CupNoodles!

Last Monday, some of our students/friends took us to Yokohama to visit the new CupNoodle Museum. That's right, Japan loves Ramen so much that they made an entire museum dedicated to it!

We went with the Harada family- my good friend Yuki and her parents. Yuki's husband had a wedding to go to so he couldn't join us.

 The museum was definitely dedicated to kids, but it can be enjoyed by adults as well. First, we got a history of Ramen and a short capitalist propaganda history video about Ando Momofuko, the founder of CupNoodle and instant ramen.

After a little history, we got to make our own custom CupNoodle!

First, you buy a cup from the vending machine and you can decorate it.

 Next, they put the noodles in the cups using the upside down method.

Then you choose your flavor and 4 ingredients! Glenn went with Chili Tomato with chicken, cheese, garlic and onion. I went with the original CupNoodle flavor and added chicken, corn, onion and garlic. 

Aftwards they seal it up, plastic wrap it and give you an inflatable bag to carry it home safely!

Places like this make me wish I was a kid again or had a little kid. They got to sign up (probably a month ago!) to make the noodles from scratch, fry them and then make their own CupNoodle.

The childrens' play area included a "Noodle Factory" where you could "be a noodle" and fry away in the ball pit. It was a really well done museum. If you are in Yokohama, I'd definitely spend a couple hours there. Although, go early. We were there on a holiday, got there an hour before it opened and were still at least the 500th person in line. It was packed, but it also only opened in September.

Yum!

Snow in Yokohama Station

I guess the week of Christmas was pretty busy because I still have more days of Christmas posts. When Glenn and I were coming through Yokohama station last week we saw Santa with a snow machine! Sometimes, Japan just makes me smile.

Christmas Time in the City

My hot Christmas date came home last Saturday! It's finally starting to feel a little like Christmas around here. Since Glenn is home for awhile this time, we decided to go out and celebrate in Yokohama for dinner on Sunday night. We went to Queen's Square to check out the Christmas lights and trees.

Then we went to a restaurant called Daidaiya (which my student translated as Little Orange House...?). The food was delicious, the wine was excellent and my date was the best.

We did the 7 course set menu and it was excellent. We even had a perfect view without any reservation.

 

Welcome home, Mr. Why don't you stay for awhile? :)

Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

Nicole and I headed to Hakkeijima Island on the Seaside line a couple weekends ago to check out the roller coasters and aquariums near Yokohama. Well, we got a late start so we decided to only check out the 3 aquariums. For 2700 yen you could get a combo ticket to see all 3. Next time we go back we'll have to try out the rides.

The Aqua Museum aquarium was fantastic. It not only had a dolphin and whale show, but it had animals other than fish. They had pengiuns, seals, walruses and polar bears too. I also love that in Japanese, you call all animals -san. So a pengiun is pronounced pengi-san which means Mr. Pengiun. How cute is that? We caught the polar bears when they were very active and they would jump in to the water, wrestle eachother and then do it again. It was so neat to watch!

This aquarium also had a huge tank with sharks and the biggest school of fish I've ever seen.

After the Aqua Museum we headed over to the Fureai Lagoon area. If my nephew were visiting or I had young children, I would definitely take them here! The Lagoon's mission was to give visitors the closest experience to the animals. Which meant you could pet, touch and feed dolphins, beluga whales and many other sea creatures.

There were only a few opportunities each day to touch the animals so Nicole and I were sure to get in line for "Friendly Time" as the schedule called it. They gave a bunch of warnings and instructions in Japanese, but all we ever understood was "one touch". Got it. Take your turn and get out of the way!

There was one area of the lagoon where kids could take off their shoes and walk through the "tide pools" and touch a star fish and feel sea cucumbers. Very interactive for children! Fun for Nicole and I too. :) Too bad many of the star fish were minus a leg or too despite the signs that said not to pick them up.

Pengi-san playing soccer! Too cute! We didn't know what they rest of the show was about or what he was saying, but it didn't matter. They were so cute! The goalkeeper is not a real penguin though. :)

Hakkeijima island has a lot to offer and only takes about 65-75 minutes by train. I definitely recommend a trip there!

