Day 6 - Travelogue - Yokohama , Nissin Cup Noodle Museum, World Porters Mall, Landmark Tower Shopping Area

April 01, 2023

Day 6 - Travelogue - Yokohama , Nissin Cup Noodle Museum, World Porters Mall, Landmark Tower Shopping Area

Back to day 5 - Yokohama, Giant Gundam at Gundam Factory, Landmark Tower Shopping, Harry Potter Christmas Trees

It was actually a little hard to believe that six days had gone by already. The stress of hurting my foot, then adjusting my schedule, and moving at a slower pace had made the time fly by. I decided to just take it easy today. I'd stick closer to the hotel today, walking less, but still a lot spread over a day. My original schedule had me trekking through Enoshima on the coast, but I figured taking it easier would be better as I still had nine more days of travel.

I didn't go for the hotel's expensive breakfast buffet, which did look very nice. Instead, I went down to the konbini in the hotel and picked up breakfast there. I tried out some tasty rice balls, had a delicious egg and ham sandwich with fluffy bread along with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. I noticed that the convenience stores in the hotel (it had 2) were pretty busy overall with lots of people buying snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner there as Japanese konbini have pretty good food for cheap. The foods are usually pretty fresh, being restocked daily. It is better than what you find in your local supermarket here or even at some coffee shops which have days old stuff in the fridge.

My breakfast.

Click here for pictures of the konbini from my hotel and a small story about konbini dining.

After eating I went out for a walk over to Red Brick Square, which is a set of old brick warehouses that have been converted to shops and restaurants. The place was closed for renovations, opening mid-December, after I left, but they were still holding a Christmas Market in the evenings there.

Red Brick Square.

The Nissin Cup Noodle Museum was open by the time I walked back to it. I've been to the museum once before, but I do like Cup Noodles and many Nissin products, so it's kind of fun for me. Just look at all the instant noodles I review on this blog! I arrived when there was no crowd and easily bought a ticket. Many venues in Japan all want you to buy tickets online now and it is a pain in the butt as they all use different software and you have to create accounts, etc. Anyways, it wasn't a problem to get the tickets while I was there. I went upstairs to the Make Your Own Cup Noodle Area. You buy a cup and the staff direct you to a table where you get to customize the cup with various markers. Think of something cool to draw on the cup. My brain wasn't too imaginative that morning. Once you are done, you take the cup up to the front where a staff member can help you fill the cup. You insert a noodle block into the cup and then choose three toppings and a soup base for the cup. Afterwards, the they seal the cup for you and shrink wrap it. You can then take the cup over to another area and put it inside a cool, inflatable packing bag on a string loop that you can wear to show off your Cup Noodle work of art. It's a fun little project. Above this level are a restaurant level where you can eat all kinds of ramen and below this floor is the exhibit floor where you can see the history and technology behind instant noodles. I'd seen most of the exhibits before and spent less time here than most people. My favourite part of this floor is the room that shows the timeline of Nissin instant noodle products and all of the products displayed on the wall.

The museum has a Rube Goldberg Machine in the front.

The Cup Noodle making area.

You get a cup and can decorate it here with the various markers.

My cup with fall ginkgo and maple leaves.

The Cup Noodle finishing station where they put in the noodles and toppings.

Space Ramen!

Astronaut instant noodles.

This new type of Nissin Kaizen instant noodle and rice where it gives you a complete balanced meal.

The origins of instant noodle. 1958, the world's first instant ramen where you just add boiling water and wait 3 minutes.

The room of Nissin Ramen history with hundreds of varieties of noodles.

Some of their current Cup Noodles! Curry is awesome!

Replica of the original shack where instant noodles were invented.

After you are done at the museum you can wander down to the gift shop. It is much improved from the first time I went. They have many unique and different noodle products and nifty souvenirs you can buy now.

Gift shop instant noodle making / serving bowls for Chicken Ramen and some souvenir varieties of Cup Noodle.

The Chicken Ramen mascot. in towels and face cloths. Plenty of other souvenirs too.

It was afternoon now and the day had turned sunnier, much warmer than the previous day. I walked across the street from the museum to the World Porter's Mall. This mall has a huge Bandai-Namco store called "Bandai Namco Cross" and there are piles of other shops and restaurants to go through too.

Landmark Tower. The Sky Cabin gondolas are in the front. You can either walk over the islands and bridges to get here, or take the gondola!

Astroland amusement park.

My lunch of tempura and udon noodles.

This is what I ordered! Was tasty.

Life sized model of a racer from a video game I'm not familiar with.

Piles of Pokemon model kits.

Ultraman action figures.

Pacman! Don't let him chomp you.

Gundam White Base.

Spy x Family. One of the currently popular anime.

Demon Slayer Tanjiro Kamada - from another currently popular anime.

Tanjiro's sister, Nezuko

Jujutsu Kaisen - another popular anime.

Poster from Love Live Superstar, another anime that just finished running.

There was an arcade area where you could play games.

The arcade area had UFO claw machines too and hundreds of gashapon machines to buy capsule toys.

I then relaxed at the hotel, visiting the convenience store again, and did some reading and played some games on my phone. There was a Pokemon Go event going on with a bunch of four star raids happening for some of the mega evolved starters. Good thing for remote raid passes! When evening started, I headed out for a little bit of shopping and dinner. Instead of taking the Sky Cabin this time, I walk over to the Landmark Tower by going around the Astroland amusement park and coming up from the ocean side of it. This was a Saturday night and it was busy at the park and in the malls.

I had dinner in the malls after shopping for a bit. Tonight I tried Ippudo Ramen for dinner. It was an interesting experience to order there. You scanned a barcode for your seat and it took you to a website where you selected what you wanted to order. You placed your order and the food came to your spot! Ippudo has good tonkotsu ramen and their little half-sized gyoza are always yummy.

Big bowl of ramen.

Nice firm and thin noodles.

I was looking for a DAISO store there and found a small one in the basement where the IPPUDO was. Google Maps can be pretty cool when they show multiple levels in the building. It was just a few hundred feet away.

The Nippon Maru sailing ship and Astroland ferris wheel all lit up at night.

After eating I headed over to the Yokohama Cross Night Xmas Illumination at Shinko Chuo Square. I walked over to the Sky Cabin gondolas again rode it back over to the island where the illuminations were. The illuminations were a kind of experiental event where you walked through a bunch of light displays. It was pretty cool and of course there were light shows synced to music playing. That wrapped up my last day in Yokohama as my hotel wasn't all that far away to walk back to.