Japan Tour Day 1

We started our day with the amazing complimentary breakfast at our hotel, and then set off to the Shin-Yokohama Ramyun Museum. It was a little bit hard to find because it is down an alleyway and sandwiched between other establishments. However, the levitating chopsticks in a ramen bowl made it easier to find once we turned the corner. It was very small upstairs, but very interesting. There were lots of cool artifacts from an instant ramen display to a ramen bowl wall. There were even old ramen-themed items, like playing cards! There were large seats painted to look like ramen toppings, such as chashu, Naruto, and an egg.

In another room, there were small stations you could play with to mimic what it’s like to make ramen. There was a whole section where you could actually make your own ramen, but it required a reservation. I think my dad would have enjoyed this, but it looked quite labor-intensive and we were happy watching other people from the sideline. Something I noticed was there were even phone stands at the ramen making area so that you could film yourself!

Downstairs was the most stunning part of the entire museum. It was designed to look like a food district right at the end of sunset. It was absolutely stunning! You could buy ramen, ice cream, and other delicious food, but we had full stomachs and no desire to wait in long lines.

Next, we headed to meet our family friend, Yuko, to head to the Cup Noodle museum. Yes, I know, lots of ramen. My parents hadn’t seen her in over 20 years, which is when she spent Christmas with them at our house.

At the Cup Noodle museum, we made our own instant noodle cups for just 500 yen! First, you get the empty cup from a vending machine at the entrance of the workshop. Then, we got to draw our own design, watch the noodles get pushed inside, select three toppings, then watch it get plastic wrapped. We chose our 3 toppings ahead of time, but since he couldn’t read, he pointed to things assuming what they were before double checking with me—oh well! Hopefully he still likes his ramen. He thought that the peas were scallions and that the egg was corn, so his ramen is significantly different from what he originally planned lol.

Afterward, we saw another display of instant ramen, but this was an entire room! What was even cooler about this room was that it was actually a timeline of types of instant ramen. There were also categories by country, so ramen from the U.S. was there as well.

Once we finished up, we were getting hungry, so we headed to Chinatown for dim sum. The meal was splendid, and we chatted for a while. Yuko said this was her first group meal since COVID started, and we were very honoured that she made an exception for us.