Tucked away in a quiet shopping district in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, an American is fulfilling an unlikely ambition.
"I wanted to make ramen," Ivan Orkin said. "Real ramen."
Orkin, a native of Syosset, N.Y., became interested in Japanese culture after working in a Japanese restaurant back home at the age of 16. He majored in Japanese in college and came to Tokyo in 1987 after graduation.