Table Of Contents

1. About Sakuraco
2. Hakone's Onsen Culinary Traditions
3. Hakone Sweets
4. Hakone Savouries and Tea

About Sakuraco

Sakuraco is a monthly authentic Japanese snack subscription box that supports local Japanese snack makers. Each box has 20 traditional, authentic, and artisan Japanese snacks, including Japanese teas and special tableware. The treats in each box are authentic, as seen in this month’s collections, which were made in collaboration with the Kanagawa prefectural government.

What sets Sakuraco apart is the authentic snacks you receive and the stories behind them. Each box comes with a beautifully illustrated guide that outlines each item’s origin and ingredients and highlights the cultural significance of the selection. This makes each bite a journey through Japan’s rich culinary landscape.

Hakone’s Onsen Culinary Traditions

Hakone is renowned for its hot springs, known as onsens. Nestled in a volcanic region that gifts it with abundant geothermal activity, Hakone offers a diverse range of onsen experiences. The onsens are scattered throughout the area, from secluded springs in the mountains to grand bathhouses that are part of luxurious ryokan (traditional inns). We participated in both of these experiences while we were in Hakone and found the mineral-rich waters, believed to have healing properties, to be a profoundly relaxing experience that also felt like an immersive Japanese cultural experience. I loved how we received this beautifully illustrated woodcut print of Hakone’s Hayakawa River inside Sakuraco’s Hakone Box. I walked along this river when I visited Hakone and was mesmerized to see how this landscape remains the same even hundreds of years later.

Hakone Sweets

When we booked our private onsen, we were treated to some traditional savouries and sweets to make the experience even more indulgent. If you want to have the same experience, take a hot bath and relax with some of the Hakone treats included in this month’s Sakuraco Japanese Treat Box. The Tsuru no Sato Marshmallow is a soft, fluffy marshmallow treat that charmingly resembles a petite egg yet is filled with a luscious yellow bean paste, offering a subtly sweet flavour. One of the most popular treats in Onsens in Hakone is Onsen Tamagos. These eggs are slow-cooked in the naturally hot waters of the onsen, resulting in a creamy, soft texture. The egg whites are just firm enough, while the yolks remain runny. Therefore, the Tsuru no Sato Marshmallow feels like such a perfect sweet reminiscent of those onsen eggs. 

The perfect accompaniment to your relaxing at-home onsen experience is a Matcha Konjac Warabimochi. Warabimochi is made from bracken starch, giving it a jelly-like texture that is slightly chewy. This dessert is particularly popular during the summer months in Japan due to its refreshing quality. It is also popular in Onsens for the same reason.

Hakone Savouries and Tea

For a savoury addition to your snacking session, the Wasabi Okaki

Minoya Arare are rice crackers coated in bold and addictive flavour, combining savoury soy sauce with a tantalizing hint of wasabi! I love the spicy flavour alongside the sweets, as they feel like the perfect juxtaposition.

The perfect complement to these treats is the Hakone Story Ryokucha, a luxurious green tea revered for its fresh flavour and health benefits. This tea uses authentic, deep-steamed leaves cultivated in the Makinohara Plateau in Shizuoka.

In every box, you’ll also receive a Japanese Home Good, such as ceramics, chopsticks or furoshiki (gift wrap cloths). In this month’s box, we received a Marquetry Plate. Marquetry is a woodworking tradition that originated in Hakone centuries ago. Artisans use various naturally coloured wood pieces to make intricately beautiful geometric designs. The same marquetry woodwork’s meticulous craftsmanship and art are mirrored here on the pltes, which makes the perfect serving platter to hold all your delicious treats.

If you’re as enchanted by Japanese culture and cuisine as I am, Sakuraco offers a delightful taste of Japan. I invite you to discover the joy and tradition of Japanese snacks with me. Check out their offerings, and let’s travel together through each savoury and sweet bite.

For more info on Sakuraco’s Japanese Snacks & Candy Subscription Boxes, head to sakura.co

Happy Culinary Travels, Adventurers!

The post Savouring Hakone: Japanese Snack Box Brings Traditional Snacks to Your Home first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.

Table Of Contents

1. Access to the Museum
2. Admission and Hours
   • What is Ramen?
   • About the Museum
3. Gallery Floor
4. Street Replica Dining Room
   • Decor of the Museum
5. The Ramen Varieties
6. How to Order
7. The Outdoor Bar
8. Don't' Skip Exploring the rest of the Museum
   • Gift Shop
     • Happy Travels, Adventurers!

Access to the Museum

Most people who visit the museum are coming from Tokyo on a day trip to Yokohama. The trip takes about 50 minutes. Take the JR Tokaido Line straight to Higashi-Kanagawa Station. Change lines to the Yokohama City Subway and take the green line to Shinyokohama station. From there it’s an 8-minute walk to the museum.

