The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum food court recreates Tokyo as it appeared in 1958.
The museum’s lower-level food court is designed as a nostalgic reconstruction of everyday Tokyo, including the atmosphere of the postwar Shōwa period. The chosen year is significant because 1958 was when Momofuku Andō invented instant ramen, an event that transformed Japan’s noodle culture and later spread worldwide.
Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum opened in 1994 in Yokohama’s Kōhoku Ward. Rather than functioning only as a conventional museum, it combines historical exhibits with operating ramen restaurants representing styles from different parts of Japan, including Kyushu and Hokkaido.
Visitors descend into the recreated townscape to eat ramen in settings inspired by mid-century Japan. The exhibits above explain ramen’s development, ingredients, regional variations, and the history of instant noodles.
A frequent confusion is mixing up the museum’s opening year with the year it recreates. The museum opened in 1994, but its food court’s reconstructed Tokyo is set in 1958.