In the cozy seaside village of Yokohama, you’ll find the fabled Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum. Although it’s dubbed a “museum,” your experience 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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