Admission and Hours

To enter the museum, the fee is 310 yen ($3) for adults and 100 yen ($1) for children and seniors. The entry price is very low, but you are asked to purchase at least two bowls of ramen when inside as a part of the admission. There is no way to monitor this; it’s more of an honour system. But trust me, it’s not difficult to want to try a lot more than just two varieties. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. every day except for holidays. The ramen shops inside stop serving 30 minutes before the museum closes.

What is Ramen?

Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish from China and is now one of the most popular things to eat in Japan. So much so that many people might even assume that ramen is originally Japanese. The museum is dedicated to educating people about the flavours, traditions and specialties that different kinds of ramen from all of Japan possess.

About the Museum

The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum was first opened in 1994 as a one-stop shop for people to sample all varieties of ramen, which has been dubbed the national dish of Japan. The museum’s interior is designed to replicate the streets of Japan in 1958. It was in 1958 that the first instant ramen was invented in Japan, so the year is of great significance to the museum.

Gallery Floor

The museum is made up of three floors. The first floor is the gallery, where plaques on the walls detail the history of ramen noodles over the years. Along one wall, there is a mosaic of instant ramen bowl designs sold in convenience stores worldwide, highlighting the most attractive designs. The information and history are pretty bare bones, so if you’re looking for something more in-depth, check out the Ramen Museum in Osaka, which is much more thorough.

Street Replica Dining Room

After touring the gallery, you descend into the 2-storey basement, where immediately you are awestruck upon walking into a scale replica of the town of Shitamachi, a small suburb of Tokyo set in 1985. The 1950s was a boom time for Tokyo, and it is looked back at with rose-tinted glasses by many older Japanese historians. This was the Showa era when young people still lived in small villages, cared for their parents and cherished the small-town lifestyle. Those same towns are almost fading away because they are losing all their young people to major cities like Tokyo.

Decor of the Museum

The details in the design of this faux city are immaculate. The scene is set at dusk, and the city’s twinkling lights have started to shine. We see a variety of ramen shops surrounding the exterior of an old train station in the country. These ramen shops would catch commuters on their way home and be central to small-town life. There is a lived-in feeling to this place, a grittiness that helped the authenticity of the experience.

Along the walls are fake advertisements and retro signage — posters advertising rooms for rent, blockbuster movies and even the latest in electronics. Clothes hung out to dry, and a subtle breeze blew through the air.

The Ramen Varieties

There are nine different restaurants open throughout the two lower floors serving up all sorts of different variations of ramen, each specializing in a regional flavour profile. The small brochure you receive with your admission describes every shop and what they serve. But the best way to explore them is to try them all.

To distinguish the different types of ramen, the place to first look is at the broth. In the south, they use pork bone (tonkatsu) broth; in the north, they use a clear chicken and vegetable broth seasoned with salt and a pad of butter; in other regions, they prefer a soy sauce or miso broth to bring in some extra flavour. My favourite is the pork bone broth. The broth is thick and fatty, mixed with the noodles. This ramen is a perfect, hearty dish.

Other regional specialties include toppings and noodles. You can have wontons, roast pork, bamboo shoots and (due to the Korean influence) a massive helping of hot chilis. There is even a vegetarian option made without pork broth for those with that dietary restriction.

How to Order

There are usually two lines in front of each shop; one to line up to purchase a meal ticket and the other to get your seat inside. You need to buy a ticket for your ramen from a small vending machine outside the shop before you can get seated. All the buttons are in both English and Japanese, so don’t worry about having to translate. Once you’ve bought your ticket, you can line up and be given a seat inside.

One important thing to note, you cannot sit inside the restaurant without purchasing ramen. So get ready to eat a lot, or you’ll have to wait outside like a chump. I had to do this while my husband enjoyed more noodles. You can buy a “mini ramen,” which is about 2/3 the size of a regular bowl but will allow you to fill up more throughout your visit.

Once seated inside, these small shop fronts open up into regular-sized ramen restaurants, and you’d never even know you weren’t on the streets of Tokyo. There are tables for groups, doubles and even single seats around the bar, so you won’t have to wait too long to be seated. Weekends and holidays are busier, but on weekdays we barely had to wait at all. Find the shortest line and start there.

The Outdoor Bar

In the centre of the room are a few tables and an outdoor bar where you can order a variety of local alcoholic beverages. In the summertime, they also offer ‘kakigori,’ which is shaved ice covered in sweet syrup flavoured to your preference. Sitting out under the twinkle lights and neon signs, this is a great place to take a break between ramen dishes.

