When in Tokyo, I hop on the train to spend a few hours in Yokohama. Yokohama is lovely, and I usually take a short walk around the harbour, visit China Town, and have some delicious food in a local restaurant, but I don’t recall much else about the city, because my memories of Yokohama are taken up by the Cup Noodle Museum and the Kirin Factory Tour. Really, these are the two reasons why I return here.
Even though I am not particularly a fan of Cup Noodle or other instant noodles – I’ve had them a few times, always on a whim, and almost always when on holiday, when I was too hungry and too close to breaking budget to get anything else – I love the Cup Noodle Museum: it makes me feel a huge amount of hope and optimism about my life and the future of humanity. In fact, I have a Cup Noodle Museum poster on my cork board in my office that I look at everyday: it’s all text, and the first line is, “There is no such things as ‘too late’ in life. Failure does not provide us with the key to success. An idea cannot be commercialized is nothing more than a whim.” It comes full of Engrish, which adds to the beauty of imperfection, curiosity, and authenticity that our lives should embrace.
The museum is a playground, and both adults and children are welcome. It’s full of colour, life-sized 3-D exhibits, things to touch, see and experience. Much of the museum follows the story of Momofoku and how he came to invent instant ramen and turn it into a food enjoyed world wide. Most of the story is centred around the idea that a person must not give up when encountering failure, but try different ways of approaching a problem.
My favourite room is the exhibit of all the Cup Noodles that have been released all over the world. I also usually pay the bit extra to go to the ramen factory, create my own noodle cup mix, and walk out of the museum with my own Cup Noodle hanging from my neck like a necklace. It is my dinner for the night.
The Kirin Factory Tour is equally inspirational. The English translations are joyful, and talk about the hops as if they were living, breathing organisms that live to make delicious beer. Though it is a tour of a beer factory, it feels very much like a lesson on how we should live our lives, prioritizing experience, curiosity, a sense of wonder at the beauty that surrounds us. At the end of the tour, participants get to taste three Kirin beers. After the tour, the beer is especially good as I’m thinking of those hard working, inspired hops that aided the brewing process to create this marvellous magic potion that aims to please my taste buds and make me feel refreshed. Kampai!