Cup Noodles Museum Opens In Yokohama For Instant Ramen's 40th Birthday

In 1971, Apollo 14 and 15 both landed on the moon, the Ed Sullivan Show aired its last episode and Amtrak started running trains between American cities. Walt Disney World opened in Orlando and construction began on the Superdome in New Orleans. Bangladesh was founded.

Two of these events (Bangladesh and Amtrak) have museums dedicated to them. But one momentous event in 1971 led to the construction of not one, but two, museums: the invention of Cup Noodles (known as Cup O' Noodles in the US until 1993) by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando.

The first, the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, opened in 1999, in Ikeda in northern Osaka, Japan. It was popular enough to warrant an expansion in 2004. Popular exhibits include a recreation of the laboratory/hut in which Ando crafted his now-famous chicken ramen and an "Instant Noodles Tunnel" chronicling the history of the Cup Noodles. The Osakan museum looks humble and bunkerlike. Admission is free. The exhibits seem to be elaborate antechambers to the main attraction, a make-your-own Cup Noodle assembly line with an attached cafeteria.

The second, which will be called the Cup Noodle Museum, opens next Saturday in Yokohama, just outside Tokyo, and is far more grand. It features both an attraction called "the History Cube" and a "Momofuku Theater" for showings of CG movies about Ando's life -- in addition to a make-your-own Cup Noodle bar like the one in Osaka. The museum's art director, Kashiwa Sato, is also in charge of graphic design for Japanese retail behemoth Uniqlo. Here's a rendering of the museum from its website:

The Cup Noodle Museum's opening coincides with a celebration for the 40th birthday of Cup Noodles, which will be held at the Yokohama Museum on Sunday the 18th. The museum's grandiosity seems puzzling in the context of a typical instant ramen meal, under fluorescent lighting in a dingy dormroom -- but apparently, there are a lot of those dormrooms around the world. Nissin Foods, the company that makes Cup Noodles, had total global revenues of $4.8 billion in 2011.

Here's a video exploration of the original Instant Ramen Museum in Osaka.

Comments

[RamenRater]

07:43 PM on 09/10/2011

Hello -

Just thought I'd let you know - The Ramen Rater [ www.ramenrater.com ] has just hit its 500th review today with Mexi-Ramen's Soupless Ramen: Shallot Teriyaki flavor.

Let the masses know!

- Hans Lienesch
The Ramen Rater

[sage91501]

08:46 PM on 09/08/2011

this is a joke right?

[TraceyMichelle]

06:51 PM on 09/08/2011

(face palm).

[Al Schrader]

05:55 PM on 09/08/2011

Don't need that museum here in the US. Just go into any market and there are shelves of it. Why ? That is all Americans can buy. 16 cents per package. No jobs, no SSi, no medicare, every other home foreclosed.

[pixgirl922]

04:55 PM on 09/08/2011

There is a pasta museum in Rome.

[basketpam]

04:26 PM on 09/08/2011

Hey, they may not be the greatest food on the planet but they helped get me through college. There were times when it was literally a life saver when I could get PACKS, and I mean packs of these for a dollar. However, once I got out of college and was making a decent salary, I never wanted to see a bowl of them again.

[dickn2000b]

04:15 PM on 09/08/2011

Are you kidding me? The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum opened in 1999? What kind of a name is Momofuku Ando? It sounds like anal intercourse with your mother.

[basketpam]

03:53 PM on 09/08/2011

Why???

[douttfire]

03:30 PM on 09/08/2011

Now THIS is newsworthy! I hope we get a Cup Noodles Museum here in the U.S. I have about 50 cups of ramen noodles on hand as we speak! My favorites are the Roast Beef and pork. I wish they would make ROAST PORK.
I lived on Ramen noodles when I was in the Army. Pack of Ramen, a handful of frozen veggies...Ta da! And if you had the dehydrated pork patty or beef patty from an MRE...LOOK OUT- Gourmet Stuff right there!!

[nonesuch41054]

04:54 PM on 09/08/2011

There is roast pork flavor out there. You need to look for it in a good oriental grocery.

[Red Russet]

03:24 PM on 09/08/2011

Architecturally, it's disappointing when there is so much ready imagery in the product. Why not a giant styrofoam cup? Or a dizzying twirl of squiggly noodles, or a huge shaker of sodium chloride?

[ladyrainfb]

02:58 PM on 09/08/2011

Great entrepreneurial thought there! Although admission is free... hmmm must sell a lot of that at the exit!

[J0E1]

12:23 PM on 09/08/2011

Although never a big fan of cup o noodles, I shall celebrate by eating a packet of 12 cent ramen noodles for lunch.  mmm, brings back memories of college and all the beer money I saved by eating 10 cent meals.

[Zimmers]

10:40 AM on 09/08/2011

Ramen is awesome. I never use the flavor packet, way to much salt and whatnot. I just use salt, pepper, butter and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Tastes amazing. My friend has a book that teaches you a 100 different ways to make Ramen which I think is a bit extreme but it does show that Ramen is rather versatile for such a cheap food.

I wish the had fun museums where I live even if it was just for some junk food staple.

[ontariogirl]

09:44 AM on 09/08/2011

I used to eat these all the time. Tasty but......the salt content: You're taking in about 1600mg of sodium, or 66% of the daily value!

[IMRITENOTU]

11:16 PM on 09/08/2011

You can either use just half of the flavour packet or buy some low sodium chicken stock and cook the noodles in that. You can also cook a skinless chicken thigh, use the stock for the noodles, cut up the chicken and mix it with the noodles with peas n carrots.
If it needs a little salt put in a tiny bit of soy or duck sauce.

[ontariogirl]

09:01 AM on 09/09/2011

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

[Alyssa Ashby]

02:41 AM on 09/08/2011

love ramen..chicken flavor only

[Red Russet]

03:25 PM on 09/08/2011

Shrimp here.

[idontcare761]

04:30 PM on 09/08/2011

same! chicken only :) yummm.

[linkmaster]

11:51 AM on 09/09/2011

I love them all! I add a dash of Texas Pete or tobasco to mine. I kept my cabinets stocked with the stuff along with canned vegetables in the winter when I lived in the mountains, there were times when I couldn't get out even with a 4X4