Don’t’ Skip Exploring the rest of the Museum

After you’ve filled up on ramen, you can walk around the first basement level to check out the “dashi” or dime shops. These little shops sell penny candy, old retro toys and even pin-up photos of vintage Japanese film stars. Fill up a small plastic basket with all the sweets the little kid inside you desires.

The side street around the ramen shops weaves around the museum; hidden alleys and dead ends make the entire place feel real. See if you can find your way to the ice cream shops where you can cool down after all that hot ramen. There is also a small bar if you feel like a break between rounds of ramen.

Wandering the narrow alleyways, there are also fake storefronts selling cigarettes, cameras, cosmetics and more. Crawling up the wall are dozens upon dozens of ads written in Japanese. I wished I had been able to read them, as I’m sure they helped set the scene for the surroundings.

Gift Shop

On the upper level, you’ll find the gift shop. This shop has many ramen-themed trinkets and souvenirs, and they even sell vacuumed-packed ramen packages you can customize with your favourite ingredients to take home with you. They can also print a custom package design with your face imprinted on the packet. These were so cool, but be sure you are allowed to bring them into your country before assuming you can bring them home, as some customs might not let the meat products through. It’s still a great thing to do, and you even eat back at your hotel before you head on the plane home.

While some people might not think the trip down to Yokohama is worth visiting this museum, Yokohama is such an incredible city, and I highly recommend adding it to your itinerary. While exploring this seaside city, make some time to visit the Shinyokohama Ramen Museum and experience the entirety of Tokyo’s ramen scene in one afternoon. Come hungry and leave happy!

Happy Travels, Adventurers!

The post The Ultimate Guide to Eating Your Way Through Yokohama’s Amazing Ramen Museum first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.

The Best Yokohama City Guide

1. Access
2. History
3. #1. Take a Walk Along Osanbashi Pier
4. #2. Yokohama Marine Tower
5. #3. Harbour View Park
6. #4. Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature
7. #5. Minato Mirai 21
8. #6. Sample Bashamichi Ice
9. #7. Landmark Tower
10. #8. Yokohama Cosmo World
11. #9. Red Brick Warehouse
12. #10. Explore Chinatown
13. #11. Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum
14. #12. See a Baseball Game
15. #13. Cup Noodles Museum
16. #14. Sankeien Garden

Access

To get to Yokohama, you simply need to take a train from Tokyo on the Tokyu-Tohoku Line, JR Tokaido Line or Keihin-Tohoku Line. It can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to arrive, depending on where you are leaving from, but no matter the departure point, Yokohama is less than an hour away.

History

Yokohama is most notable for its large, international seaport but it was not always such a hub. Before 1859 it was no more than a small fishing village. For years and years, Yokohama remained isolated until the port was built and with it came foreign trade and a great economic surge.

The port was officially opened on June 2nd, 1859, and immediately became the centre of international trade in Japan. Asian immigrants and Japanese settlers began occupying the low-lying districts of the city while the English residents took up in areas overlooking the city, an district now dubbed “The Bluffs”.

The biggest trade industry in the port was silk, and their largest trading partner was Great Britain. With westerners coming into port more and more, they brought with them, Western technology. In the 1870s Yokohama saw the construction of their first newspaper press, the installation of gas powered street lamps and even their first railway – connecting Yokohama to bigger cities like Tokyo and Shinagawa. Jules Verne famously wrote about the city of Yokohama in his book, “Around the World in Eighty Days” despite never actually visiting. He described the city as a fast-developing and international landscape with flourishes of Japanese flare.

#1. Take a Walk Along Osanbashi Pier

A walk along the waterfront is the perfect way to introduce yourself to the city. The Osanbashi Pier is a modern piece of urban design made from wood and grass but despite its contemporary appearance it still feels like an old fashioned boardwalk. From here you can view all the different boats and ferries coming into the port. Parked right out front on the water is the museum ship Hikawa Maru. The Hikawa Maru first set sail in 1929 and made the journey from Kobe to Seattle. After years of wartime service, the ship was permanently berthed in 1961 and turned into a floating museum, hotel and restaurant.

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#2. Yokohama Marine Tower

Yokohama Marine Tower is the tallest inland lighthouse in the world, standing 106 meters-tall. On a clear day, visitors in the tower can see all the way to Mount Fuji from the observation deck. Currently the Tower is closed for renovation, set to reopen in 2022. It’s still an iconic piece of the skyline and great to view even from the ground.

#3. Harbour View Park

As you walk along the waterfront, you are in the middle of Minato no mieru oka kōen, or Harbour View Park. The park houses a beautiful rose garden whose flowers bloom throughout the Summer and well into the Fall. Benches are located all along the waterfront gardens and are the picture-perfect place to sit and enjoy the view.

