We love our Maggi Mee and any other instant noodles. I think they have saved my life so far otherwise I would have either burnt my kitchen and house down or plain starved to death one night long time ago. (Like maybe now?! Damn super hungry can...)
So anyways, in Osaka, we decided to go to The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum. I've been to the Shinyokohama Raumen Museum in Yokohama before and googled the alternative in Osaka. (Aside - the Shinyokohama one is superb. The basement houses a selection of Japan's yummiest ramen and you get to try all of them in one fell swoop. I figure the Iluma concept is based on this? The Shinyokohama one also has a good selection of souvenirs like the awesome ramen biscuit which I can't remember the name of.) Granted instant ramen ain't the same as ramen, but the online info and reviews looked interesting, so off we went.
We headed down to the museum on a Sunday, and there were so many children. The museum has the history of instant ramen and some exhibits on display, but alas, we don't understand Japanese so we were like headless chickens. But the main draw of the museum is actually the cup noodles that you can design yourself ~ from the cup packaging to the soup base and ingredients that go in. However, with the crowd that day, the museum limited each visitor to only 1 cup noodle creation. Boo. On the flip side, Heidi of course counts as one so we got 3 cups :)
The not very welcoming facade of the museum. Inside was a different planet.
Part of the display was the different instant noodles over the years. I like!
We were quite amazed at this ~ the instant noodles have gone to space!
After touring the place and not knowing what we were viewing, we decided to just get our cup noodles. Check out that psychotic queue!
Thankfully the instructions were in English, so we got our bearings right. The museum staff also had a placard with instructions in English (Chinese and Korean as well) to inform tourists of what to do, e.g. wash your hands before the start of everything, write today's date on the cup, consume within 1 month, etc.
After purchasing an empty cup, visitors head to the seating area to design theirs. There are plenty of markers as well as staff-designed cups littered around the area to get your creative juices flowing.
Love this shot of the giraffe themed design. In the background, ZX is carrying Heidi and she is holding a previously chewed Sophie the Giraffe ;) The chicken is kinda like the museum's mascot.
Unfortunately, a hungry baby is an angry baby so we had to make Heidi's milk and feed her while also designing the cups. With the swelling queue, we chop-chopped and mainly prose-ed our way through. That green wording on the left cup reads 'Heidi' ~ I held her hand to write her name! There are some other drawings around the other side of the cup but you can't see it here. OK, mainly we ain't very creative. There, I said it. Moving on...
ZX entertaining Heidi while we were waiting in line to fill our cups with noodles and condiments. There, a not hungry baby is a happy baby!
Me? I was damn hungry, not especially with this gigantic cup noodles. Sian.
Checking out the ingredients we can choose from. Heidi subtly warning me not to choose the wrong ones for her. Fierce.
The noodles are 'shot' out from this Noodle Shooter. Imagine like times 100 of these in the actual factory!
Our three cups lined up on the left. Noodles in. Time to choose the sides!
Heidi was all ready to choose hers! If you peer closely at the picture, you can see the flowers and bottle with chocolate milk that ZX drew on Heidi's cup!
Thereafter, the lid is placed on top of the cup
And the plastic packaging seals the cup!
Grab a string for your bag of noodles
And pump air into the bag to secure your cup! Yeah, the end product is supposed to look like the bag towards the top of the photo.
I love the idea of getting to do some DIY :) Bet the kids love it too! This museum also holds a cooking workshop where visitors get to make their own ramen from scratch. The shop had some noodle gift sets that looked great (told you I love instant mee) but that was about it. Nothing like the one in Shinyokohama. The queue was really long and we didn't wanna wait (tired of queuing after queuing to buy the cup, then queuing to fill the cup so didn't feel like queuing for more cups). While admission is free, we had to purchase the cup at a wee fee of 300 yen and we used the Kansai Rail Pass to get a complimentary gift - a mini notepad with the chicken mascot. The cooking workshop is a separate fee. Overall, the museum is a nice idea but would have preferred if there was some English info accompanying the exhibits (there were also some activities and video screening but didn't take an in-depth look because it was all in Japanese). There weren't any diaper changing facilities as well, so we just super changed Heidi by the benches.
To end off, here's a shot of me with darling Heidi by the christmas tree - she's gnawing the museum pamphlet. Poor thing is teething, you know - tooth number 7 and tooth number 8 on the bottom. And check out the tree! See what I mean about the chicken being the mascot?
WHW
Purple Lady and the Tramp sweater and white pants from Fox, white 'Give Me a Hug' tee from Esprit, Pink socks from Cotton On Kids, Brown moccasins from Bobux (brought from Foxy Sales)
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