Cup Noodles Museum Osaka Ikeda — Attraction in Ikeda

This is an excellent place to visit if you're crazy about Nissin Cup Noodles and for kids to try their hands on making the noodles themselves. If you're not going to try your hands on making the noodles, the museum might not have much else to offer especially if your commute is about an hour. You can still get your own packaged cup noodles though. First off it is imperative that you book way in advance and try to get the morning slots as it can get very busy and crowded later in the day. Tbh I didn't know what I signed up for and was pleasantly surprised that I got to make noodles from scratch from their lab with assistance of staff. All ingredients are provided for and you just have to follow simple instructions from the staff although limited English. You design the packaging for your noodles and staff will deep fry and sealed them for you. You get to keep the cute head scarf too! This session alone can take about 60min altogether. That was the fun part. Getting to the packaged cup noodle part was kinda chaotic in part that it became quite crowded with organised excursions of school children and the queue instructions were not explicit, so I hope you get to read this and understand the process better than I did. If you have signed up for the noodle making, you will also possess another set of cards and as I understand, these cards allow you to buy and partake in the packaged cup noodle part. You will still need to pay and buy cups from a vending machine on the side, usually manned by a staff who will ask to see your cards. This part was strange because she was standing after the vending machine so if you did not have the cup and shown her the cards, she'll take your cards and ask that you buy the cups from the vending machine which will be now midway in your current queue. Or if you have purchased the cups but do not have the cards, God bless you. You then take lids from the staff near vending machine and get yourself onto a free table and start your best Picasso impersonations with the available colour pens. You bring your ugly looking cups into the queue that brings you to the part where you get to choose your ingredients (I think it was limited to 4 items). You pass the cups to the staff behind the glass where they'll ask that you turn the wheel just to see your cup get filled with the already shaped and prepared noodles. You move on down to pick your chosen ingredients. Staff waves you to confirm your cup noodles are yours before sealing them and you collect it from a cute opening. You bring your minted cup noodles to the side where you grab one of those transparent bag which will function as a carrier for your cup noodles. Important to note: position your cup as you would like it to be "displayed" in the carrier since it acts like a window also. Once positioned, pump air through the slot and the carrier will bloat up securing the cup in place. String it up once fully pumped and you have yourself a...

As a fan of instant noodles (and noodles in general) I really looked forward to visiting this museum. It's not very big, but it surprised me in a few ways.

The entrance is free. There's a gallery of every type of instant noodles made by Nissin. But one of the cool things inside is the ability to make your own cup of noodles. There is a hall with tables with colourful markers where you can colour a noodle cup to your liking. A cup for colouring costs ¥500. I heard about the cup colouring, but the first surprise was that that's not all! Because there's a noodle factory at the end of the hall, where you choose your soup base and toppings and they seal it for you on the spot! And you can actually take it home and eat it!! I love it!

You can close your cup in an inflatable bag, but if you're going to take your noodles with you on a plane, you shouldn't inflate it, the pressure can destroy your cup!

Another surprise was the detailed history of how Momofuku Ando figured a way to manufacture instant noodles, and then noodles in a cup. I liked the history part very much.

That's about it. There's still a second floor where you can reserve a seat beforehand for workshops where you can make your own instant noodles from scratch!

And there's a store at the end with some nifty gadgets.

I would recommend for a different type of...

A must if you're in Osaka! I found that the Yokohama location is a bit too busy (they tend to be sold out) but the Osaka one is very good. It's a little bit far from the city centre, but worth it! Admission is free, you just need to pay if you want to do any of their workshops. They have the chicken ramen workshop (1k JPY) or if you want to build your own cup noodle (500JPY). We opted to build our own cup noodles. You get to choose a free powder packet too.

Going through the museum is nice, there are walls of the history of cup noodles and all the different flavours that they have. Once you go through the museum and make your way to the actual workshop, you buy the ticket from the vending machine (which gives you an empty cup noodle cup) and you get to use the markers to decorate it. There are lots of staff to point you to an empty table, and I'm glad that their markers weren't dry or anything. Then you take your decorated cup and line up to go through the actual process of filling it. You get to turn levers to put the noodles into the cup, choose your soup base and fillings, and then it gets sealed with the lid, and then vaccuum-sealed. They said it lasts 1 month from the current date.

I do wish that they had clear lids to display what's on the inside. It's not my intention...