Making my own cup noodles at the Nissin Cup Noodle Museum was one of the most anticipated activity and place of visit in my recent trip to Tokyo since the trip was for my cousin and I had planned most of the itinerary around her preference.
Along with my Japanese friend Dolphin-san, the three of us head down to Yokohama (which is also Dolphin-san’s hometown) and spent an afternoon there learning about Nissin Cup Noodle’s history, how the inventor came to solve a problem (isn’t almost all inventions were there to solve a problem) to now being a coverted favourite food of many people worldwide (including myself, guilty~)
Approaching Cup Noodles Museum
The Cup Noodles Museum Building
Giant Cup Noodle Paper Lantern
Cup Noodle Art Sculpture
Inside the Museum
The museum itself consist of an exhibition gallery, the Momofuku theater that shows how the inventor Momofuku Ando invented instant noodle and his experience of creating the Nissin brand, the “My Nissin Cup Noodle Factory” area where you get to DIY your instant cup noodles and the top level which sells other types of ramen around the world as well as the famous Instant Noodle soft serve ice cream.
I did not manage to take a slow walk within the galleries, which was quite a waste; as we were rushing to meet our time for the DIY noodle session.
Inside the Inventor’s hut
Display of instant cup noodle cup design
My fail selfie inside the display gallery
DIY Nissin Cup Noodles
The highlight of the trip would definitely be the DIY customised instant cup noodle experience. Each participant will only be allowed to buy one cup each.
The staff tried very politely to tell us that (I was lucky to have my Japanese friend with us to ask them in Japanese) and seeing that there were soooooooo many other Japanese there as well, we decided to just stick to their rules.
Queuing for our turn to make our DIY cup noodles!
The process was pretty simple by following everyone else. First dispense a cup from the vending machine, wash your hands then the staff will direct you to an empty table where you can start decorating the cup.
Step 1: Cup Vending Machine
Step 2: wash your hands
Step 3: Decorate your cup!
The exciting portion of the experience was we got to choose the ingredients that goes into the cup. We got to mix and match the soup base and the toppings in the cup to make our very own unique flavour.
Since I love Seafood flavour soup, I took the seafood flavour soup and other toppings, which you can check out on my Nissin Cup Noodle Review video.
Step 4: Choose your ingredients!
Check out the whole Nissin Cup Noodle DIY experience in this video I have created!
Chicken Ramen Workshop
There is also another workshop that specifically made Chicken Ramen, which was the first product created by Mr. Momofuku Ando. That Chicken Ramen workshop needed upfront reservations which I only found out later on. Thus it is not covered in this post.
However, if you wish to register for the Chicken Ramen workshop, you can call them
Chicken Ramen Factory reservations: 045-345-0825 (Reception hours: 10:00-18:00, holidays excluded)
It was mentioned in the brochure that it has an online reservation route, but I could not find it, so get your hotel concierge to give them a call is the safest bet.
It is a 90 minutes workshop with 8 timeslots throughout the day:
10:15am, 11:00am, 11:45am, 1:15pm; 2:00pm; 2:45pm; 3:30pm and 4:15pm.
Here is the review on my customised Nissin Cup Noodles!
Besides the Nissin Cup Noodle Museum, Dolphin-san also took us around Yokohama bay area which has many other interesting sights and shopping, which I will try to cover them all in another blog post. Thank you Dolphin-san for showing me and my cousin around Yokohama!
Overall
I definitely want to head back there again. The whole experience was definitely fun and I got to bring home a DIY cup noodle made by myself!! As we did not spend a lot of time (since we were there in the late afternoon, I want to go back and slowly walk through the museum and spend more time slowly exploring the exhibits. Despite the language barrier and the heavy Japanese crowd inside the museum, I still wanna go again. I also want to try the Chicken Ramen Workshop!!! It is a interesting place not to be missed in Yokohama!
