Long Train back to Tokyo and Ramen in Shin-Yokohama

 After a full day of bunnies and an onsen resort, we were up early to start a long trip back to the Tokyo area. I got a chance to squeeze in a short run and confirmed the island is almost exactly 2 miles in diameter. I also got to see the island lighthouse up close.

We caught the first ferry back to the mainland and walked the 0.5 miles to the train station in Tadanoumi. It's such a small town (and station), that no one was even there to take our tickets. After a 45 minute wait, the train to Mihara was a small, 3-car train that clattered slowly along the coast until we reached Mihara, where, after an hour layover, we took our first, short shinkansen ride to Okayama where we would pick up the shinkansen to Tokyo. As luck would have it, we ended up on the Hello Kitty shinkansen again! It made me wonder why we went through all the trouble to get on it the other day when we were just going to stumble onto it today, but oh well.

The second shinkansen was a much longer trip, about 3.5 hours to reach Tokyo station. No Hello Kitty this time, just a boring old 240 mph train. After finally arriving in Tokyo we had one last train ride, this time a Tokyo Metro subway (the Ginza line, to be exact) to Asakusa and finally a 10 minute walk to return at last to Toukaisou! It really did feel like coming home again. The same picture on the wall of the same room we were in several times before. The same recession and pandemic-proof love hotel across the street. It felt nice to be in familiar surroundings.

So after about 8 hours of traveling and finally arriving at home base for the remainder of the trip, what's the first thing we do? Get back on a train for Shin-Yokohama to check out the fabled Ramen Museum. Not to be confused with the Cup Noodle Museum in Osaka. The museum is stick in the middle of a fairly upscale part of Shin-Yokohama just off the train station hidden amongst some large office buildings. 

The entire first floor of the museum is dedicated to a fairly deep dive into the history of ramen in Japan. The Cliff's Notes version is that it was morphed into what we know as ramen over hundreds of years of Chinese chefs making noodle dishes catering to Japanese clientele. The modern explosion of specialty ramen internationally is a very recent phenomena. Most of us just think of the dried Maruchan ramen packets that college students lived on because they were 10 cents a package. But many areas of Japan have their own special ramen recipe and a real ramen restaurant meal is nothing like the instant noodles we see in America. 

A mechanical sign that dips the noodles in the bowl

Each bowl is a different recipe from that region

A typical ramen cart of the pre-WWII era

The lower level of the museum houses a recreation of a 1950's shopping area, complete with candy shop and numerous ramen shops, each with a different type of ramen. We chose a tonkotsu ramen from Kumamoto, which is a lighter pork and chicken broth with thin noodles seasoned with garlic and black pepper. For a tourist spot, it was quite good, though I still prefer Ichiran's spicy tonkotsu with fresh garlic.

Taking the train back home, we got in at about 9. I ended up having to get some laundry done, so it was a trip to the local coin laundry and returning close to midnight. It's going to make the run tomorrow morning a bit painful, but it's all been worth it so far!

I've posted before how little things like international copyright matter to small businesses in Japan :-) The coffee shop in the resort on Okunoshima had a logo that was, lets say heavily inspired by a certain coffee chain from Seattle, though with a bunny rather than a mermaid.