Haneda: Cup Noodle Museum

Ep.62 
3^rd November 2012.

“They ignore you now, but they’ll need you later” – Mamofuku Ando.

HND – Yokohama, Japan.

My Ultracupnoodle!

The first flight after my annual leave was this one, to Haneda. Another port of Japan, nearest airport to Tokyo, and nice hotel to stay. I could swapped it into days off if I wanted to, just to elongated my annual leave, but this Haneda flight is to die for. After a nice 2 weeks leave in Jakarta, packed of house hunting schedule, I thought a relax day in Yokohama would be a nice escape. *oh how was that even possible?*

ferris wheel!

Minato Mirai

I didn’t plan anything to do in Haneda, seriously not even a single plan. My last Haneda flight was an overnight only that I only capture a few picture from the night I arrived and early morning before the flight. Ah! Let me incorporated few picture about it here as well. So, on my last flight to Haneda, I explore the ground around our hotel, there’s a Cosmo World. It was a quite small amusement park that got this BIG ferris wheel, showing some beautiful lamp show every night. If you watched some dorama, I guess you’ll get it. As a very good Japan stuffs fans, I would be more than happy to stroll around *even at night* and take some picture here and there, even at the police station!

late night at police station

The next morning around 6 am. I managed to wake up and do some exploration again. This time walk around quite far. Nippon Maru memorial was drew my attention. Nippon Maru was built in Kobe in 1930. It was a training ship for the cadets of the Japanese merchant marine. There was this large ships with many many many sails hanging. I thought it looked mighty on its era. Then there were this ship dock. It was used to be the parking lot of a ship, where they could connect all the cargo gangway to the dock. And I don’t even could imagine that those gangway, which now appears to be just like a small pigeon houses on the side of the dock, could be magically transformed into some café with unique location. *Japanese….phew..they know how to make everything creatively cute* I did stop at a park with many doves and sure to take some pictures, and from across the river, to those who watched Captain Tsubasa during their childhood, would surely jumping like a kids. There’s a Tsubasa Café along with Tsubasa Stadium, completed with large Captain Tsubasa banner on it. Ha-ha! Well, that’s my first visit to Haneda.

try to figure it out

This time around, I went to bed straight away. By the time, I knew already *which is too late* that I have been pampering my tummy too much that I gained a lot of pounds, so I tried that hard to restraint myself from buying food especially late night. Woke up early next morning with nothing to do was such a boring things. I went down to have some breakfast. The hotel gave us special rate at JPY 800 for a buffet breakfast, which is very cheap according to Japan standard. It was nice with traditional Japanese menu on the buffet as well. And there, after I got some energy from the breakfast, I decided to do some exploration. 

pink, green, red, white

sunrise

On my last trip here, I did saw a Cup Noodle Museum when I strolled around, but at that time, it was still early morning and it wasn’t officially open yet. So as soon as I get to my room from the breakfast, I searched for its open hour and get ready. It might be sounds a little childish, but anyway, we should keep our childish side of us somewhere inside that we could always stay young and keep up the spirit. It was only like 3 minutes away on foot and soon, I saw Hiyoko-chan, the mascot of Nissin Cup Noodle. Again, being able to recognize some Japanese character made my life a lot easier here. 

nippon maru

chase it?

The admission fee is JPY 500 and there I got my ticket to explore the invention of cup noodle. Who knows the name of the man that invented cup noodle? I guess not many know or even heard of him. It was Mamofuku Ando, a Japanese guy that dedicated his entire life to think about food in a new and creative ways. He was the inventor of Chicken Ramen, the world’s fist instant noodle those are in package that we love so much as the first aid of hungriness, then he also invented Cup Noodles (1971), the greatest invention throughout food history *at least according to me*, and  last but not least, Space Ramen, the instant noodle that you could even enjoy at the outer space. And still developing each of his invention until the end of his life.  

nissin cup noodle

He got my salute for not giving up his dream and keep on developing his inventions. He dreamt big and he proved that he was right. His invention, for me, is one of the greatest in the mankind. After he was long deceased, his dream was still lingered, run by his successor to develop more and more creative type and flavor of instant noodles. In this museum, there was a showcase that show us the timeline of the instant noodle inventions, something like wall of fame. It was like hundreds types of instant noodle in there. I was crazy taking picture here and there with those noodles, even squeezing among the kids.

