On Saturday Megan and I ventured over to the Cup Ramen Noodles Museum in Osaka. At the museum they had a brief overview of the history of Cup Noodles and where they began. Everything was in Japanese of course, but they had staff that spoke English and there were headphone guides in English that customers could get as well. Megan opted for the headphones while I went off of the Japanese that I know.
The museum had constructed a replica of the tiny shack where Momofuku Ando first began making the original chicken flavored ramen in 1958. One wall of the museum was filled with every single Cup Ramen Noodle ever made and was organized by year. The wall of ramen even reached up to the ceiling and viewers had to crane their necks in order to see all of the ramen. While looking through all of the different styles of noodle cups, I noticed that the ones in America seemed to be based off of the ones from the 70′s and haven’t progressed since then. But, this makes sense since the deal between Momofuku and the United States to sell Cup Noodles in America was in 1971.
On the other side of that same room there were interactive doors for kids to guess what was inside of the door before opening it. The last door had a replica of the first cup ramen noodle vending machine.
The next room contained a little factory for people to make their own cup noodle. First, those who wanted to make their own cup noodles, had to purchase a cup from the vending machine, which were 300 yen (around $2). After that, there were tables for everyone to decorate their cup noodles container. Again, the orderliness of the Japanese people could be witnessed at this station, especially since the museum was quite full while we were there.
The staff positioned at the vending machine station would ask the customer how many people were in the group. They would then relay this to the staff member located with the drawing tables and then that staff member would find the party a seating arrangement that would work for them at a table. In America, it would be every man for himself and things would get pretty hectic.
Once everyone in the group was done decorating their cup, they would move on to the actual “factory” part of the museum where everyone picked out the flavors and broth that they wanted in their ramen. Everyone was allowed four different flavors out of a selection of around twelve. For my ramen I chose the standard broth of chicken, but there were also the options of seafood and chili tomato. There were various options for ingredients ranging from green beans to shrimp. For mine I chose kimchi, green onion, cheese, and crab. If I had to do it over again I wouldn’t choose the cheese since it didn’t seem to add too much to the flavoring.
In the adjacent room to the left there was a small cafeteria with vending machines full of different Cup Noodles that people could either eat there or take with them. The Cup Noodles in this room were rare and only regional kinds that normally people wouldn’t be able to find in Osaka. I’m not entirely sure what the one I chose was since it had kanji on it that I didn’t know, but it was pretty delicious.
In addition to these attractions, the third floor of the museum was a place where people could make their own ramen, starting with the fresh dough and kneading it themselves. Once the noodles are made, everyone can take home the freshly made ramen. The fourth floor of the museum had an interactive factory for kids to walk through and play with. It also housed a “Noodle Bazaar” where people could eat different types of freshly made ramen from all across the world. Megan and I didn’t have time for these two floors since the museum closed at 4pm, but if I ever come again I would definitely visit these two floors.
Later in the day, after we had visited the museum, Megan and I set out for Dotonbori, which is another huge tourist attraction. It is an outdoor mall full of various restaurants and tons of gift shops. Here we stopped at a ramen shop and ate true ramen rather than instant ramen.
This particular ramen restaurant used a ticket system where the customer first ordered the ramen of their choice from a ticket machine. When they entered the shop they would then give the tickets to one of the chefs and the chef in turn would then find a seat for them. Then the only thing left to do is wait for the ramen to be ready.
Almost every ramen restaurant in Japan is situated in a bar-like fashion. The kitchen is in the center and the counter that people eat at surrounds the kitchen with adjoining bar stools. This makes it easier and quicker for the chef to serve the ramen to the customer. It also provides entertainment for the customer since they can watch the chefs make the ramen while they wait.
One thing that I found humorous while eating at the shop was that every time a customer would come in, the chef assigned to helping the customers would say in Japanese something similar to “Customer greeting!” and all of the other chefs would then say “Irasshaimase!”.
For my bowl of ramen I chose the “koreanized” version of ramen, which had kimchi and almost a pound of green onions on top. Kimchi added to any kind of soup or stew tastes really delicious because it adds so much more flavoring to the broth and just a hint of spiciness. It was some of the best ramen that I have ever had.
While at Dotonburi I also bought a couple of things. There was one store completely dedicated to omiyage and other things of that nature that had tons of little trinkets and food items related to Kyoto and Osaka. Omiyage are gifts that one gives when visiting another person’s home or when they are thankful for someone doing a favor for them. Omiyage are not just random items that one picks up at a store, it can be, but normally they are specially packaged gifts of a single type of food. At one store they had omiyage of Osakan cheesecake and one of special Osakan cookies. Also, omiyage are not bought for one’s own pleasures. I guess you could buy them for yourself, but don’t tell anybody. Sometimes I’m tempted to do that because the items used in omiyage cannot be found in regular supermarkets and stores.
While at these types of stores, I bought giant rainbow pocky that had pocky of seven different flavors for each color of the rainbow: chocolate, vanilla, matcha, grape, strawberry, banana, and melon. The melon ones were by far the best flavor. In addition, I also bought Geisha-themed bandaids that are adorable. Japan also likes to make all different kinds of decorative erasers, so I bought two packs of erasers with a tea set theme. It was an expensive day for me.
That concludes the fourth day of our trip and I will write about the last day tomorrow!
