Yokohama Ramen Museum

It's open again!
It's open again!
The Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum is finally open again!

If you're only in Tokyo for a few days, go to the ramen museum in Shin Yokohama.

It's not far from the glorious Yokohama station, itself a short ride from Tokyo. A few blocks from Shin Yokohama station is one of the weirdest, most interesting places in Kanto.
It closed down years ago, but as soon as I heard it had re-opened I grabbed my family and we trained it out there.

I'm not sure I'd call it a museum...maybe a theme restaurant / museum?
The ground floor houses a modest museum displaying the history of ramen in Japan and it's trappings. But it's that which lies below for which you should go.





The basement stairs are actually a time machine, taking you back to the year 1958 when ramen saw a boom period across Japan. There you'll find an amazing replica of an old, Japanese neighborhood consisting of a town square surrounded by dense little urban paths and filled with numerous ramen shops.







The Japanese fast-food equivalent of the American hamburger is a bowl of steaming ramen. While it's not the  healthiest meal, it's a good-sight better than tacos or burgers, and it's about as fast.

Now ramen shops are pervasive, ranging from sublime to awful, and like any fast food you learn to keep expectations low in touristy areas like theme parks and rest stops. You go do Disneyland for the rides, not the spaghetti, right? Not so here, where the museum showcases the best ramen Japan has to offer from Hokkaido to Okinawa; alot like EPCOT's World Showcase.


The shops rotate periodically, but the shop we found most interesting when we went in September was actually from Hollywood, CA. called Ikemen (a play on words, ikemen meaning handsome, and men meaning noodles).

The ramen is dipping style, where you take some noodles and dip them into the sauces. And in addition to great food, they have a great sense of humor, with menu items such as "Johnny Dip Ramen" and "Jurassic Pork."

Admission is about 300 yen for adults, 100 yen for kids.

It's the details that really complete an illusion and the detail the really sold me that I'd stepped back in time was a "public TV," mounted high on a post in the square so everyone could watch it (because hey, this is the 50's; who can afford their own TV???)

The secret to getting the most out of your visit, unless you plan on multiple visits, is to order the "mini" bowls of ramen at the various shops. These are half-sized servings. This way you don't fill up quite so quickly. We were able to sample three different shops this way and still have room for soft-serve ice cream at a nostalgic old "snack" bar (something between a coffee shop and a tavern).

We happened to get here in time to watch a TV station record a superhero scene in the square. TOO FUNNY!

The name of this shop translates out to "Fire Nation." As a fan of The Last Airbender, I entered cautiously.

...a WHAT booth??? How did the older generations ever survive without  iPhones?

Just enjoying a steam at the local sento bath-house.

Enjoying a frozen jelly, in the classic dagashiya style.

I took my dad here when he visited.
I took my wife here on one of our first dates.
I took every visitor here.
And everyone balked at the suggestion.
And everyone loved it.
And it was closed down before my son was old enough to experience it, which was a real bummer. But now I have been able to share this wonderful place with him, and he can't wait to go back.

And of course what night ramen would be complete without a few laps on an old slot car racetrack? Weird? Unrelated? Sure, but it was so much fun I'm not complaining.

For more information, follow this link to their English site or type Yokohama Ramen Museum into Google.

Smaller Cuter Better: Cupcakes

 It's almost unbearably cliche. Tiny, "demitasse" cupcakes in the Omotesando subway Echika.

Following the big cupcake boom back in the States, TABLES has taken the recently re-booted cupcake, miniaturized it, and is offering it in more flavors than you'll find for macaroons...and they're adorable! Just look at some of these:

Fig, orange, green tea, red velvet, pink berry, black vanilla, white chocolate...

one of my favorites was the gingerbread:

We stumbled across it changing trains in Omotesando, near Shibuya last month. The cakes were just the right size to make for a little pick-me-up treat. We actually ended up getting several. Luckily, there is a good coffee bar facing TABLES so we could have a good cuppa with the cup cakes. I took this picture from where we were sitting:

It's the kind of thing I'd have walked right past if I hadn't drifted into the kitchenware store behind it. Even after I saw it, I almost gave it a miss because at first glance it looked like any other confectioner. But now it's one of our Omotesando stops. If you're in Osaka, they're there, too.

Every flavor we've tried is top-notch. They're priced right. Easy to carry home.

...and they're just gorgeous to look at.

Here's a menu, but the items are always changing:

This is one of my killer holiday gifts this year. Everyone I've given them to loves them. 

Yes, I've got that American competitive gift-giving thing. 

My gift has to be the coolest thing you get.

Above-Average Chain Join: Bistro 309

A new Aeon mall opened near my son's school a few months ago and that's been a godsend for my wife and I. Now we can drop our son off, take care of some wholesale business in the area, then run by the mall for lunch and shopping. This Aeon is one of the smaller ones, comparatively, but it has some good eateries. The other day we tried one called Bistro 309. We stopped in out of curiosity, lured by fondue. The atmosphere was standard country-home/European kitchen motif. At alot of places, I get the feeling they took their motif out of a catalog...or more like a pamphlet. While 309 is a bit plastic, it's not irritatingly so, and the background music was a pleasant mix of jazz and intelligent pop.

One distinguishing feature is the bread bar in the middle that boasts about 15 different kinds of fresh bread rolls, all you can eat, and some interesting flavors at that. Basil, carrot, onion, corn, pumpkin, yomogi...and some pretty decent croissants.

The rest of the food could have been average and the bread would have been enough to bring us back, but the salad was also a cut above the average family restaurant. As you can see, mixed greens, and not drowned in dressing.

 I never had my fondue. I saw the cheese demi glace hamburg steak at another table and had to have that. And it was as good if not better than what I've had at Bikuri Donkey and places like that.

Food was prompt, service was courteous. They accommodated my requests. In the end, we had a tasty lunch at a reasonable price, with professional service (not the part-time college student sort you get at alot of places), and an atmosphere that didn't annoy me.

One other thing we noticed about the ambiance was a surprising absence of squalling tots. This sort of restaurant is usually thick with the screeching of colicky infants. But we were mercifully allowed to dine in peace. On our way out we saw why: strategic seating. All the baby groups were clustered at the front away from the rest of us. That's the kind of attention to detail I appreciate.

We'll be back soon to try some of the other items. If you come across a Bistro 309 I'd recommend you give it a try.