When I said that we – my daughter C and I and my friend CZ and her son Little CZ – were spending our entire two-week holiday all in Tokyo, I may have stretched the truth just a wee bit. We had this one-day trip to Yokohama. But given the size of Tokyo and the time it took us to get to those locations, Yokohama was for all intents and purposes basically Tokyo.

By now, our fourth day, I had pretty much decided C and I had miraculously avoided jet lag. And, spoil alert, thankfully we had. (And if I did not have witnesses to the fact that C and I did not face plant early in the day our first few days, I might not have believed it either!) The day was blazingly beautiful as we set off on the hour-long train journey. Our first stop was Yokohama’s Chinatown, the largest in Japan.

We weren’t one minute into Chinatown when C and Little CZ spotted a shop displaying tanghulu, the colorful sugar coated fruits on a stick, and by the time I came back from taking a photo of the gate from across the street, they were busy munching away. Afterwards, we made it maybe half a block before we were lured into a fantastic souvenir shop with three or four floors of beautifully displayed items. A good 45 minutes later and several thousands of yen lighter, we re-emerged onto the street. And almost immediately came upon more snacks that called out to us. Little CZ spotted a vendor hand-making Dragon’s Beard candy, a concoction consisting of a floury sugar thread wound together like a small skein of yarn often referred to as Chinese cotton candy but with a lighter, more nutty flavor. Of course we got some. Then the kids needed bubble tea and I found myself wooed by a jian zhu dousha bao or porcupine bun with red bean paste, a deep-fried steamed bun filled with sweet red beans. Sooooo good. We had woefully misjudged the time we would need to explore this area. Unfortunately, we had an appointment to keep, so we had a Chinese lunch (yes, we ate again) and made our way quickly to our next destination: the Cup Noodles Museum.

I expect it might be at least a little weird that we planned our whole Yokohama trip around a visit to a museum dedicated to instant noodles. Or maybe not? After all, Japan is full of weird and wonderful things that attract many a local and tourist alike. Noodles are certainly not a Japan-only phenomena; in fact, the food court in the Cup of Noodles Museum is dedicated to the celebration of noodles from around the world, but ramen is a Japanese word that has stuck and instant noodles were invented in Japan. And my daughter might have a particular love for Japanese ramen, instant and otherwise. After all, she did name her cat Ramen…

First up, we had reserved a 90-minute “Chicken Ramen Factory” experience. The name sounds a bit silly, but it’s basically a noodle making class. We each donned a bright yellow chicken handkerchief on our heads, were instructed to wash our hands thoroughly, and were collected by our chicken ramen teachers to begin our foray into the wonderful world of chicken ramen.

For some reason, CZ and I were separated from C and Little CZ. Maybe it was because we were the last to roll into the noodle factory kitchen or maybe the noodle masters like splitting up foreign families? Or, as I mostly suspect, the guardians of the Cup of Noodles cooking operation realize that the foreign kiddos will get the techniques down much faster than their elders. It became fairly apparent soon into the process that the English-speaking noodle coach assigned to CZ and I found our skills wanting. She kept a smile on her face and a bright, chirpy voice, but kept repeating instructions like “Pound the dough more.” or “Turn the handle more faster….No, more faster.” At the next table over, our kids were routinely ahead of us. We were maybe not failing at Chicken Ramen Factory, but we were barely getting by. We also tried to take photos, not knowing this is apparently verboten, further disappointing our chicken ramen guru.

All in all it was a fun activity and our instructor’s frustration with our lack of chicken ramen talent (by her standards!), only made it more fun. At the end we were loaded up with our own handmade chicken ramen package, three other ramen packages, and we got to take home our bright yellow handkerchiefs.

The rest of the museum was a bit of a letdown. It was designed rather like a modern art museum with cavernous rooms with little in them: an all-white plaster (?) rendering of a Cup of Noodles cup with an explosion of artistic white noodles hanging from the ceiling, for example. Still, it was enough for another 30 to 45 minutes before we emerged back on the street.

Across the street, Yokohama Cosmo World, a small amusement park with a giant ferris wheel beckoned to us. We had to check it out. Through attractive from a distance, we did not stay long. The ticket process was more complicated than it could have been: one had to buy paper tickets for each ride, much like what I remember from traveling carnivals in my youth, but we found some machines not working (or we couldn’t figure them out). In the end we road only the pink coaster and decided to pass on the wheel and the air cabin.

Instead of just walking to a train station to return to Tokyo, we opted for a 15-minute ride on the water taxi from Shinko Pier to Yokohama Station. In the Yokohama Bay Quarters shopping center we had dinner at Kua’aina, a Hawaiian burger joint, then took the train the hour back to Roppongi where we wrapped up our day with an hour of karaoke in our own private family room. Another successful day in Tokyo!