Attractions

Cupnoodles Museum, Yokohama

10 June 2014

I finally got to visit the cup noodle museum after so long! Fu & I attempted to visit it once a couple of years ago, but due to uh, erroneous information, we ended up at the Ramen Museum instead -___-

I didn’t get the address from the official website, so I didn’t get to see the pictures of fresh ramen plastered all over. Since we’re in Japan and all, I naturally assumed ramen = instant ramen in the cup. How I know right -___-

So annoying, Japan so big, why are both museums about noodles squeezed into Yokohama :G

So don’t make the same mistake as I did! (although it’s highly unlikely that anyone else would… =__=)

Anyway, the reason why I wanted to visit the museum is so that I could…

MAKE MY OWN INSTANT CUP NOODLES!!! :D

Each cup costs 300 yen, which is on top of the museum admission fee of 500 yen.

So many people making their own instant cup noodles!

After buying our individual cups from the vending machine, we proceeded to decorate the cup!

Our finished designs! Zhen did one with images from her trip and it was super cute! Nike and Adidas logos are there because she’s crazy about their merchandise. Even made me travel to faraway outlet malls so she could buy their stuff -_-||

After placing the noodles in, it’s time to select the soup base and ingredients!

Egg, cheddar cheese, shrimp and cute hiyoko mascot fishcake pieces with a seafood base for me! (the lady was so cute; she held out my cup for me to take a photo before she sealed it lol)

After vacuuming sealing the cup, it’s placed in an inflatable bag for protection (and cuteness)!

I’ll be honest, I wanted to visit the museum solely for the novelty of personalizing my own instant cup noodles.

However, as I explored the museum, learning about the history of the cup noodles and how it came to be, I was quite surprised to find that it is actually very interesting.

The year instant noodles was born

Instant noodles through the decades

At World Noodles Road, where noodles from all over the world are gathered

Look, there’s laksa! (amongst many others)

After learning more about the history, I was deeply moved and inspired by the tenacity, creativity and passion of Ando Momofuku, the father of instant noodles.

He overcame many difficulties in the process of creating instant ramen through creativity. His passion was so strong that he never stopped thinking about how to improve it, and in fact was still bringing it to new heights (literally, since he invented it so that it can be eaten in space lol) as the CEO at the ripe old age of 95!!!

The entire museum is presented in a creative way and extremely thought-provoking. I’m glad that I left the place with more than my personalized noodles snuggled in the inflatable bag. (although it’s still cute!)

Some interesting souvenirs we saw on our way out:

Cupnoodles matryoshka! The 6th and last one is so tiny you might have trouble spotting it!

Super cute memo note that folds into the shape of a cup noodle, complete with lid and all!

People who are visiting Tokyo can stop by this interesting museum in Yokohama! It’s just takes just 30-40mins from Central Tokyo to reach this place!

Yokohama is a beautiful port city and it’s one of our favorite places to unwind and relax!

Click image to open full panorama view!

 


 

CUPNOODLES MUSEUM

Website: http://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/english

 


6 Comments

  • Reply Ashe 11 June 2014 at 6:46 pm

    I visited the one in Ikeda, Osaka instead of Yokoyama.

    I have to say, the scale looks smaller as I did not see a Laksa booth.
    I did however saw the personalised ramen and the queue as well!! It’s even longer than a python! So we gave up but reading your post made me regret that decision…

    • Reply Rin 11 June 2014 at 8:51 pm

      Ahh, we went on a weekday and although there were a lot of people already seated and decorating their cup, there wasn’t a queue at all.

      It’s definitely an interesting experience, but for tourists short on time, a long queue is definitely a turn-off.

      Were there other noodle stores though?

      • Reply Ashe 13 June 2014 at 11:43 am

        Not that I see of.. There’s a line of vending machines selling special Ramen from other districts through. You simply go up to the one you want, pay and get it out of the vending machine, then proceed to a corner to add the hot water.

        It’s delicious though, the one we had : http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/cheekyimp/Ramen.jpg

        • Reply Rin 14 June 2014 at 5:25 pm

          Interesting! I don’t recall seeing any ramen vending machines, so they may have installed them in place of the fresh noodle stalls that Yokohama has.

          Good that you at least got to eat some delicious ramen ;)

  • Reply zhen 20 June 2014 at 3:50 pm

    I ATE MY CUPPU NOODLES YESTERDAY!! I kept the cup tho, I couldn’t bear to throw it away >_<'

    • Reply Rin 21 June 2014 at 1:53 am

      I ate mine earlier this week! I threw it cause it’s argleeee. I would keep yours too though! :D

    Leave a Reply