CupNoodles Museum - Yokohama

Our last day in Tokyo with Grandma and Grandpa was rainy, so that knocked out most of what we planned to do.  Instead, we stopped in Yokohama and toured the CupNoodles Museum.  That was a lot of fun!  

We parked at World Porter's and had lunch at Le Bon Pain....as always, cute food

Then, on to the museum

After we bought our tickets we headed up the stairs and then into the first room.  This room showed the progression of flavors over the years.  Momofuko Ando (I think that's how it's spelled) wanted to create a noodle that could become a meal by just adding hot water.  He went broke working on his invention, but he finally came up with instant chicken ramen in the late 1950s.  Then, in the 1970s he designed a process to get the noodles in the cup, and CupNoodles was born.

The beginning of the noodles...only a few flavors

In the last several years, there are TONS of flavors

A few interesting flavors... 

Now, it's our turn to put together our own noodles.

Step 1:  get a cup

           Put in 300 Yen                                                                                   your cup pops out

Step 2:  Clean your hands

Step 3:  Decorate your cup

Wow....look at that concentration

Step 4:  Over to the factory to create our CupNoodles 

First, they used the white hose in her hand to blow inside the cup so it was clean

Second, the dried noodles came out on the conveyor belt already in the shape of the cup.  The cup was put upside down on the noodles and then flipped around.

Mackenzie turning the handle to flip her cup over

You can choose one flavor and four ingredients to go in your cup

Flavors:  Regular, chicken, seafood, beef

Additions:  cheese, onions, shrimp, crab, corn, egg, carrots, corn, peas....that's all I remember.

Next time, I will get cheese.  Mackenzie had cheese in hers and it sure looked delicious. (the lady even gave her an extra scoop of cheese)

The cup gets it's lid sealed on

The plastic goes around the cup

The plastic is shrunk onto the cup

We got bags and then used the air tool to fill it with air and trap the cup in the middle.

My cup is ready to go!

Finally, it gets a string

The Boy with his CupNoodles...this became a fun game for him....how fast could he bring his knee up and whack that bag to make it fly high up in the air.  Good times!

Time to make the noodles!