North Yokohama · Shin-YokohamaNo.1190★★Open in map →

Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum

foodOff the trail — and worth it

A food hall a few minutes from Shin-Yokohama Station, built around a full-scale reconstruction of a Japanese town below street level. Ramen counters from around the country occupy its shopfronts, and every one of them serves a small bowl.

FromYokohama Station
~20 minJR or subway, ~5 min walk
Get off atShin-Yokohama Station (JR Yokohama Line / Tokaido Shinkansen / Blue Line)
On foot
Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a busy, well-signposted attraction and no kind of secret. What catches people out is the register: it is not a museum with a restaurant attached but a working food hall with a stage set built around it. It fills at mealtimes and thins out between them, so the hour you pick matters more than the day.

Where it is

43 more notes in Kanagawa · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

The ground-floor gallerya short run of exhibits on where ramen came from and how it spread
The stairway downthe drop from a plain lobby straight into the street set, in one flight
The sunset skya painted ceiling held at dusk, with lit shop signs burning under it
The town's alleysnarrow lanes of shopfronts, vending machines and overhead cabling
Tsurukame Parkthe open square on the lowest level, used for events

How to actually get there

Yokohama Station → Shin-Yokohama Station (Yokohama Municipal Subway Blue Line, about 11 min).
Shin-Yokohama Station → the museum (about 5 min on foot from the JR north side, 1 min from subway exit 10).
Ground floor first for the gallery and the ticket desk, then take the stairs down into the town.
Order the mini size at each counter so that one visit covers more than one region.

Blue Line subway from Yokohama Station: Yokohama Station →(Yokohama Municipal Subway Blue Line, about 11 min)→ Shin-Yokohama Station, then about five minutes on foot from the JR side, or one minute from subway exit 10. Trains run every few minutes through the day, so no timetable planning is needed. The Tokaido Shinkansen also stops here, which makes the museum an easy break in a longer journey.
Back from Shin-Yokohama Station: Shin-Yokohama is a main-line station, so getting away is easy at almost any hour and the Blue Line and JR Yokohama Line both run late. If you are travelling on beyond Yokohama, check the last Shinkansen departure before you sit down to a second bowl.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The building stands a few minutes from Shin-Yokohama Station, in an office district that grew around the Shinkansen stop. The ground floor is conventional: a gallery on the history of ramen, a shop, a workshop where you can make your own noodles. The town is downstairs. Two basement levels hold a full-scale Japanese street, complete with shopfronts, signage, overhead cabling and a painted sky fixed at dusk. Ramen counters from different regions occupy the buildings, and the line-up is rotated, so the roster is not the same between visits.

How to enjoy it

Come outside mealtimes. The museum stays open until 9pm, and its own guidance points at the evening as the easier window, because the queues build around lunch and dinner. Order the mini size at the first counter you sit at — it exists so that you can reach a second one.

Background & history

The museum opened in March 1994 on a simple premise: eat the country's regional ramen without boarding a plane. The town downstairs was set in 1958, the year instant noodles went on sale in Japan and the year Tokyo Tower was finished. Its founder has said he was after the feeling of that period rather than any landmark from it — an evening sky, lit signs, the noise of a street at dusk. Shops have come and gone from the fixtures ever since, invited in and rotated out.

Before you go

Cash: Admission is 450 yen for adults and 100 yen for school-age children, with pre-school children free. That buys the door only — each bowl is paid for at its own counter. Re-entry is allowed if you have the ticket stamped at the ground-floor information desk.
Good to know: The museum closes only on 31 December and 1 January. Last orders are taken shortly before closing time, and because the town is a fully enclosed set underground, weather makes no difference to the visit.
Another way: From central Tokyo the Tokaido Shinkansen reaches Shin-Yokohama directly; from Kawasaki or Higashi-Kanagawa the JR Yokohama Line runs to the same station.
After you get off: From the JR and Shinkansen concourse, leave by the north side and walk on flat pavement — no stairs, no slope. From the subway and Sotetsu–Tokyu platforms, exit 10 is closest: turn left at the first signal, right just past the convenience store, and the entrance is the fourth building on the left.