The Instant Ramen Museum

The Fun: For 300 yen you can make your very own cup ramen! It’s a hoot.
If you know when you are going in advance try booking into the cooking class for 500 yen. The cooking class is designed with kids in mind, see the website for more info.
Other than that the museum is FREE!
Close to transit.

I’m giving this place 5 stars purely because I enjoyed it so much. It took quite a bit of effort and me luckily finding a Osaka free guide to be able to get here.
Firstly pretty much nothing is in English so you either need to not care or take a Japanese speaker with you. I didn’t go into the museum itself but I think you can hire an English audio guide. I went there to make my own Ramen. You need to book and have a minimum of two people. I had someone who could translate for me but for the cooking class it’s not really essentials as they have video instructions plus you have someone on hand to help out. I just watched what he was doing and was fine. I only needed my translator a couple of times.
After the cooking class I went up and made my own cup of noodles. You get to choose up to four ingredients. Both these noodles and the ones you make need to be eaten within a month.
It costs a few hundred yen to do the cooking class and the cup noodles that you pic the ingredients for are also a few hundred yen.
You’ll find there is mainly school children there for the cooking class but on our table it was all adults, tourists mainly or out of towners.

This place is pretty small compared to another ramen museum in Yokohama but I’ll choose this over the other one any day! Best thing is that there is no entrance fee. Only ¥300 to make your own cup noodle.
Not crowded at all but wasn’t totally empty either. There isn’t much to see except the first floor where the gift shop is also located.
Nice place to spend half a day cause it takes a while to get here from downtown and also because there’s some places to walk around near the station.
Ippudo nearby! Don’t miss it.

I was a bit hesitant about coming here since Ikeda is pretty far out from downtown Osaka/​where we were staying (I think around 30 – 40 minutes by rail), but it turned out to be worth the trek! No admission fee to the museum itself. The exhibit wasn’t very large, though the hallway of various instant ramen was cool to see. There’s also the option to purchase a ramen making class that you need to reserve ahead of time.
The main attraction was the highlight for me — for 300 yen, you can purchase a Cup Noodles that you can decorate yourself and then watch as the team members assemble it. Everything from picking your own toppings/​soup base to watching it get vacuum sealed. Each person has the option to take home up to 3 Cup Noodles. There are also vending machines and a small dining area in the back for those who’d like to purchase and eat other instant noodles. A fun souvenir you can bring home with you (and eat too)!

I was a little apprehensive on making a 30 minute Rail commute to go to an instant ramen museum, but we actually really enjoyed it.
After coming through the main entrance, we made an immediate left into the gift shop where we were able to get two free audio tour devices (2000 yen cash deposit per device was returned to us when we returned the devices). The free audio tour devices were key to our enjoyment: Channel 1 repeats every 5 minutes, and is in sync with a movie that plays on the wall to the right of the wooden house across from the gift shop. Channel 2 plays the audio for a 13 minute movie in theater.
We thoroughly enjoyed both movies and looking at the memorabilia in general. Although we didn’t opt to make our own custom ramen, we did go to the machines in the back left and ordered a cup of ramen out of the machine for proper closure. :)

I made a huge effort to come to this museum and it did not disappoint! This museum was the coolest thing, and its free! They have employees who speak Japanese, English, and Chinese. The museum part is short but interactive and cool AND you can pay ¥300 to make your own Cup Noodle and believe me. The lines are worth it, just do it, because let be honest. Its the only reason we all go.
We got to decorate our own Cup Noodle and then you stand in line to fill it up with noodles and the flavors you want. We didn’t know this at that time, but you can buy more than one cup per person and make a few different varieties of flavors to take home.
They also have some cute mugs and shirts in the gift shop. All in all… I had a great time here!

I thinks I’ve visited this museum 4 – 5 times already and probably will be visiting it again soon.
If you want to know how the instant ramen was invented or discovered then this is the place to be.
You can see the beginning of Instant ramen all the way to the present day instant ramen available in the market produce by Nissen.
You can also make you own instant ramen flavor and design your own cup and bring it home with you.
It’s not a big museum so if you have at least half a day to spare then you are good.

When visiting Cool Japan, The Instant Ramen Museum should be on your itinerary. Making your own Cup of Noodle is pretty Cool!

My first experience hereandnits a MUST DO when you visit OSAKA, just a short train ride to IKEDA and 5min walk from train station.
This museum is filled Cup O Noodle History and the best part you get to make a personalized cup with your choice of soup base and 4toppings LUV IT!
I do recommend to visit early cause they do have elementary school tours come in and the tables are full … but all in all it’s FUN

I must admit I spent minimal time in the museum floor itself as it was filled with a plethora of school kids. However, (and this part is SUPER important) you can reserve in advance for a workshop on how to make your own instant noodle and that was awesome.
In the work shop you literal start from a bit of flour and water and like magicians, turn that into your very own packaged instant ramen! The cooks are super helpful and friendly (with lots of quality control in between) and our very own noodles tasted just as good as the factory made stuff. For ¥500 (i think?) you get the class, your bag of noodles, a factory fresh one and a souvenir bandana.
Downstairs you can create your own cup noodle and buy limited edition ones. I had cheese, corn, special fish ball slices (chicken stamped) and meat in my soy pot. I personally really liked the combination…
All in all a very interesting morning, but not sure if it would be as good without the workshop.