Cup Noodles Museum Yokohama

Cup Noodles is one of the most popular instant foods: put hot water in the cup, wait around 3 minutes, and you have delicious noodle soup. It is really convenient for people who are very busy every day.

There is Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama, you can follows the history of instant noodles with interactive exhibits, modern art and hands on experiences. Opened in 1994, Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum was the first Ramen Museum in the world. The museum is designed to conjure images of Tokyo in the 1950s, when Ramen became wide spread. They have eight ramen vendors inside the museum representing different areas from Sapporo to Fukuoka. 

There you can also learn about the life and thinking of Momofuku Ando (1910 – 2007), the father of instant ramen, who established Nissin Food Products and invented Chicken Ramen and Cup Noodles. You can even create your own variation of cup noodles with the tastes you like most.

Exhibition

First you enter , there is a big room that displays how Chicken Ramen evolved over the years into many different products. You can view over 3,000 products, mostly from Japan, but some from other countries too.

Then you can go to Momofuku Theater to watch a funny animated movie about the development of instant ramen, and tell the story of how Momofuku Ando overcame great adversity to achieve inventions of worldwide importance. Staff members will give foreigners audio guides with the movie interpreted into English.

Later, at the Creative Thinking Boxes you can explore Momofuku Ando’s curiosity and creative thinking in many interesting and funny ways. Linked to the Momofuku Ando story presented in an expansive 58-meter long panorama that combines images from his life and times and endearing illustrations, you can follow the footsteps of an entire life dedicated to the idea of creating food.

Student from elementary school and junior high school can go to the Chicken Ramen Factory. Here they make Chicken Ramen by hand and you can understand the process that led to the invention of instant ramen, and you can take your self-made Chicken Ramen with you. A reservation in advance is necessary.

On CUP NOODLES Factory, you can create your own completely original CUPNOODLES package. In a cup that you design personally, then select your favorite soup from among four varieties and four toppings from among 12 ingredients. Altogether, there are 5,460 flavor combinations.

There is also a food court that serves noodle dishes from around the world like an Asian night market.

Inventions

On the year of 1958, In a little shed behind his home in the town of Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, Momofuku started work, he wanted to find a way for people to make ramen quickly at home by adding only hot water. He worked alone, sleeping only four hours a night and without a day off for an entire year. Chicken Ramen, the product of many trial and error experiments, was dubbed "magic ramen" and became an instant popular sensation.

On a fact finding trip to America in 1971, Momofuku observes supermarket managers breaking up Chicken Ramen noodles, putting them in a cup, pouring in hot water, and then eating them with a fork. It was then that Momofuku realized that moving past conceptions about how we eat was the key to making instant ramen a global food. By bringing together all sorts of wisdom and innovative ideas, CUPNOODLES transformed "made in Japan" instant ramen into a global food.

And lastly, pursuing his long held dream to invent a ramen that can be eaten in space, Momofuku started work on Space Ramen. Along with applying various techniques for eating in weightless environments, Space Ramen is based on the hot oil instant drying method that Momofuku invented in 1958. With Space Ramen, Momofuku's creative thinking transcended the bounds of earth to contribute to creating food that people can eat even in space.

Image @ ColabCubed & cupnoodles-museum