The Unforgettable Travel Accounts: Fun outing at Osaka Ramen Museum and Museum of Housing and Living

Day 6

On the early morning of Day 6, we checked out the rooms after breakfast at the hotel. We left our luggage at the hotel as we still had half a day tour in Osaka, before we depart for Hiroshima (広島) in the late afternoon. Our first stop of the day was the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, which is located quite far away from the city centre. After leaving the New Osaka Hotel Shinsaibashi, we took the subway from Shinsaibashi Subway Station (心斎橋駅) to Umeda Subway Station (梅田駅) on the Midosuji Line, followed by changing to the Umeda Hankyu Station (梅田駅) to take the Hankyu Takarazuka Line to Ikeda Station (池田駅).

Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum

From the Ikeda Station (池田駅), it was another 5 min short walk before we reached the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum. You might not have heard of the name Momofuku Ando, but you must have heard about the Nissin instant noodle. Mr Momofuku Ando is the inventor of instant noodle and cup noodle, and the founder of the company Nissin Foods. Thanks to his invention in 1958, now everyone can enjoy a hot bowl of noodles at quick convenience and affordable price.

Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum

Statue of Mr Momofuku Ando

Opening Hours

Book your Osaka hotel here with Agoda

Buy your JR Pass with Klook

Entrance to the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum is free. We started the tour at the main exhibition hall. We immediately caught attention of the impressive "Instant Ramen Tunnel", which displayed the different types of instant noodles created by Nissin since their founding in the 1950s.

osaka momofuku ando instant ramen museum tunnel

The Instant Ramen Tunnel

Chicken Ramen on the right most, the World's first instant noodle

The other half of the exhibition hall focus on the life story of Mr Momofuku Ando, his invention of the instant noodle and cup noodle, and the history of Nissin.

osaka momofuku ando instant ramen museum exhibition

Exhibition area

Re-production of Mr Momofuku Ando's work area in the 1950s

Mass production of the Chicken Ramen

osaka momofuku ando instant ramen museum exhibition vending machine

Cup Noodle vending machine

Noodle making equipment

osaka momofuku ando instant ramen museum exhibition space

Instant Ramen going to space!

Cross-sectional view of a Cup Noodle model

After the tour of the exhibition hall, we proceeded to the next area, My Cupnoodles Factory, which is the highlight of the museum. Over there, we could make our own customised cup noodle, at a price of 300 Yen each. The whole place was full of people, mainly children and their parents.

My Cupnoodle Factory

We joined in the queue to get our customised cup noodles too, as a form of souvenir. First, we had to purchase the empty cup from a vending machine, 300 Yen each as mentioned earlier.

Purchase the empty cup from the vending machine

Second, find an empty table to design our cups. Markers of different colours were provided, then it was up to our creativity to design the cups.

Cup Design Area

Let's start design the cups

Our completed creations

After we finished designing the cups, we proceeded to the last station to fill the ingredients. Pass the empty cup to the staff, and they would fill it with the noodle.

Queue up to fill the noodle and ingredients

Filling of noodle to the cup

Next, we had to choose the ingredients. We can choose 1 soup flavour (original, curry, seafood or chili tomato) and up to 4 toppings (such as Hiyoko-chan fish sausage, crab-flavoured fish sausage, corn, shrimp, cube roast pork and egg etc).

Filling of soup flavour and toppings

Our customised cup noodle

After the filling of the ingredients, the cup would be sealed, followed by shrink wrapped. And that's done! We collected the cups and everyone of us were satisfied with our creations.

Cup noodle sealed

Cup noodle shrink wrapped and completed

Overall, it had been an enjoyable trip at the museum, especially we had learnt about the history of instant and cup noodles, as well as its manufacturing process.

Lunch @ Tenjinbashi-suiji Shopping Street (天神橋筋商店街)

After the museum tour, we made our way back to the Ikeda Station (池田駅), took the Hankyu Takarazuka Line to Umeda Hankyu Station (梅田駅). From there, made a transfer by walking to the Higashi-Umeda Subway Station (東梅田駅) and another journey via the Tanimachi Line to Tenjinbashisuji Rokuchome Subway Station (天神橋筋六丁目駅). Walking out of the station, this is the northern end of the Tenjinbashi-suiji Shopping Street (天神橋筋商店), the longest covered shopping arcade in Japan, more than two kilometres long. As it was already quite late, we had a quick lunch at the nearby MacDonald's.

Tenjinbashi-suiji Shopping Street

Doraemon merchandise on sale at MacDonald's

Our MacDonald's lunch

Osaka Museum of Housing and Living (大阪くらしの今昔館)

After our lunch, we headed for the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living (大阪くらしの今昔館), our last attraction in Osaka. It is located on the 8th and 9th floor of the Osaka Municipal Housing Information Center building, which is literally just opposite the MacDonald's where we had our lunch.

osaka museum of housing and living ticket

Entrance tickets to Osaka Museum of Housing and Living

The main highlight of the museum is the life-size street scene re-production of Osaka city during the Edo period (1603 - 1867), which is the only one of its kind in Japan. Through walking along the streets, we got to learn about the lifestyle of Osaka in the past, the architecture of the houses, the tools and ornaments used.

Overview of the "town"

Walking along the re-created old street

We could find the Town Meeting Hall, cosmetic shop, medicine shop, kitchen, tenement houses etc. There was even day and night time simulation, which gave the visitors another different set of experience.

Figurine shop

Shop selling imports from China and Korea

Cosmetic shop

Book shop

Kitchen

Fire Lookout Tower of the Town Meeting Hall

Tea set display

Residential house

Dining area

Medicine shop

A pair of dogs on the street

Well

The moon is out (Night time simulation)

There's also a place where visitors could rent and dress in Kimono (for 30 min) to walk around the streets.

Kimono rental

Back Alley

Next, we made our way to the 8th floor, which exhibited miniatures depicting the scenes of Osaka during the Meiji and post-war period. Over here, there's also displays on household equipment used during those days.

Journey to Hiroshima (広島)

After the museum tour, it was time to bid farewell to Osaka. We went back to our New Osaka Hotel Shinsaibashi to collect our luggage, then took the subway to Shin-Osaka Station (新大阪駅). We would be taking the Shinkansen Sakura to Hiroshima Station (広島駅), which the journey would take around 1.5 hours. Before we depart, we bought the famous 551 Horai pork bun and the Rikuro Ojisan no Mise cheese cake from the train station.

Horai 551 Pork Bun

Rikuro Ojisan no Mise Cheese Cake

Cheese Cake on final touch

Awaiting Shinkansen ride to Hiroshima

rikuro ojisan no mise cheese cake horai 551 pork bun

Having a quick bite on the Shinkansen

Once we reached Hiroshima Station (広島駅), we were already hungry and went to the building (Asse Eki) above the station to look for a place to have our dinner. We went to the 2nd floor and settled at a restaurant called Ajiyoshi (あじよし), which specialise in noodles and Donburi (rice bowl dish). I ordered the deep-fried oyster Donburi, because I thought it was quite special. Apparently, I later found out that oyster dish is quite common and popular in Hiroshima.

Fried Oyster Donburi

After our dinner, we made our way to the Hiroshima Hiroden Station (located in front of the railway station) to take the tram to Honkawa-cho Hiroden Station (本川町), which our Airbnb accommodation is located nearby.