Sano ramen: what it is, where it is from and what a bowl costs

From

Sano, Tochigi

Soup

clear soy sauce

Noodles

aotake-uchi (kneaded with a green bamboo pole)

Also

made with good local spring water

Checked

18 October 2026, Tochigi Prefecture

• Tochigi Prefecture says Sano ramen is a local ramen eaten widely around Sano City.
• Its noodles are made by aotake-uchi, stretching the dough with a green bamboo pole.
• The soup is a clear, light soy-sauce base.

The government's retail price survey records the price of a bowl of chuka soba (ramen) at ordinary shops every month in 81 cities. In August 2026 it was 647 yen in Utsunomiya (capital of Tochigi), 67 of 81 from the highest. Tokyo's 23 wards were 620 yen, 73 of 81, so ramen in Tokyo is not more expensive than in most cities. This is an average of the shops in the survey, not the price at a famous shop.

The survey does not cover Sano, so this is the price in Tochigi's capital, Utsunomiya.

Spending on eating out at ramen shops

13,592 yen a year per household in Utsunomiya (2023–2025 average; 4 of 52 cities; Japan 8,752 yen)

Ramen shops

542 in Tochigi in 2016, 27.6 per 100,000 people (2 of 47; Japan 14.3)

Spending is from the household survey of two-or-more-person households in 52 large cities, so it is the city's number, not the prefecture's. Ramen shops are the 2016 Economic Census count of businesses classified as ramen shops; some ramen shops are counted with Chinese restaurants, so the real number is higher. Per-person numbers divide by the 2016 population (our calculation).