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#4. Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature

Near the end of the park, you’ll find the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature. The museum is a quiet place to views some insightful exhibitions about impactful Japanese writers. Their notebook, diary, manuscripts, favourite items, and first editions of early-modern literature are displayed for exhibition.

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#5. Minato Mirai 21

Minato Mirai 21, or the central district, creates Yokohama’s iconic skyline. The Minato Mirai is much like the urban utopia that Jules Verne wrote about in his book, although built years after the fact. An old shipyard was transformed into an area for metropolitan development in 1980 to create the Minato Mirai. This district offers up shopping centres, an amusement park, a relaxation centre with traditional hot spring as well as popular museums and park space.

#6. Sample Bashamichi Ice

Yokohama was the birthplace of ice cream in Japan, and to this day Bashamichi Ice is still making this unique, original recipe made from eggs, milk, and sugar topped with a cookie shell which you have to break to get to the ice cream. Kind of like an ice cream Crème brûlée.

#7. Landmark Tower

Landmark Tower, located in the Minato Mirai, is 296 meters tall, and from 1993 until 2014 it was the tallest building in Japan. On the 69th floor, there is an observatory Sky Garden, where you have a 360 view of the city and on clear days you can even see Mount Fuji!

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#8. Yokohama Cosmo World

On the man-made island in the centre of Minato Mirai is Yokohama Cosmo World. Cosmo World is a modest amusement park where people of all ages can go to enjoy a few carefree hours of fun. In the midst of the park is the main feature, the Cosmo Clock. The Cosmo Clock is a giant Ferris wheel, which when it opened, was the largest Ferris wheel in the world standing at 108-meters tall. The wheel’s 60 passenger cars can carry up to eight people, and the full rotation takes about 15 minutes. If it’s a clear day, the views of the surrounding mountains, ocean and city are excellent!

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#9. Red Brick Warehouse

Beside the Cosmo World is Yokohama’s Red Brick Warehouse. The building was constructed from old government-funded warehouses which were built in the Meiji and Taisho eras. Now the buildings house a variety of cafes, restaurants and shops. If you’re lucky, see if you can catch a musical performance in the event plaza located between the two buildings. We stopped into one of the buildings along the water for a quick cup of coffee to help warm us up and performing inside the cafe was a classical musical group rehearsing for their performance at a concert hall later that week! You never know what you’re going to find when you explore.

#10. Explore Chinatown

Yokohama’s proximity to the port meant that it became a popular destination for expats and became home to many Chinese immigrants who settled in, what is now, the world’s largest Chinatown. To learn more about Yokohama’s Chinatown, you can review my full guide!

#11. Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum

Although it’s dubbed a “museum”, the experience you’ll have at the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum is more in line with a trip to Epcot. The museum is almost like visiting a food-themed amusement park which sends you back in time in tastes and visuals. The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum was first opened in 1994 as a one-stop shop for people to sample all different varieties of Ramen, which has been dubbed the national dish of Japan. The interior of the museum is designed to replicate the streets of Japan in 1958. There are nine different restaurants open throughout the two lower floors serving up all sorts of different variations of ramen, each specializing in a regional flavour profile.

#12. See a Baseball Game

Baseball in Japan is a national pastime, more popular than it is in North America. Attending a game for yourself is absolutely unmissable if you’re there during the season. The Yokohama BayStars play regularly at Yokohama Stadium and if you have the chance to see them play their rivals, the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, you’re in for a real treat! Yokohama Stadium is an outdoor stadium so just be sure to check the weather before heading to the game. That being said, outdoor baseball is truly spectacular and this stadium is arguably better than the one in Tokyo so it’s well worth the trip to Yokohama.

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#13. Cup Noodles Museum

If you didn’t get enough information about the history of noodle in Japan from the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, head down to the Cup Noodles Museum. You even get to design your own cup noodles at the end of the tour. It’s a great place to take the kids if you’re travelling with the family.

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#14. Sankeien Garden

The traditional Japanese Sankeien Gardens are one of the largest I’d visited in Japan. It is over 175,000 square meters and is dotted with 17 different historic buildings throughout. Admission is 500 yen to enter where you can explore the classical Japanese zen gardens, koi ponds, calming streams which weave themselves around relaxing pathways surrounded by incredible architecture.

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If there is anything else I can say about Yokohama is that it is the perfect escape for anyone who feels overwhelmed with the big city. Despite Yokohama itself being a huge city with a large population, it doesn’t feel that way. If you steer clear of the central district and just spend the day walking along the boardwalk or exploring side streets, you’re going to find so much more than you expect. Unlike Tokyo, which has been overly modernised in the last few decades, Yokohama’s boom time has long past and the relics of those times are still standing, and have not been replaced with newer, more modern edifices. Take the journey out here and see what treasure you come across.

The post The Best Yokohama City Guide: 14 Things You Must See and Do first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.