Sunday, December 30, 2018

Trip to Yokohama (3) - Vegan ramen in Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum

The last destination of yesterday was Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum located near Shin-Yokohama Station. It took more than 40 minutes from Shibuya, and I had to change trains twice.
The museum is just 5-minute walk from the station. When I got there, there was a queue outside the building. I bought a ticket from a vending machine and went inside.

Ramen is Chinese noodle soup and one of the most popular foods in Japan. In this museum, you can learn the history of ramen and enjoy ramen of highly rated ramen shops across Japan. Many shops have come and gone, and there are eight shops at present. Two of them have vegan ramen, and two have ovo-vegetarian ramen. 

The shops are situated on floors B1 and B2, where you can see a replica of a downtown in 1958 when instant noodles were invented in Japan. When I went there, a band was playing. The atmosphere was nostalgic and warm. The ceiling had the color of sunset while the outside of the museum was already dark.


Near the stairs, there was Komurasaki (こむらさき), one of the shops with vegan ramen. Before entering inside, I bought a ticket of Vegetarian Ramen from a vending machine. When I sat at a table, a staff member came and tore a stub. It didn’t to take much time before the ramen was served.


It looked like ordinary ramen with roasted pork slices. The main difference was that they weren’t real meat but soybean meat, and the soup was also based on soybeans. The soybean meat was a little salty, but the soup was mild and tasted good. I was glad to eat ramen after a long time, because it was extremely difficult to find vegan ramen in ordinary ramen shops. Even if they have “vegetable ramen” in their menu, they usually contain meat.

When you search with “Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum”, you can see their website and read the details. The language is switchable between six languages. In addition to vegan/vegetarian ramen, they make efforts to meet needs of international visitors. According to the website, they have Wi-Fi, pamphlets in multiple languages, and a Muslim prayer room with mats and a kiblah (compass). Beside the ramen shops, there are a sweet shop and a café from old days and other things to see, which may be attractive to visitors from abroad. 

From Shin-Yokohama Station near the museum, you can take Shinkansen to Hamamatsu. But I took local trains, using Seishun 18. After four hours, I finally returned to Hamamatsu at 22:30.

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