Alvinology goes to Japan – Day 9 of 14

On the ninth day, we left Tokyo and headed to Osaka (大阪市) via the Shinkansen (新幹線) bullet train. We woke up at 4am in the morning to avoid the frantic Tokyo rush hour crowd at the train station as we were carrying a lot of luggage. For most part of the journey, we were only half-awake.

Upon reaching Osaka, we checked into the local Super Hotel and then headed to the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum (インスタントラーメン発明記念館). The museum is dedicated to instant noodles and cup noodles, and Taiwanese-Japanese inventor and businessman Momofuku Ando (安藤 百福) who created them via the Nissin brand. The museum is located in Ikeda in Osaka, and is located within walking distance of Ikeda Station on the Hankyu-Takarazuka Line. Admission is free.

Momofuku Ando is a very inspirational figure. A late bloomer, he invented instant noodles at 48 and cup noodles at the grand age of 61.

An interesting thing to take note when you visit the museum is the residential home standing just in front of it. The nameplates outside the house bores the same surname as Momofuku Ando. I won’t be surprise is that house belongs to him or his descendants.

At the museum, we got to make our own Nissin cup noodles! I created a Alvinology version while Mark and Meiyen created their own designs. Rachel did not want to make one as she is not a fan of instant noodles and cup noodles as she thinks they are unhealthy food.

We had instant noodles for lunch in the museum. We tried out the cheese flavoured Nissin cup noodles which were not available in Singapore. They tasted quite good, even to Rachel who usually don’t eat cup noodles.

As we headed back to the train station, we passed by a western-style Japanese family restaurant. We decided to head in for more food as the instant noodles were not entirely filling. Rachel and I ordered a beef hamburger steak to share. Mark had a cheese-filled hamburger steak to himself and ordered some potato side dish for Meiyen.

Thereafter, we spent the rest of our day shopping. As we were busy shopping, I did not take much photos for the rest of the day. We had our dinner in a buffet restaurant that serves spaghetti and many different kinds of desert. The customers were mostly Japanese schoolgirls with high-pitch voices. I am not a fan of sweet food. Hence I did not enjoy the meal as much as the other three.

We headed back to our hotel rather early that night as we woke up too early in the morning and were fighting to stay awake throughout the day. That concluded our first day in Osaka.

Links to my previous blog entries on my Japan  trip:

Day 1 – Kansai Airport, Hokkaido

Day 2 – Skiing, Otaru

Day 3 – Asahikawa, Asahiyama Zoo

Day 4 – Sledding, Shiroi Koibito, Crab Buffet

Day 5 – The 60th Sapporo Snow Festival

Day 6 – Staying with the Asai, Shōnan

Day 7 – Ueno, Tokyo

Day 8 – Shibuya and Akihabara, Tokyo

Day 9 – Ikeda, Osaka

Day 10 – Kobe

Day 11 – Kyoto

Day 12 – Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan and Dotonbori

Day 13 – Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge and Mt. Rokko

Day 14 – Return to Singapore

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