame firm / futsū normal / yawarakame soft) or whether you want garlic. Smile and say:

Futsū de onegai shimasu — "Normal, please"

The 5 phrases that cover 90% of ramen shops

Sumimasen — "Excuse me" (to get attention)
Kore, onegai shimasu — "This one, please" (while pointing)
Okaikei onegai shimasu — "Check, please"
Oishikatta desu — "It was delicious" (staff love this)
Otearai wa doko desu ka? — "Where's the restroom?"

What if the menu is handwritten?

This is where it gets real: the best shops often have handwritten menus that no camera translator handles well. That's exactly why we built JapanMust's dish database — scan the menu and get what the dish actually is, not a word-for-word guess. And when even that fails, one tap asks the staff "Sumimasen, kore wa nan desu ka?" out loud for you.

Etiquette in 30 seconds