Instant ramen needs no introduction—as an unemployed student, I had my share of periods where it served as my favorite cheap and tasty snack in lieu of a proper meal—but I had honestly never spent too much time considering when, why, or how it came to be before our first trip to Japan. Enter the CupNoodles Museums!
There are two locations: Yokohama and Osaka. There are some differences between the two, so it’s worth looking into it before making a decision (or visit both for a comparison! In retrospect, I wish we’d done that). Spread out over four stories, Yokohama’s is much larger, and possibly because of its location right across from the World Porters mall, it’s also much more popular (Osaka’s isn’t in a tourist area—we were the only non-Japanese people), and there’s an admission fee of ¥500, while Osaka’s is free. Both have tasting rooms, but Yokohama’s is a proper food court with a sampling of noodles from different countries, while Osaka’s is specialized on instant ramen, and only has vending machines with the original chicken ramen as well as rare and limited edition flavors on offer. Yokohama has more art, while Osaka is more history-focused (it’s worth noting that Osaka, the one we went to, is the original location, in walking distance from the Ikeda metro station, in the area where the noodles were invented), but you can make your own custom cup noodles (as well as chicken ramen from scratch) at both museums.
The historical exhibit chronicling the invention of instant noodles and the industry’s growth was unfortunately only available in Japanese (I’m not sure if the Yokohama location caters to international tourists more by providing translations), so I had to look it up after the fact: Momofuku Ando, who, at the time, was running a small family-business producing salt, set out to produce cost-effective noodles to counter the shortage of food that was plaguing Japan in the post-war era.
After many months of trial and error to perfect his flash-frying technique (a faithful recreation of Ando’s work shed is exhibited at both locations), he marketed his first package of pre-cooked instant ramen in 1958. It was originally available in chicken flavor, and considered a luxury item costing around six times more than traditional noodles—mass-production has obviously changed this, and instant chicken ramen now retails for around one third of the price of the cheapest noodles in a restaurant. Over a decade after the initial invention, in 1971, Ando’s new business, Nissin, found world-wide popularity with his invention of cup noodles—instant ramen that came in a styrofoam container you could directly pour hot water into.
The first thing that’ll catch your eye once you enter the Osaka museum is the photogenic Instant Ramen Tunnel, a curved wall displaying a timeline of about 800 packages showcasing the evolution and variety of products marketed by Nissin since 1958 (in Yokohama it’s a room, so you’re surrounded by the products on every side). We went directly to the My CupNoodles Factory, which allows you to create your own noodles to take home! One side of the factory room has an exhibit showing the worldwide popularization of instant noodles by using varieties from around the world, as well as annual consumption figures in different countries.
My CupNoodles Factory was a super fun activity, and actually the main reason why we wanted to visit the museum. You begin by purchasing an empty cup from a vending machine (¥300, cash only) and finding a spot on one of the many tables in the large factory area. Every table is equipped with markers, and you’re free to draw and color the plain cup however you want! I wasn’t very creative, and ended up drawing the Nissin mascot, a duck, with a chocolate chip cookie beret. You have to add the date of your visit, and you’re supposed to eat it within a month.
Once you’re happy with your design, you proceed to the actual “factory” part of the experience, where your cup is passed from hand to hand and assembled from a selection of ingredients you can mix and match according to your taste! There are four bases to choose from, you get to pick four toppings from twelve varieties, and they will shrink-wrap it for you at the end of the process. We ate our creations exactly a month later, and even though they didn’t look appetizing at all, my curry-based cup noodles were the best instant ramen I’ve ever had—I wished I’d taken home more than just one cup!
We then took a quick walk through the museum to make sure we hadn’t missed any cool exhibits, and came across a workshop where people were making their own instant ramen noodles from scratch, going through the entire process of kneading, spreading, steaming, seasoning, and drying the wheat flour with Ando’s flash frying method. I wish we’d known about it ahead of our visit, because it sounds like even more fun! The workshop lasts about 90 minutes, costs ¥500, and requires advance reservations—I’d like to visit the Yokohama location on a future Japan trip, and this is definitely on my list of activities.
watercolorstain 