★★ らあめん花月 (Kagetsu) - Narita Airport

Kagetsu is a large ramen chain store with over 100 stores all over Japan. Recently they opened a shop in Narita International Airport. Located on the 5F of terminal one, if you are flying out of Narita to North America then you could give Kagetsu a try. I ordered their most popular dish the ニンニクげんこつラーメン (garlic pork bone ramen).

The Soup - is a very rich pork bone soup, mixed a broth from shiitake mushrooms and other vegetables. The soup is flavorful with little of the strong pork bone smell. A simple, less sophisticated version of tonkotsu (pork bone) soup, but still delicious none the less. The soup is quite oily, which is quite normal when compared to other tonkotsu soups.

The Noodles - are thin straight noodles cooked firm.

The Toppings - as standard as they get. Cha-shu pork, menma bamboo, nori dried seaweed, diced spring onions and an boiled egg. Nothing outstanding, but not bad for a large chain store, and really quite good for airport food!

Overall - I would recommend this place to people who haven't tried a lot of Hakata style tonkotsu ramen. Hakata ramen can have the strong smell in the soup or ultra firm, hard noodles that can turn some people away. Kagetsu's ramen is a pretty reserved version, maybe they had to in order to appeal to a wider audience. Kagetsu has over 100 chain stores in Japan so they must be doing something right.

Give them a try before your next flight! Just keep in mind that you might be sitting in a plane for over 10 hours after eating the bowl of ramen...

http://www.kagetsu.co.jp/gyoutai/tora/index.html
http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/whats_new/060511_1.html