Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!

Many Americans are familiar with instant ramen - it's cheap, fast, and doesn't taste too horrible. Maybe you've jazzed it up with vegetables or an egg. Or maybe you've had it in a styrofoam cup with some rehdryated vegetables.

Well, did you know that the creation of instant ramen was the brain child of one man? I sure didn't! That is, until we visited the CupNoodles Museum in Yokohama and learned all about Momofuku Ando and the history of his most successful inventions - Chikin Ramen, CupNoodles, and even space ramen!

It was a silly and highly entertaining outing. We watched an animated film (using headsets for English) about Mr. Ando's story, visited a replica of his first kitchen, and checked out a timeline of instant ramen history.

Instant ramen history!

Momofuku Ando's kitchen

The best part of the whole experience was getting to make our very own CupNoodles!

First, you pick your cup. (Actually, first, you clean your hands, so technically this is the second step.)

Then, you decorate!

I wore my panda noodle shirt for the occasion. You are also supposed to write the date on your cup, since these actually do have a shelf life.

Instead of noodles going into the cup, the cup actually goes onto the noodles. You get to the turn the crank on the machine!

Chikin wafers? Whatever they are, they are in Blake's cup.

You get to pick a broth flavor and four toppings. Blake got curry broth with chikin wafers, shrimp, corn, and green onion.

I chose seafood broth with shrimp, egg, crab, and green onion.

Add the lid

Vacuum seal the whole thing

And then pick up your cup!

So proud!

To get it safely home, you put it in an air pillow bag!

Home safe! 

We will be eating them tomorrow night. Our Thanksgiving dinner plans are more of a lunch, so we'll probably need just a little something later in the evening, and a good CupNoodles should fit the bill. We've enjoyed a few other varieties from the konbini (convenience stores), and they are definitely better than the ones you'll find in the states! Oh, and slurping your noodles is absolutely encouraged here. Hooray!