Cup of FUN: Update

As we packed our backpacks to leave the ship on our second day in Japan I had a weird realization.  We were setting out for Tokyo and the ship was preparing to sail down to Kobe without us.  We decided to book an overnight bus the next night, Tuesday, to get an extra day in Japan and make the most of our adventure.

We began Monday with a trip to the Cup of Noodle Museum in Yokohama.  It was on the list of things to do and I wasn’t sure what to expect but it turned out really fun.  Kelly and I, along with our friends Rachel and Nicole, walked across the city to the museum and checked out the sites along the way.  Yokohama is one of the many Japanese cities that have a giant Ferris wheel but it was unfortunately closed on a Monday at 10AM.  The hours of operation in Japan are different from back home and I never really understood what was open and when. 

When we got to the museum it was bustling with activity.  There were Japanese children and parents on what I imagine were field trips and we were the only Westerners around.  Fortunately they had a few helpers who spoke some English to point us in the right direction.  It was about $5 to see the exhibits and another $3 to get our very own Cup of Noodle soup we could specially make.  I got a little too excited after drawing on my cup and pick some weird flavors, curry with spicy peppers, crab, green onions and cheese.  After they sealed our cups up we got to put them in a neat little air-pouch to keep them fresh for the next month.  Our pouches were attached to our backpacks for the next two days and I caught a few Japanese people pointing them out and smiling.  We are planning a special noodle eating party later in the month; hopefully Nicole will be okay eating hers since she broke the rules and wrote on the bottom of the cup.

One funny tidbit about the museum was the cartoon video they had us watch showing the story of how Momofuku Ando invented his famous noodle dish.  First it was in all Japanese and since we didn’t get headsets we were somewhat clueless.  The best part was when they showed his trip to America to market the noodles.  The American guy he convinced to try the noodles was a tall, skinny blonde guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt, resting up against a fence post eating a giant burger and drinking a big soda.  It was interesting to see how we Americans are portrayed in the Japanese mind’s eye. 

After the museum we hoped a train to meet up with more of the Residence Life staff in Tokyo for the afternoon.  We met at the Starbucks in Shibuya crossing, a pedestrian crossing where traffic stops in all directions and people flood the streets.  You would think you were in Times Square except it’s full of Japanese and nowhere near as loud.  We watched the scramble a few times and then broke into small groups to explore the area.  Kelly and I went off and walked the backstreets.  We didn’t have much Yen to spend so we just check out the stores and bought some fresh sushi from a market and ate it standing in a small alcove.  Most of the time we were in Japan the weather was partly sunny but only in the upper forties. 

We met back up with our group later in the early evening to go back to the Shinagawa suburb to check into our hostel.  It was my first experience with a hostel which is way cheaper than a hotel and gives you more of a feel for the culture.  The Shinagawa-shuku Guest House was our home for the evening and it was a quaint little three-story building where you had to leave your shoes at the door, wear slippers to your room and then leave them outside the door of your room.  We shared a three person room with Rachel and we each got our own fold out “mattress” along with sheets and the tiniest pillow I’ve ever used.  We couldn’t figure out our heating unit since the remote was in Japanese so we just pilled the blankets on and had an indoor camping experience.  It turned out fine and in the morning when I flipped over the sheet with all the checkout instructions on it there was an entire page in English dedicated to how to use the heater remote.  Such is life.

Later that evening our group all went out to dinner and do some karaoke.  I ate another tasty noodle dish and after dinner we went looking for a place recommended by Time called Rock, Paper, Scissors or “Jan-Ken-Pon” in Japanese.  It was a total bust and we ended up going back to Craig’s hotel to get our inner rock star on.  It was entertaining trying to find Jan-Ken-Pon though.  When we finally found a young woman shopping in a Family Mart convenience store who knew the place, she signaled for us to follow her and literally ran out the door and down an alley, around the corner and pointed it out to us, then ran away.  You just can’t beat the Japanese hospitality. 

Update: I added the video below of the Shibuya crossing