Ramen restaurant clusters in Japan: Geographical variety, locational lore, and evolutionary characteristics.

Ramen noodle shops are Japan's most popular category of restaurant. Yet within this ubiquitous, diverse, and highly competitive segment of the dining sector, particular clusters of restaurants stand out. These agglomerations are known as ramen gekisenku-ramen restaurant fierce battle zones. Through an examination of ramen-specific media and maps (magazines, comics, food blogs, university student handbooks, etc.) the paper classifies these clusters into three types: i) regional ramen-style agglomerations typical of small cities; ii) metropolitan neighbourhoods with concentrated diverse clusters of restaurants; and iii) purposely planned ramen theme parks. Each type has different morphological characteristics with divergent potentials for variation, innovation, and evolution. The paper argues that ramen's variety is a product of its geography, while suggesting that the circulation of place-based vernacular ramen knowledge, in the form of lore, stories, and other geographic cues sustains its capacity for innovation, most noticeably in the crucible of metropolitan ramen clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]