For Shiraz

The basic foundation for everything Japanese that involves a sauce is:

Konbu dashi
Mirin
Sake
Sugar
Salt
Usually there's some soy sauce too, but not until the very end and then only on really low heat because otherwise the soy sauce burns and tastes yuck.

Shiraz, if you can't find these things on your own, next time I'm home, we can go to a Japanese market together and I'll show you.

I make my own ramen and it takes almost the same amount of time as it does to make the instant Sapporo Ichiban kind. I do everything by counting or just eyeing it, so I can't give too accurate of a recipe, but you'll get the basic structure here and then you can experiment to see what works for you. Here's the recipe:

Enough water to act as a soup base
1 packet konbu dashi powder
1 cube vegetable bouillon
4 counts mirin (approx)
4 counts sake (approx)
1 tsp sugar (approx)
.5 tsp salt (approx)
pepper to taste

Let this combo boil for a bit and make sure the dashi and the bouillon have dissolved. Then I usually add cubes of firm tofu. If you have cooked veggies handy already, you can throw those in too.

Add one packet of fresh ramen noodles.

Let cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Turn off heat and add soy sauce to taste (usually 3 or 4 passes around the pot from a table soy sauce dispenser - i think probably 2 counts if you're pouring from a bottle). Garnish with spicy or regular sesame oil and roasted sesame seeds. Bon app!

Sometimes I add instant curry mix after I put the noodles in to make Curry Ramen. Also, good to turn into a kind of Thai noodle soup by adding peanut butter and more spice (in this case, add p.b. before you add the noodles or tofu).