Baystars Baseball Game

Glenn had a list of things he wanted to do and food to eat before he left on deployment. We were able to get to a few things on his list as well as a few on my list too! See a baseball game was one of those things for Glenn. I think he's missing his Twins and that new stadium. As soon as he got done with work last Saturday, we hit the train station and headed to Yokohama. The Baystars got crushed, 3-12, but it was a beautiful day for a game.

Yokohama Bay Festival

Since this week is a holiday in Japan, most of my regular classes have been canceled. On Monday, I went to Yokohama with my Tuesday night students to see the Bay Festival parade. Parades in Japan aren't too different than American parades except for the candy. No one hands out candy, bummer. We saw lots of marching bands, baton twirlers and dancers.

Here is Hatsuki and Keita and me. I also brought my friend, Nicole. She moved to Japan about two months ago. Here we are eating our conbini lunches (convenience store lunch).

We also got a little added entertainment when a police officer tried to stop a man from riding his bike down the blocked off street. The guy fell and scraped his knee. Nine cops, an hour and an ambulance later, and we think he was finally taken care of.

It was a perfect day to be out in the sun and enjoying the weather. Thanks for taking us, Keita and Hatsuki!

Lady Gaga!

Glenn and I went with 2 other couples to see Lady Gaga in concert on Saturday night. The concert was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! She is such a performer that it was an amazing show to watch. Plus being in Japan with all the crazy fans- it was an experience I won't forget!

Did I mention we were in the 8th ROW!? I've never been that close at a concert and it was incredible. My ears may suffer for life, but it was worth it!

Concerts in Japan are definitely a little different though. For example, I walked right in with my bag full of chu-his and beer. I was never patted down or had my bags inspected. The entire arena had 1 place to buy beer (what?!) and this was the line for t-shirts! I think some people are probably still waiting.

And then there was this-

Still not sure what to think about that. I really do love these Japanese super fans. Lookin' good.

An awesome, amazing performance!

Kelly and Laura's Adventure Days - Ramen Museum

On Sunday, Laura and I had been planning to go to Chiba to check out the fall foliage, but another tropical storm came our way and it rained all weekend and in to Monday. Instead, we went with Plan B and checked out Yokohama's Ramen Museum and went shopping with Gizelle and Annie.

The Ramen museum claims to be the only food themed amusement park in the world, but I think calling it an "amusement park" is a slight exaggeration. I'd go with "themed restaurant with gift shop" instead.

The museum consisted of 8 or 9 Ramen shops, each from a different part of Japan. Some have seafood, some are soy based or miso based. Different veggies, noodles, etc. We went with an area of Japan southwest of here called Hakata and their raman is described as Fukuchan. This type of ramen has basic seasonings, soy sauce, seafoods, chicken, garlic, ginger and pork. They had garlic chips and fresh garlic and a garlic press so you can flavor your soup more if you'd like.

The shops were located in a scale model of Tokyo from 1958. I think our favorite part was the sound effect of airplanes flying overhead. When you walked down in to the museum they even made it look like you were walking down in to the subway.

You can see how many people they fit into this place. They even had signs for each of the shops telling you how long the wait would be. It reminded me is Disney. You could order a smaller sample size of a bowl of ramen in case you wanted to try multiple places. We decided one line was long enough and went for the regular size. The ramen was delicious and perfect for a cold and rainy day!

Oktoberfest!

On a beautiful, sunny day in Japan we headed to a doitsu no party (a German party) in Yokohama. What a fun time! From base, I met Catherine and Laura-
and when we got on the train to meet the rest of the group, we saw this! These were their outfits from Badgirl Ball. Those crazy Diamondbacks, they got to wear the outfits again!It was fun to be with these girls, but I'm glad I was not dressed up too. There were many a times when the scene looked like this- a huge group of J photographers taking their pictures. Everyone thought they were actually German and not American, but meh, many of them can't speak either language.Some of the J's were dressed up too. We liked this guys hat...and also this guy's hat. Laura is in the house of Hufflepuff I decided. Does it not look like the sorting hat from Harry Potter?? That's what I thought too, but that was after 4 $10 beers.

Christiana even came out to meet us. She lives in Yokohama and works in Tokyo so we don't see her very often.Drinking during the day with good friends made me feel a little like I was back home tailgating during wonderful fall weather. Although MN got a bunch of snow yesterday so maybe it's better that I'm enjoying a Japan fall!

A video so you can hear the fun band!