Cup Noodles Museum

Momofuku Ando developed instant ramen in a shed behind his house in Ikeda in 1958, after a year of trial and error on the problem of how to dry a noodle so it would rehydrate; a replica of the shed is here. He then spent years on the packaging problem, and the museum's account of how the cup was arrived at - the noodle block suspended in the middle rather than resting on the bottom, so it hydrates evenly and does not break in transit - is a good piece of design exhibition. The museum was produced as a whole by the art director Kashiwa Sato and is deliberately spare, with an installation wall of some 3,000 instant noodle packages, mostly the company's own, from Japan and around the world. Two workshops: My Cupnoodles, where you decorate a cup and choose a soup and four toppings from a set, and the Chicken Ramen factory, where you make noodles from flour by hand. Both need booking.

What you'll find

• The 1958 shed - a replica of the workshop where instant ramen was developed.
• The cup problem solved - the noodle block suspended mid-cup, explained as design.
• A package wall - some 3,000 instant noodle packages from Japan and abroad.
• Two workshops - blending your own cup, and making noodles by hand from flour.

When to go

All year. Two to three hours. Book the hand-making workshop in advance.

Good to know

The Chicken Ramen factory books out well ahead and cannot be walked into. The My Cupnoodles workshop is charged on top of entry and queues. Closed Tuesdays. Much of the signage is Japanese with English summaries.

Nearby

Minato Mirai's waterfront is beside it; Yokohama Chinatown is south.

Key facts