Ramen Museum

Hiromi, Jana, and I took a trip to Yokohama yesterday. Our first stop was at the Ramen Museum in Shin Yokohama. Ramen is one of the favorite foods in Japan and there are over 200,000 ramen restaurants in Japan. The dish first came to Japan in 1900 when Chinese cooks started making ramen in Japan. Since then the food can be found all over Japan and each area of Japan has their own special kind of ramen.

The museum is small and it is often crowded but I had a great time visiting there. It is designed to look like 1950s Japan and the staff there gets into the part of playing someone from the 1950s. The food that is sold outside the ramen shops is also a throwback to the 1950s. We enjoyed eating ice cream out of a rubber balloon (watch the warnings on that…when you get to the end it shoots out of the balloon). They also sell candy and fried-dough.

There are eight ramen restaurants in the museum. Each restaurant is a famous restaurant from an different areas in Japan and they make that area’s specialty. We ate at the ramen shop Fukuchan which is located in Hakata. It is famous for its mild broth, sharp flavor, and for using garlic. My ramen was delicious.

The Ramen Museum is a cheap place to visit, it only costs 300 yen but adults are expected to eat at least one bowl of ramen and that costs between 500 to 900 yen. For those who want to try all of the ramen you can buy mini bowls at the different restaurants.