A friend of ours introduced us to a friend of hers who happened to live in Chiba. We decided to meet up for a day trip in Yokohama. We left early in the morning and made our way down. Along the way we picked her up in Edogawa, which was one of Tokyo’s 23 special wards. We were trying to save a little money, so we passed on the ETC expressway and took local roads. It took us about 3 hours to read Edogawa from home.
After picking up our new friend, we headed south towards Yokohama. Time was limited at this point, so we took the ETC toll road. The trip was a quick 50 minutes. It was pretty confusing as the toll road was constantly forking in many directions and often times one right after the other. We had to make a lot of quick decisions and we were lucky to have made it without making any wrong turns.
Our first stop was at the Cup Noodle Museum. We had a difficult time finding the parking lot and had to make a second trip around the block. On our second time around we found the attendant on the sidewalk. We turned into the parking area which was on the first floor of the building. As we were pulling in, another car was pulling out. We felt fortunate for our good timing as parking was pretty limited.
We made our way to the front of the building and headed towards the reception desk. The tickets for the museum were a reasonable ¥500 per person. Our friend was kind enough to cover the cost for Amy & I. We also had to reserve a time slot if we wanted to make our own cup of noodle. We were able to schedule a 11:30 time slot, which gave us about 30 minutes to explore the museum.
We headed up a series of large staircases that gave us a nice view of the reception area. The cathedral style ceilings gave the space a very modern, urban, and big city vibe. The first exhibit we saw was a huge collection of cup noodles. The exhibit showcased in chronological order the many different types of cup noodles that had been produced over the years. It was pretty neat to see just how many different kinds and types they had. Towards the end we saw a lot of familiar labels that we’d seen in supermarkets and convenience stores. The display really showed how the company had continually adapted to current trends and met the ever changing appetites of its consumers.
There was also an exhibit around the founder of cup noodles Momofuku Ando. The timeline highlighted his accomplishments and achievements over the years. Other displays included a timeline in the development of cup noodles, a cup noodle modern art piece, a visual representation of how nature has influenced the design of certain modern things, and a traditional ramen shop.
It was about 11:30 so we headed upstairs to make our original cup noodle. We took an escalator up one floor. We handed the attendant our ticket and proceeded to some vending machines to purchase our cups. The cups costed ¥400 each. Once again our friend was kind enough to purchase our cups. The area was pretty busy, but the staff had everything down. The whole process was very orderly and we never felt rushed. After picking up our cups we were ushered to a round table that was cut in half by a plastic Covid divider. We were then given time to decorate our cups with a rainbow assortment of colored markers.
After decorating our cups we were ushered to the filling stations. The experience was about as interactive as it could have been while still maintaining basic sanitation standards. We gave the attendant our cups and then turned a lever to insert the noodles. We then moved to the filling stage where we got to choose a base flavor and four toppings. I chose the seafood base with shrimp, crab, garlic chips, and green onions.
They then sent the cups through a machine that resembled a boba lid machine. The machine put a cover on the cup. They then wrapped it in a plastic film and sent them through a heater to condense the shrink wrap around the cup. Afterwards we were given an inflatable plastic pouch to help protect our Cup Noodles. We went to a nearby station to inflate them with small hand pumps.
In addition to protecting our Cup Noodles, the pouches also served as great marketing material for the museum. They were quite bulky, and instantly recognizable from afar. We then headed to the next floor which had a beautiful terrace with wonderful views of Yokohama Bay. After, we took the elevator back down to the first floor. We made a brief stop at the the souvenir shop and picked up a variety pack of ramen that featured many of Japan’s famous styles. We then headed back to the parking lot. Before paying the parking fee, we showed the attendant our tickets to the Cup Noodle Museum and our parking fee was reduced to ¥500.
We then made our way to Yokohama’s Chinatown. It was a short 10 minute drive away. We parked in a Times parking lot just outside the main gate. We were pretty hungry, so we decided to stop by Dalian for lunch. The food was really tasty and affordable. After lunch we got a 30 minute foot massage at a place our friend recommended. It felt really nice since we had been on our feet all day.
After our relaxing foot massage, we made our way to Yokohama Daisekai. We got tickets for the Art Rick Museum. Some of them were a little hard to understand, but we did our best with the pictures. It was fun trying to figure out how to best position ourselves so we could take the optimal photo. There were a couple cool exhibits at the end, like the space tunnel and these perspective pictures.
We finished up and headed downstairs to the Yokohama Chocolate Factory. We wanted to do a tasting, so we purchased three different types. We then headed over to the attached café and ordered a couple of their Tapioca Monster Drinks. While waiting for our drinks, we decided to try the chocolate. We ended up choosing the Canada Maple, Madagascar chocolate, and the Sri Lanka Tea. The Canada Maple chocolate had a strong maple syrup aroma and taste. The maple flavor was a little overbearing in my opinion, it just tasted like a chocolate pancake. The Madagascar chocolate was a good balance of sweet and bitter. The Sri Lanka Tea flavor was my personal favorite. The tea flavor was subtle and balanced well with the chocolate. A little while later our green tea and chocolate Tapioca Monster Drinks came out. They were really good. There was a generous amount of vanilla soft serve on top of a flavorful milk tea.
After finishing up our sweet treats we headed down to a souvenir shop called Yokohama Daisen Market. Our friend recommended Yokohama Harbour and Milk Harbor as two of Yokohama’s famous omiyage. We got original, chocolate, and Halloween versions of the Yokohama Harbour as well as a Milk Harbor. As we were making our way back to the car we stopped by Kiyoken and picked up some shumai for later. The shop was pretty popular, but the line moved quickly. The shumai were really good. We heated them up in the microwave under some saran wrap. It was super easy. Would definitely get again.
We then took the hour or so drive back to Edogawa to drop off our friend. We parted ways and were grateful to have had such a great day with her in Yokohama. In an effort to save money where we could, we decided to take local roads back to Mito. It took us just under 2 hours and 30 minutes to get home.
Final Thoughts: Wow! What a day. We really enjoyed our trip to Yokohama. It was nice finally meeting our friend in person. The Cup Noodle Museum was a fun and affordable thing to do. We really liked being able to make our own original Cup Noodle. The lunch in Yokohama’s Chinatown was delicious we can’t wait to try other restaurants in the area. The Art Rick Museum was super fun, its definitely better as a couple or with a small group. The only bummer was the parking in Yokohama, it was pretty expensive, but it was in a prime location. Next time, we’ll do some more research. We can’t wait to travel with our new friend again in the future.
More to Come…