playing tourist (day 2)

Monday, I met D and his friend at the Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda.

It had been about 10 years since I last went and they renovated the place since then.

The museum is dedicated to Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen. His family home is located right across the museum.

Someone tell these kids that they weren't standing near the Statue of Liberty...that's what the smaller of the two was saying, "it's the Statue of Liberty"...

Most of their exhibits are in Japanese, so it may be hard to understand, but you can see how instant ramen has grown. These days, Nissin not only makes instant ramen but instant pasta, udon & soba too.

The highlight of this place is definitely making your own cup noodle.

For 300 yen, you get a cup to decorate. Choose your soup flavor and 4 toppings.

I chose the regular cup noodle soup, kim chee, cheese, roast chicken and the chicky naruto (like kamaboko (fish cake))

It was cool to see the diversity of visitors to this museum. From pre-schoolers to senior citizens. There were also a lot of foreigners.

This group was making LOTS of Christmas presents...

There is also an area where you can taste different instant foods made by Nissin.

D's friend insisted that we needed to eat ramen for lunch, so we went to Senri Chuo to his favorite ramen shop, Hokkaiya.

The ramen is a tonkotsu soup with other flavors added. I ordered the shoyu kim chee ramen. The kim chee was actually buta kim chee (pork with kim chee).

Delicious!

Then D's friend took us to the Banpaku Koen, the site of the World Expo in 1970.

The theme of this expo was the future so there were many futuristic displays and pavillions back then.

One pavillion is still around and this is where they exhibited some memorabilia from the expo.

The size of the park is 264 hectares (652 acres)...huge!

There is a small admission into the park, 250 yen. And an admission to see the memorabilia...400 yen. But it is a great place to hang with nature.

I ate my cup noodle the other day for lunch...so good!

D is off to other parts of Japan before he returns to Hawaii, I hope he enjoyed his time in Osaka. We enjoyed spending time with him and his friends.

Instant Ramen Museum
8-25 Masumi-cho
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.752.3484
Closed Tuesdays
Hours: 9:30-16:00
Admission: free

Hokkaiya
1-3 Shinsenri Higashimachi, Senchu Pal 3F
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6832.2662
Closed Wednesdays
M-F Hours 11:00-16:00, 17:00-21:00
S, Su, Holidays Hours: 11:00-21:00