inside his shed

There is also Mamofuku Theater that got animation show to enabled us to look back at the history of instant ramen and tell his story to overcame great adversity to achieve his goal. After watching this movie, I looked up to him as a man with vision. The museum is something I would categorize as a modern high-end museum and its flow was an epic. Right at the exit of the theater, we saw a shed, not an ordinary small traditional Japanese house, but Mamofuku’s work shed, the shed where everything begins, where the world first instant noodle invented. There wasn’t any special instrument or equipment inside, yet, he made it. 

wall of noodle

After that, there were a long room with his life storyline. He was encouraging young generation to think outside the box, to be creative and contribute something into this world. The showcase made me think that this man, on his own time, should be a man that would be considered as strange, nerd, crazy. But that was the man that successfully live his dream. 

draw shella draw

One floor up, there’s a chicken ramen factory, where you could participate to make your chicken ramen from kneading to packing. Unfortunately it would require you to book in advance. See, I could not participate. Bu, don’t give up, there’s always hope. My CUPNOODLES Factory is where I aimed. By paying JPY 300 I could designed your own cup noodle. Yeay! And made it one and only flavor in the whole world. 

my own design!

Ultracupnoodles

I queued, get my cup and sit there, among the families and kids. Seriously, this place is like a theme park and it was weekend. No wonder. I got my cup in hands and sit on a small table that we used in kindergarten. They provided colorful markers on the table for us to use to design our own cup noodle. Hmm.. it’s Japan, there were a lot of kids and I was looking at my Ultraman purse. Yup! I’m gonna draw an Ultraman Cup Noodle. I drew my Ultraman and in the middle of the making, I would love to draw Hiyoko-chan as well. So, I drew Ultraman beating up Hiyoko on my cup noodle. I wrote my name on it, the date, and of course some Japanese characters that I knew.  

wrap!

toppings

Next step was to put the cup noodle into the cup. I handed in my Ultracup and they put in on the machine, I was asked to roll the wheel six times and there it goes the instant noodle were inside the cup already. Next, the topping station, where I got to choose which soup would I put in my Ultracup, which topping would I like to have in it. I chose seafood soup, with hiyoko tamago, cheese, corn and ham. I couldn’t imagine how would it taste. Haha! Weird combination. After that, they put on the top cover, wraped it in a plastic, put it through the packaging machine, and voila! There it goes my Ultracupnoodle. 

one and only

hiyoko-chan

They gave me a plastic and a strap which I didn’t get what was that for, and it was actually a cute packaging to bring the cup noodles. I  inserted my Ultracupnoodle inside the plastic, pumped some air with a hand pump, put on the straps, and it became an Ultracupnoodle in a blown airbag. Cute! See? These guys knows how to make it cute. You could make more than one cup noodle here, each cup costs JPY 300. One is enough for me, now. The end of the trip? Not yet. 

cup noodle factory

One floor ahead, there is a cupnoodle park. Remember when I said it was like a theme park, it was truly is. This museum was made for kids, I guess, to encourage them to think creative. Anyway, I am always be a kid *like a peterpan syndrome?* And for the adults, there is a Noodle Bazaar where Mamofuku-san incorporated eight varieties of noodles during his travels in search of ramen’s flavor. It became a world noodles road, where you could find a lot of noodle style around the world, including Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, French pasta, China, Thailand, and another that I forgot. It was like a night market selling only noodle. Noodle paradise!

Never give up!

The trip has to be ended and it would not complete without paying a visit to the souvenir shop. Of course all of the souvenir would embrace all of the cup noodle aspects and still cute. But I didn’t buy anything. I was like a big kid with my cupnoodle bag when I returned to the hotel. I packed all my belongings and get ready to operate the flight back to HK. After all, I don’t think that I could ever have a peaceful resting day, even after a very tiring schedule. Haha! I got a butt that never sticks to stay in a room for more than 24 hours, I guess. 

“When people asked you ‘Why?’, you can always reply them ‘Why not?’” – Me.