・Cup Noodle Museum Osaka Ikeda: A museum where you can learn about the history of instant noodles and the entrepreneur spirit of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of cup noodles. Don’t forget to prepare your own cup noodle here!
・Chiki Chiki Tankentai Antenna Shop: You will enjoy the modern cup noodle here, after learning the history of instant noodles. This spot, being the tourist information office of Ikeda city, doesn’t only give you information or sell souvenirs but it also serves creative cuisines of “Chicken Ramen” which is the first precooked noodles ever. They all taste good!
・SHOKU: A shop where you can appreciate the mix of past and modern style. This shop is dealing with cloth and merchandise made from traditional Laotian handwoven cloth. The building itself is also attractive since it is renovated from a row house so that it has a nice mix of old-fashioned and modern style.
・Kobayashi Ichizo Memorial Museum: A Memorial Museum of the other honored inventor from Ikeda city. Ichizo Kobayashi has invented the whole railway facilities in Osaka as well as department stores and theaters along those lines. The concept of building railway facilities alongside other facilities along those lines was so new that the concept was also adopted in the Eastern area of Japan. It is not exaggerating to say that the Osaka you see today wouldn’t have been the same without him.
You will also like the beautiful interior decoration of the museum, the former residence of Ichizo Kobayashi.
・Ikeda Castle Ruins Park: A spot where you can have the whole view of Ikeda city, the city Ichizo Kobayashi had developed, and even of Hyogo prefecture across a river.
・Azuma: A Udon, thick Japanese noodle, restaurant that has been running for more than 150 years. It said to be the oldest Udon restaurant in Osaka. The special dishes popular among locals are “Sasame Udon”, thin noodles with thick soup, and “Kayakugohan”, boiled rice mixed with a lot of tasty ingredients.
・Honmachi shopping street: The shopping street that has thrived together with Ikeda city. There are facilities where you can feel the essence of civic culture such as “Rakugo Museum”, a theater for Japanese traditional comic storytelling, and “Ikedagofukuza”, a theater for performance for masses. Those old traditional buildings represent the history of the city’s prosperity.
