It’s not a complete trip to Japan if you don’t make a trip to visit their infamous Cup Noodle Museum at least once (in my opinion). I think the concept is quite unique and something that you can’t experience anywhere else in the world. The cup noodles make cute personalized & affordable souvenirs for friends and family to enjoy.
There are 2 Cup Noodle Museum locations in Japan – one in Yokohama and the other in Osaka. We visited the one in Osaka because we were staying in the area anyways and there is also no admission in the Osaka Location where as the Yokohama location, you have to pay a small admission fee.
We arrived at the Osaka location with no reservations as we did not opt for any special classes. Upon arrival, we were guided upstairs into a large room with different sections but everything was organized really well and clear instructions in English about what to do and where to go.
First, we lined up infront of a vending machine to purchase an empty cup noodle for 300¥ (roughly $3.50 CAD). In our instance, we purchased 7 cups so don’t be ashamed if you see people around you only purchasing 1-2 cups! We were then guided to one of their many tables to decorate our cups. These personalized cup noodles have an expiry date of 30 days from the day of your visit.
(Please note this visit to the Osaka Cup Noodle Museum location was in April 2018 – pricing & admission rules may have changed since, please visit their website for further details)
Once you’re finish decorating your cup(s), you will end up queuing in another line to have your cup noodles customized and finalized. You get to select 1 broth and 4 ingredients. Watching the different stations customize your cup noodles is very neat and the kid inside me definitely came bursting out with excitement! Once ingredients are selected, the staff helps you seal + plastic wrap your cup noodle(s) individually. There is an area in the back where they give you plastic bubble bags + bicycle bumps so you can inflate your cup noodle in order to protect it from getting damaged. We thought these plastic bubble bags were super cute so we ended up taking some home, deflated it for the plane ride back to Toronto (due to limited space in suitcase), inflated it again with a bicycle bump when we got home to give to family & friends.
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