When in the home of instant ramen....you make some instant ramen!

Hey all

So today (6/24) we traveled back to Osaka taking several different trains...it was a long ride...all to go to...a museum???  Yeah that's what I thought too until...I found out we were walking up to the official...INSTANT RAMEN MUSEUM. haha it was fantastic!  We walked in and were immediately greeted by cheery attendants all wearing aprons and ushering us into the main hall.  We were struck by the giant timeline of instant ramen... hundreds and hundreds of ramen cups and bowls lined the entire wall and parts of the ceiling.  It was amazing!  In the center of the room a replica of a small farm house stood with a color changing backdrop which simulated the rising and setting of the sun.  Inside the house a small kitchen with all the necessary ramen making utensils laid out.  One corner even had a gigantic pot with a TV screen that made it look like ramen was cooking in it!  (it was def one of those.."only in Japan" moments!) oh and btw if your wondering the big yellow chick was like the mascot of the museum cute huh? haha

We then moved on through a small hallway which turned a corner into another room...there was a cacophony of laughter and voices..but I couldn't tell what was going on.  Then a cheery apron donning man appeared and welcomed us to the "Make your own Ramen Center"  THATS RIGHT.  we got to make our very own ramen flavor!  It was sooo much fun!  First we were allowed to decorate our noodle cups with all the colors and imagination we could muster in 5minutes. haha.  The we moved on to a kitchen type area where we were able to load the noodles into cups and choose a soup base and multiple topping-ingredients.  Things like shrimp, egg, pork, onion, corn, curry powder...etc etc...there was a ton of different options!

Lastly we vacuum sealed our unique ramen and placed it into a nifty little carrying bag.  It really was a great time.


New food of the day:
Shibu Shibu

Basically its a restaurant that gives you raw meat and you need to cook it yourself in a large hot pot.  There was also a salad bar full of veggies tofu and mushrooms. It was a cool concept and ever so tasty!

Yay Japanese food! :P