The CUPNOODLES Museum is a fun and interactive museum in Yokohama's Minato Mirai 21 District that shows the history of instant ramen noodles using a combination of whimsical exhibits and hands on workshops.
Short films introducing the history of instant noodles, unconventional exhibits, and a visual timeline of instant noodle products from around the world are used to present Nissin’s approach in creating new and innovative products.
Generally, the exhibits in the museum emphasize on 5 things:
The Inventor: Momofuku Ando (1910-2007)
Born on March 5, 1910, Momofuku Ando established Nissin Food Products and founded the Ando Foundation. Besides serving as the CEO and chairman of Nissin Food Products, Momofuku was also the chairman of the Japan Instant Food Industry Association and the chairman of the World Instant Noodles Association.
First Invention: Chicken Ramen (1958)
In a little shed behind his home in the town of Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, Momofuku started work on an invention for quickly making ramen at home by just adding hot water. After many trial and error experiments, the Chicken Ramen was dubbed “magic ramen”, which gained instant popular sensation.
Second Invention: CUPNOODLES (1971)
On a fact finding trip to America, Momofuku observed that supermarket managers tend to break up Chicken Ramen noodles, put them in a cup and pouring in hot water, before eating them with a fork. It was at that moment that Momofuku realized the key to make instant ramen a global food. By bringing together all sorts of wisdom and innovative ideas, his second invention, the CUPNOODLES, transformed "made in Japan" instant ramen into a global food.
Third Invention: Space Ramen (2005)
Pursuing his long held dream to invent a ramen that can be eaten in space, Momofuku applied and tested various techniques for eating in weightless environments. Based on the hot oil instant drying method that Momofuku invented in 1958, the Space Ramen was created.
Instant Noodles History Cube
This exhibit displays the instant ramen line up that started with the Chicken Ramen. An astounding selection of over 3,000 product are showcased to show how a single product introduced half-century ago influenced and grew into a global dietary culture.
Besides the exhibits, there are also several fun activities at the museum including My CUPNOODLES Factory workshop and My Chicken Ramen workshop. And our main reason to visit Yokohama is really for the My CUPNOODLES Factory workshop.
In this workshop, we created our own completely original CUPNOODLES package, ranging from the custom-designed cup, to the soup base and the ingredients. With four varieties of soup base and 12 ingredients to choose from, there is a possibility of creating up to 5460 flavours. The steps to create our own CUPNOODLES are as follows:
Step 1: Purchase a cup
Step 2: Sanitise our hands
Step 3: Apply lid
Step 4: Creatively draw something
Step 5: Turn the wheel to place dried noodles in the cup
Step 6: Choose soup base and ingredients
Step 7: Seal the cup
Step 8: Shrink wrap
Step 9: Place product into an inflatable wrapper
Step 10: Tie the ends of the wrapper
Step 11: Inflate
And of course, the very last step is to eat it, and hopefully none of us regretted putting in some weird combinations of soup base and ingredients!!
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