Yokohama

5 June '16

On our last completely free (from classes and other scheduled trips) day, some friends took us to Yokohama which was about one hour away by train.  When we first got there we walked to and around Chinatown.  I got some pork dumplings for pre-lunch (I stopped at a kombini later and got some yogurt and soba) which were nice and hot, lovely since it was raining and a little chilly.

There was a market in one of the main squares and in one of the booths people were making chopsticks!

We found this garden while walking around.  I was disappointed that these "ruins" weren't actualy ruins; they were just part of the manmade garden.  Still, it was green and pretty.

After walking around Yokohama for a little bit, we made it to the Cup of Noodles Museum.  They remember Momofuku Ando, the creator of instant ramen, and promote creative thinking.  Here is the mission statement from the website:

We got to make our own personalized Cup of Noodles, which I have yet to eat.  I pictured the directions, some action shots, as well as a video that my friend Shotaro made of our trip to Yokohama that has some shots of us making our Cups.

First we had to decorate our cups:

You can see the ingredient station farther back on the right, and in front is the sealing station:

Here they seal the top:

After they sealed the top, they shrink wrapped it and we got to pump up the "air package":

And the video!  (Thanks Shotaro)

We got to see all the different types of Cup of Noodles produced since the late 1950s, including some space noodles.

The gift shop was pretty cool, but I didn't get anything besides pictures of the products.  Here are some little notes that fold up to make a mini Cup of Noodles!

After the museum, we went to a giant shopping mall in Yokohama Landmark Plaza.  The building is also plopped on top of a train station (third picture below).

While walking to the mall I saw this store and was so excited!  The last time I went to a Flying Tiger was in Copenhagen four years ago!  I went back here once we got to the mall and everyone split up for a while to shop.

A couple more posts to come,

Anna