CUPNOODLES MUSEUM (formal name: Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum)
Address: 2-3-4 Shinko, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-0001 Japan
Telephone: 045-345-0918
Museum hours: 10:00-18:00 (last admission 17:00)
Holidays: Tuesdays (when Tuesday is a holiday, closed the following day), year end / new year holidays
Website: http://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/english
Admission to the Museum:
Adults: 500 yen (tax included)
high school age children and younger: Free
Chicken Ramen Workshop:
Junior high school and adults: 500 yen (tax included)
Elementary School children: 300 yen (tax included)
Participants will receive a Hiyoko-chan souvenir bandana.
DIY Nissin Cup Noodles: 300 yen per cup.
You pay for it at the vending machine, not at the reception counter.
How to get there:
My route:
As it was Dolphin-san who took us around, we took a train from Shinjukusanchome station to Yokohama station and walk towards Nissin Cup Noodle Museum, after a few other stopovers in between.
I will not discuss further on how my route to get there because it was pretty complicated and the routes changes with time because of the different trains along that line.
It is best to refer to a real-time train guide or even google maps (they have pretty accurate public transport guide) to maneuver your way down to Yokohama.
By Train:
8 minute walk from the Minatomirai line Minatomirai Station
8 minute walk from the Minatomirai line Bashamichi Station
12 minute walk from the JR/Shieichikatetsu Sakuragicho Station
By Bus:
Near to the Tourist spot round-trip bus Akai kutsu bus Kokusaibashi CUPNOODLES MUSEUM-mae stop
3 minute walk from the Minatomirai 100 yen bus World Porters stop
*The Minatomirai 100 yen bus runs only on weekends and holidays.
By car:
5 minutes from the Minatomirai interchange of the Kanagawa Route 1 Yokohane Line
More stories soon,
Wow! I didn’t know such a factory exists… and that queue line, haha!
Your customised cup noodles looks too cute to be eaten, the chick fishcakes are adorable!!
Too bad I didn’t know about this noodle museum. Who would have thought this was such a popular tourist destination. Will try to go there if we go to Tokyo again.
This is such a fun experience, no doubt about it. It’s not everyday that you get the chance to make your own cup noodles. I don’t really like eating processed food and the like, but cup noodles is something that I used to enjoy. It’s definitely worth giving a try especially since it’s a rare experience.
It’s obvious your country is blessed with varieties of fun destinations. That’s a first on the customized cup noodles.
I jus had nissin cup noodles for breakfast today. Really good! Wow what a lovely experience to create your own customised noodles.
It’s really a good idea, and experience, you can try to mix up ingredients that you might be looking for but is not normally available in stores.
ive heard about this and i want to go one day. who doesn’t love nissin cup noodle??? hahaa
Creamy nice and that’s a first on a customized cup noodles. Sound like a good strategy for branding.
This is such a unique event to participate and attend to. We definitely need more inspiring designs of Nissin cup noodles. Those with character faces look so cute.
That looks super fun! I’ve always loved Nissin Seafood Cup Noodles, so I might make my DIY one with that soup base. It really looks like a instant noodle fan’s happy haven.
The last time I went to Yokohama I missed out this, would make a trip to this museum on my next trip.
A whole museum dedicated to cup noodles sounds really interesting. I love the DIY activity they have and I agree with you, attending the ramen workshop would have made your trip better. I’d like to try that myself when I visit Tokyo.
So much fun to see the actual operations that go behind the scene for a noodle factory. Glad that you got an opportunity to explore it. Your DIY noodles look perfect.
It is looking so lovely and interesting to see a cup noodle museum where you eat too.
It is looking so lovely and interesting to see a cup noodle museum where you eat too. I really like the concept.
Noodle musuem??? Make your own cup noodles???? That’s incredible.. Very interesting. I love cup noodles. Survived college days with it!!
My daughter would love to tour this museum. As a matter of fact, so would my son. They love these noodles and my daughter calls it her college food.
Looks like you had a lot of fun while customising our noodle cup. This is a very creative ideas from the marketing perspective.