Big in Japan: An Ode to Ramen (Part I)

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Dear Editor,

Great article, but I'd like to point out an error...

"Ramen (rāmen, ラーメン, らーめん or 拉麺)" is wrong. Its not "rāmen" but infact "lāmen". The phonetic spelling uses an "L" because when writing Japanese in the english (roman character) form, "R" is pronounced "L". Its a common mistake with many people who don't know the language and causes confusion when translating and speaking. For example, the word "Rice" would end up sounding like "Lice", which becomes a problem for Japanese who travel outside Japan and attempt to order "rice" and are unable to pronounce the "r" sound.

Other than that, very nice article.

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