many of them reduce labor costs by having a vending machine outside where you get a token that indicates your order.
https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-asakusa/a...
The current ramen fad in America relies on super rich broth, basically liquid bacon.
There are many styles of ramen in Japan, ranging from super simple broths to the liquid bacon style.
Seasoning: sea salt (shio), soy sauce (shoyu) and miso
Thickness is a spectrum ending with: kotteri (thick) and assari (light)
Now, how to pick a light broth? This will be highly context dependent. Most shops in Tokyo where I'm living right now are specialists so research will show you upfront whether it's tonkotsu (heavy pork), chicken paitan (heavy chicken), hakodate (light fish), tonkotsu-gyokai (blend of pork and fish).
If you're in Japan, I recommend the Ramen Beast app which has location based recommendations, high quality reviews and lists for lighter ramen.
If you're in NY and looking for a lighter bowl: I can vouch for most of the bowls at Nakamura, the yuzu shoyu at Mr. Taka, and all of the bowls at Yuji Ramen.
This is not to say that e.g. Sapporo only has Sapporo-style ramen or Fukuoka only has Hakata-style ramen, but the names describe where the style is perceived to have originated from.
The water is slightly muddied (no pun intended...) by techniques like "double soups", i.e. mixing multiple soups in the same bowl. In some cases a chintan might be mixed with a paitan, etc.