On August 10th, we took a day trip to Yokohama from Tokyo. It was our first time visiting! Even though Yokohama is close to Tokyo and can be reached by local train, we didn’t go to it during our first Japan trip two years ago.
Our first stop was the Ramen Museum, which was really less of a museum and more of a food theme park. The main attraction is the basement area that is a replica of Shitamachi (an area of Tokyo) around 1958, when ramen was becoming popular. Within this replica are 9 mini ramen restaurants that represent different regions of Japan.
Each one has a small menu, including a “mini” portion of ramen, so that you can try multiple places! Though they call it “mini”, it’s really not. We were soooo full after two of those portions and couldn’t do another. The first one we tried was the miso ramen from Sumire.
If you followed my Kyoto entries from two years ago, we went to Sumire in Kyoto, and the ramen we got there was amazing – easily one of our favorites. Though this one was good, it didn’t wow us like when we had it in Kyoto.
Then we tried the seafood-based miso ramen at Ryu Shanghai Honten, and wow, this one was surprisingly good. We were not expecting such depth of flavor from a seafood broth, but it was rich with a hint of citrus. Definitely a favorite in the trip.
From there, we took a train over to Nippon Maru Memorial Park to catch a Pikachu show! Yes, you heard right, a Pikachu show. We happened to be in Japan while the Pikachu festival was happening in Yokohama. It started a couple years ago to promote a Pokemon movie, and it’s become an annual thing. For a couple weeks, Yokohama hosts multiple Pikachu shows and events throughout the city.
The one we saw was a Captain Pikachu dance. It was so adorable. I won’t say more. Just take a look at my photos and videos 😉
I chose this one because it was close to our next destination, the Cup Noodle Museum! Unlike the Ramen Museum, this one was really more like a museum. We actually learned a lot about how instant ramen and cup noodle came to be, and we got to see the different instant ramen that were released through the years.
You can also create your own cup noodle, but unfortunately, we got there too late and all the tickets were sold out. We still wanted to check out the museum though, and it contains a lot of displays that encourage you to be creative and think outside of the box. It was with this kind of thinking that Momofuku Ando figured out how to make instant noodles. He got the idea from his wife frying tempura, and thus, the noodles are lightly fried and dried out before packaged.
After that, we were pretty tired and headed back to Tokyo. My next Japan entry will be my last one! I’m pretty excited to write about it because it will be about the Ghibli Museum 😀 Stay tuned for it later!
Ahhhh those pikachus are the cutest!! Also your ramen looks delicious I wish I had some rn haha
i’m drooling at the ramen. it’s been some time ever since i ate ramen so this post of yours make me really want to eat ramen ugh especially a tonkotsu one.
aww it’s too bad you couldn’t create your own cup noodle. it’s such an interesting museum but the “create your own cup noodle” is really the part that i really, really wanna try! i’d be sad if i didn’t make it haha
omg you also went to ghibli museum! *o* you’re so lucky 😀
PIKACHUS! PIKACHUS everywhere! Now, I definitely want ramen~! Yummy!
When I hear about people’s posts/videos about Japan, they’re always so interesting because Japan seems like it has so many fun places to explore! It looks like you had a lot of fun. The main attraction of the Ramen Museum sounds really interesting! I like how they incorporate their own history, while allowing for some taste-testing at the same time.
Excited to read about your experience at the Ghibli Museum!
The Ramen looks so good! How interesting, a Ramen museum. It looks incredible. Ahh, I love Pikachu! So cute! That dance. 😀 The displays, the views. Japan still has my heart, I still want to visit someday. 😀
AWW! I love the pikachus taking over the stage, certainly looks like the ideal world I’d like to live in! Haha!
i love Ramen, this post has got me craving for asian food! youre lucky to have experienced it straight from asia where the food is undoubtably more awesome 😉
Yokohama! I should really venture out there the next time I’m in Tokyo because it is, like you said, close by 😀 Good you were able to check it out this time.
This was a ramen-filled day! I love seeing the ramen you ate and the cup ramen museum made me smile! I’m not big on museum, but I’d totally go to that one if I’m there. Shame you didn’t get to make your own cup ramen, but perhaps that’s something you can attempt again if you ever return ^_^
I love how there are so many themed museums/parks/shops out in Japan! Ramen + me = food coma all day every day XD. It’s cool how this museum houses different styles of ramen. They all look delicious! With Pokemon Go being a big hit, I wouldn’t mind seeing more Pokemon events out there XD. I’ve seen videos on Facebook about being able to make your own instant ramen cup! There’s no way instant ramen will go out of business anytime soon xD. When you mentioned Ghibli Museum, I somehow thought it was about the Maserati Ghibli X’D.
Wow, good thing I just ate or this would have made me drool with hunger. That set up for the Ramen Museum looked pretty cool. I might not have known it was inside a building if you hadn’t have said.
The Pikachu’s lol. My friend would have cried seeing that. She really dislikes seeing mascot stuff – no matter how cute it is. lol
The Ramen Museum and the Cup Noodle Museum sound very interesting. Well I like all kinds of museums but it’s really intriguing because I’ve never visited food-related museums before! Lol! I would love to learn how they got the idea for creating instant noodles because I never really thought about how this idea came about or how they make these products. I’m very interested 🙂
Eeeeep I love that Pikachu show! I would go there too and squeal my heart out because of all those cute Pikachu dancing onstage~
Oh my goodness, I am adding the ramen ‘museum’ and cup noodle museum to my list of places to go! I love finding Japan recommendations through your posts. 😉 I think the ramen museum would make me pretty full too – I don’t exactly have a huge stomach. 😛 I love your photos of the ramen though, they look so classy.
Fancy getting to see a Pikachu show while you were there! I don’t think I can handle all the Pikachu… haha!
I love the look of that cup museum! Shame you didn’t get to make your own. But I think the history must surely have been intriguing. I had cup noodles today. Actually, mine was in a large-sized cup that was more like a bowl. ?