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Japan is a nation of theme parks with over 60 different ones and the numbers growing rapidly. If you count amusement parks and such there are over 230. A few months ago I wrote about the passing of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of ramen noodles, and that there is a museum dedicated to Momofuku Ando and his invention. The idea of food museums is great. They are a way to learn about foods and try them. Little did I know that Japan has taken this idea and run with it, creating food theme parks all over the country. Besides Ando's Instant Ramen Museum there is another Ramen Museum, a Curry Museum, a Gyosa Stadium, an Ice Cream City, a Sweets Forest, a Takoyaki Museum (octopus balls), a 1920's Shanghai Food Village, a Little Hong Kong, and more.
One example, Gyosa Stadium, is a recreation of a 1960's Japanese village with a dozen small restaurants and stalls. Each has different varieties of dumplings, small meat pies, pot-stickers, etc. and they brag about how unique and authentic each one is. People line up to try as many of the little bites as they can, all sold at affordable prices. There's no way you can try them all so you have to be a bit emphatic and make your way through the crowds in search of you favorite choices. Then find a bit of elbow room to enjoy snacking on them before doing it all over again.
As you can see each of these Food Parks has its own theme. What makes them special is that the foods are made by top restaurants and chefs, and the stalls are staffed by expert chefs and cooks so that the food is the best available examples of each kind. They are so popular that folks travel from all over the country to try the foods, something that really points out how much of a food centered country, and culture, Japan really is.
Not all the theme parks focus just on the food, many also teach about different cultures as well. Some of the Cultural Theme Parks are based on the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. I think this is a great way to learn about different cultures and foods. Here in the US we have Epcot Center at Disney with all the different countries represented, and from my experience the best part was the restaurants and food. I just wish that Disney did such a great job of providing authentic food and not taming it down so much. Of course some of the theme parks and amusement parks in Japan that focus on areas other than food and culture do the same thing as mentioned in this article on Universal Studios Japan where the food is "Universalized", a bit of US exported for others to try.
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2-19-2007 @7:43PM Kat said... I toured Nansha Town, home of the Gyoza Colluseum, Ice Cream Town, and Sweets Forrest (among others)last year... you can read about it on my blog if you like: http://naritai.livejournal.com/209299.html
I'm going to the Yokohama Curry Museum next week. :q
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2-19-2007 @8:52PM McAuliflower said... We munched our way through Gyoza Stadium in Osaka last summer. It was a great time! From homestyle beef tendon to spicy tropical style with papaya and pineapple... thumbs up!
It's a bit creepy at first, esp if you aren't use to the "Kawaii"ness of Japan- kind of Disneyesque.
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2-20-2007 @4:46PM Anita said... We toured the Yokohama Raumen Museum (yes, that's how they spell it) last January and had a blast! We also visited the now-defunct Curry Muesum on the same trip. Pics and a writeup here: http://marriedwithdinner.com/archives/538
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