Ikeda, Osaka: Making Chicken Ramen and Your Own Cupnoodles Where Instant Ramen Began

Chicken Ramen, the world's first instant ramen, was invented in Ikeda by Momofuku Ando. The Cupnoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda grew out of his wish to convey the importance of invention and discovery. At the Chicken Ramen Factory you make Chicken Ramen by hand, and at the My Cupnoodles Factory you design an original Cupnoodles that exists only once in the world. Beyond the museum, Ikeda adds a castle ruins park, a museum of Kamigata rakugo and the former home of the founder of Hankyu Railway.

Making Chicken Ramen and Your Own Cup by Hand

The Chicken Ramen Factory is a workshop where you make Chicken Ramen by hand, from flour to finished noodles. You knead the dough, stretch it, steam it and season it, and then dry it with a flash hot-oil method. Every stage that made the original invention possible passes through your own hands.

The My Cupnoodles Factory is about choices rather than dough. You pick one soup from four kinds and four toppings from twelve kinds of ingredients, and the cup is one you designed yourself. The result is an original Cupnoodles that exists only once in the world.

If you want to knead, steam and dry the noodles yourself, the Chicken Ramen Factory is the one to choose. If you would rather spend your time deciding on a soup and toppings, the My Cupnoodles Factory is built around exactly that. Doing both pairs the two halves of the idea: how instant noodles are made, and what goes into your own cup.

Advance reservations for the Chicken Ramen Factory start three months ahead of the desired date, by internet or telephone, and are taken until the day before. If that day three months ahead is a museum closing day, reservations start on the next opening day instead.

Inside the Museum: The Instant Ramen Tunnel and the Drama Theater

The Instant Ramen Tunnel on the first floor traces how instant ramen developed from Chicken Ramen onward, through about eight hundred types of packages. Packages of past products cover the area overhead in a large-scale display, so the history is literally above your head as you walk through. It is the place to see how far one product traveled from its starting point in Ikeda.

The Cupnoodles Drama Theater is shaped like a cup of noodles, and inside it large images are projected across the walls. The program recreates the Cupnoodles manufacturing process in CG, so the packages you have just walked under are followed by the making of what goes inside them.

If your time inside is short, start with the Tunnel on the first floor and then give about thirteen minutes to the Drama Theater. Between them they cover both halves of the story told in this building: what followed Chicken Ramen, and how a Cupnoodles comes to be.

Beyond the Museum: Castle Ruins, Rakugo and a Railway Founder

Ikeda Castle Ruins Park lies on the site of the castle of the local Ikeda clan, who once ruled the area. From the tower-style lookout rest house you can see the Ikeda city area, the Shin-Inagawa Bridge of the Hanshin Expressway and the whole park at once.

The Rakugo Museum is the first municipal facility in Japan with a permanent exhibition of Kamigata rakugo materials. Video introductions fill one corner, DVDs and CDs of performers you choose fill another, and two more are devoted to stories whose titles carry the name of Ikeda. A paid amateur rakugo course runs here, and a rakugo session with an admission fee is held on the second Saturday afternoon of every month.

Kobayashi Ichizo, the founder of Hankyu Railway, started housing development, the Takarazuka Revue, Hankyu Department Store and Toho, and later entered politics. The Kobayashi Ichizo Memorial Museum presents that life and those achievements in his former residence and an exhibition room.

If history and culture are your reason for staying longer, pair the Rakugo Museum with the Kobayashi Ichizo Memorial Museum. If you want a view over the city instead, head for the lookout in Ikeda Castle Ruins Park. On a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday the park also has tourist volunteer guides to go with the view.

If you want to take the museum and the sights beyond it at an easier pace, see the places to stay in Ikeda.

Getting to Ikeda

The museum's car park has limited spaces and nearby car parks are often full, so it recommends public transport.

Leg	How	Time or cost
Ikeda Station on the Hankyu Takarazuka Line	Walk to the museum	About 5 minutes
Toyonaka IC on the Chugoku Expressway, from the Meishin Kyoto and Suita direction	Car to the museum	15 minutes
Museum car park	23 spaces, paid, no discounts, no upper limit on the charge	300 yen per 20 minutes
Museum car park	Entry and exit	8:30 to 17:00 only

New to rural buses and one-man trains? See how to ride them, step by step.

Hours and Fees

Depending on how crowded the museum is inside, visitors may have to wait before entering.

Place	What	Hours or fee
Cupnoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda	Opening hours	9:30 to 16:30, last admission 15:30
Cupnoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda	Closing days	Tuesdays (the next day if Tuesday is a holiday) and the year-end and New Year period
Chicken Ramen Factory	Fee, tax included	1,200 yen for junior high school students and older; 600 yen for elementary school students
Chicken Ramen Factory	Operating hours	9:40 to 16:20
My Cupnoodles Factory	Fee per serving, tax included	500 yen
My Cupnoodles Factory	Operating hours	9:30 to 16:30, last reception 15:30
Chicken Ramen Factory	Reservations open	10:00, three months before the desired date
Chicken Ramen Factory	Reservations accepted until	16:30 on the day before the desired date
Cupnoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda	Year-end closure	28 December 2026 to 2 January 2027