Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish of Chinese origin. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a broth; common flavors are soy sauce and miso, with typical toppings including sliced pork , nori, menma, and scallions. Ramen has its roots in Chinese noodle dishes and is a part of Japanese Chinese cuisine. Nearly every region in Japan has its own variation of ramen, such as the tonkotsu ramen of Kyushu and the miso ramen of Hokkaido.
Shōyu ramen
From Seiichi Yoshida, How to Prepare Delicious and Economical Chinese Dishes (1928).
Rairaiken (来々軒), the first ramen shop, founded in 1910 by Kan'ichi Ozaki in Asakusa, Tokyo. The signs advertise "Chinese soba" (支那蕎麥) and "Guangdong cuisine" (廣東料理).
A bowl of ramen from the second Rairaiken in Yūtenji, opened in 1933 by Fu Xinglei (傅興雷), one of the twelve Chinese cooks from the first Rairaiken store in Asakusa
Nori (海苔) is a dried edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, usually made from species of the red algae genus Pyropia, including P. yezoensis and P. tenera. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is generally made into flat sheets and used to wrap rolls of sushi or onigiri.
Nori sheets
Toasting nori sheets in Shinagawa, print by Hiroshige, 1864
Nori being dried on racks, 1921
Women gathering nori, print by Hiroshige, 1849