新横浜ラーメン博物館 shin-yokohama raumen museum

by rameniac | 30 Jul 2008

Every time I visit Tokyo, I make it a point to stop by the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum. A veritable mecca for ramen lovers (not to mention an unqualified triumph in marketing - when was the last time you visited a Ripley’s Believe it or Not?), the “raumen” hakubutsukan features, contrary to popular opinion, neither the best ramen in all of Japan nor the most entertainment value for your yen. As a museum, it’s certainly not the Tate Modern or the Louvre, comprised of little more than a gift shop and an ever-fickle spotlight on one of Japan’s regional ramen varietals. On last visit, it was all about Kumamoto, and the entire “exhibit” consisted of a few bowls under glass, a video loop, and some wall-sized posterboard mockups.

Indeed, the museum’s real treasure lies beneath, in the basement, where a faux-postwar street scene has been faithfully recreated, and where branches of eight of Japan’s “best” ramen shops, along with two bars, a bakery, and a candy shop, peek out from behind the Showa-inspired facades. “Best” may be a misnomer; “most influential” is more like it. From Tokyo’s Harukiya to Yamagata’s Ryu Shan Hai and Asahikawa’s Hachiya, the shops on offer represent, at any given moment, eight of Japan’s most famous regional noodling paradigms, the innovators who created the molds which younger, hipper ramen shops are perpetually breaking.

Nostalgia, at the raumen museum, is on sale at least as much as noodles are, and no visit would be complete without at least a quick loop or two around the ramen-themed gift shop, where trinkets, bowls, and other paraphernalia sit alongside fresh-packed versions of ramen by tenants past and present. Bug out like a wide-eyed tourist and the the staff will happily assist you in figuring out which ones will safely survive a ten-hour flight and/or which ones are chashu slab-free. Either way, you should be able to keep your freezer happily well-stocked for months to come.

Admission is cheap (300 yen per visit), and considering every shop also serves “mini” sized portions of noodles, you can practically kill all eight of the basement stadium shops in one or two debilitatingly gluttonous afternoons, definitely not a bad way to sample a broad cross-section of Japan’s regional ramen styles. With a 3-month museum pass, you can even keep coming back for your favorites.

I like to think of the raumen museum as an introductory window into Japan’s obssession with both slurping and tiny, half-baked but high concept amusement parks, rather than the pinnacle destination for a ramen pilgrimage.  It’s also a great glimpse into postwar Japanese architecture, however fake it may be, and a can’t miss hotspot on any traveler’s Tokyo itinerary. If I lived in Kanto, I’d be eating there all the time, no doubt about it.

2-14-21 Shin-Yokohama
Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 222
Tel: 045-471-0503 (in Japanese)

11 am - 11 pm (last admission at 10pm)
closed tuesdays (except national holidays)
daily admission ¥300
3-month pass ¥1,000
6-month pass ¥1,500