I guess you’d have to count on a ramen museum in Japan. I wonder were the hamburger museum is in America. My friend Miyuki brought me here one weekend. It was really cool. Here are way too many pictures for a webpage.
When we got there I had no idea what to expect so we entered and it looked like your typical non-art museum. Lots of cases with explanations and stuff.
Here are some of the implements used to strain the broth
Miyuki says this character is a famous ramen trademark in Japan.
This is a ramen cart. I haven’t seen one in use but I’m sure I’ll see one sooner or later.
A gajillion ramen bowls. This is about 1/6th of all the bowls on display.
Another famous ramen character.
Here are various kinds of instant or semi instant ramen packages. The ones on the top left are from limited edition promotions. If you look closely the one on the back right is Arnold Swartzenegger (sp?)
They even had a ramen video game. Your job is the eat your ramen faster than the other player. You can also taunt the other player and throw things at him to slow him down.
Here’s a ramen packing machine.
And here’s about a zillion different packages of ramen. The other day I had UFO Curry Instant Ramen. Pretty good for a $1.50.
Here was a display about the beginning of instant ramen.
Here are some different instant ramen noodle types. Can you tell the difference?
The average package of instant ramen has 51 meters of noodles in it.
Okay. So I thought that was it but the real attraction of this place is in the basement. The bottom two floors are a recreation of old Tokyo I’m assuming around the 1950s or maybe earlier.
These pictures aren’t that great but is pretty cool.
So the main thing is, they have 7 ramen stores and each features ramen from a different part of Japan.
 |
This one is from Kumamoto which is in southern Japan. |
| This one is from Yokohama which is near where I live. |  |
 |
?? |
| This one is from Tokyo. |  |
 |
This one is from Kyoto |
| ?? |  |
 |
This one is also from Tokyo. I think this is what I usaually eat at the local place. |
We decided to eat at the "special" shop which changes its style each week. This week it was Hokkaido style ramen. It was about a 30 minute wait.
Here they are making the ramen
Hokkaido ramen is a little spicy. (kurai) Fortunately I like spicy food.
On the main floor there was a festival style candy shop. You could hear all the people saying "Nazukashii!" which means that it’s nastolgic and brings back good memories.
Here is one of the werider things I saw there. It’s soft ice-cream stuffed into a balloon. The way you eat it is you cut the tip off and then suck the ice cream out. It’s hard to do until it gets a little warmer and softer then then it doesn’t stop coming out because the balloon is squeezing it so you’ve got to keep eating.
So like any museum they had a gift shop. This one had noodle underware! Cool! I bet my friend Willis, a.k.a. "Noodle Boy", would like a pair of these.
They have print club (or purikura) machines all over Japan. For $3 they take a picture of you and your friends, composite it with some graphics and then print out about 16 of them each about the size of a small postage stamp. You trade them with friends and put them on letters. They are very popular. Many places have ones with specialized images like pictures of the ramen museum etc. The interesting thing about this machine is it has a plug on the top for a digital camera. That means that if you have a digital camera you can plug it in here to print out your own pictures.
This huge thing is a common vegatable added to ramen. It starts as the big pointy thing on the left and through a faily complicated process ends up in your ramen like the stuff on the right.
Here are various ramen noodles from different regions. This is more what fresh ramen looks like, the kind you eat at a ramen store, vs the instant kind.
Before I came to Japan I don’t think I had any idea about all the different kinds of ramen. Now that I’m here I’m going to have to try them all.
Found your site by chance on the Internet. Great pictures! I think I should visit that place next time I’m near Yokohama…
Hi! NICE site you put up there! Unfortunately I have never been in Japan to date. But its my biggest wish to visit it some day and when this is going to happen I am visiting a Ramenshop for Sure!! ~_~
I luv that raman stuff… it tastes byaaaaaaaatiful, i wont more raman more MORE MORE MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR RAAAAAMMMAAANNNNNN that guy looks ugly on ur site
I like your site it has funny pictures… did that guy ever have pimples as a child??? his face has funny little holes in it!!!
no mater how good ramen is why did you make a ramen site?!? any way it has heeps cool photos of you.
anon is added to your name if you don’t register. If you register you have to have a unique name. If you don’t register you can use any name so if I didn’t put the “anon_” in front then people could post as me or as other people just by using the same name.
The only advantages to registering are that (1) you get to be the only one to use that name and (2) you can edit/delete your posts.
As for why this page, pretty much any page made before about Nov 2000 was just for my friends and family (notice this page was made in 1998) It was around Nov 2000 that I added the headline system, the template system, and the feature lists and started making some of the pages more like articles, less like posts to my family.
why did u make a site about fod??? just askin… sounds ok, though
Ok thanks for clearing that up then
mmmmmm…food
PooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPooPoo
amen, i wanna join whateva club that guy’s in woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
you guys are taking so long!!!
theres a poo club???????????????????????????????
we are pretty bored at the moment in japanese, but your site has brightened our day….
This site is strange. Why are you obsessed with ramen? What is wrong with you? You’re a strange man with strange sexual desires but i guess there’s scarier things in the world– like the bogeyman and Michael Jackson
Peanut & Mitsy:
TRY IT YOU’LL LOVE IT!!! MAMA BEAR
I’ve been to yokohama .but I don’t go to ramen museum..O-Oh!!
(maybe next time) I’m your big fan from bangkok . keep walking,greeg!!
u didnt say exactly wat ramen was. am i supposed to no that!???
I can’t wait to visit this place when I go back to Japan for vacation. The Japanese have a knack for finding a trend, especially when it involves food. I love all of your food-related stories.
Great Info on the Ramen Museum Brah, Cant wait till Christmas/Shogatsu time when we return to Tokyo. We will be going there to visit the Ramen Museum when we get there. This is the real thing, not the Saimin stuff you and I grew up with. Thanks Gregg for the great site. Aloha Ahui hou
wheres my dog?
Wow great site.
Wel ive been to japan few times and I was at this museum in the Janurary this year. This is a really great place. Well Im sure that you took a lot of picture.
ramen is one of my passions, and going to this museum has been a dream of mine for over a year
Bang that cute japanese girl with the glasses?
asians and their noodles!! =)