Global Headquarters of Nissan Motor, Yokohama, Japan

In the first week of my arrival in Yokohama, I managed to visit the Global Headquarters of Nissan Motor Company Limited. As a proud IPoS Alumni (Intensive Program on Sustainability) sponsored by Nissan Science Foundation, I was delighted to have visited the showroom/museum situated at the ground floor of the building. 

For your information, the Nissan HQ is situated adjacent to the Yokohama Station and the entrance is free. As seen in the photo below, that huge building is their new HQ since the year 2010. That building is owned by Nissan itself...The older HQ in Tokyo was rent out to other company.

Global Headquarters of Nissan Motor Company Ltd

 Let's get into the showroom for a hell of a car ride!!

Panoramic Overview of one section of the Showroom

2nd Generation Skyline GTR 2000, year 1973

Nissan Silvia, 1965

Nissan Fairlady Z, 1969

Nissan CIMA, 1988

Nissan Figaro, designed with retro purposes in the year 1991

Latest Pure Drive version, Nissan Fuga Hybrid

The hybrid engine of Nissan Fuuga Hybrid

Latest Nissan X-Trail

 Introducing the latest ZERO 0 % Emission car, The Nissan Leaf. This car only uses battery which needs a special adapter to charge the car. And yes! but no..this car only moves by using electricity and no back-up fuel compartment. Well it really serve the purpose of zero emission and Yokohama Authority are slowly setting and planning for electrical charging station.

And that's my friend test driving the Nissan Leaf...it is a  really really quiet car. Wondered when will it arrive in Malaysia?

 Next is animation meets Nissan. Fancy Evangelion? Here's a similiar version of evangelion robot design into the Nissan Juke.

This anime is titled Rinne no Lagrange: Flower Declaration of Your Heart and it is set to premier in the year 2012, month of January. I guess this car design is to advertise and promote this upcoming anime.

Lagrange meets Nissan

Following Animation..here's the main dish of this post. Introducing the latest Nissan GTR

Latest Nissan GTR 2012

That's how you open the door of Nissan GTR

Cool Steering Wheel with full control of the dashboard at your fingertip

Gearbox system and the music player system

Surround sound system at the passenger's seating

Test driving the car..well how I wish I could though..

 To end this posting, here's a collection of miniature nissan transport in the showroom

Hope you will enjoy this post!

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Yummy!! Ramen Museum of Japan (Showa Era)

Ohayou!Konnichiwa!Konbanha! Finally I am back again with a post from Japan. This time it is all about food..well about the national food of Japan, Ramen! To document further on ramen, I visited the Raumen Museum thanks to my two Japanese friend.

The Ramen (Raumen) Museum was first established in the year 1994 and thus was the first food amusement park in the world. Well not quite an amusement centre though. Situated at near the Shin-Yokohama station, the museum opens daily including national holidays in Japan starting from 11.00am until 10.00pm.

Before entering the museum, here’s a little known story about the ever popular raumen dish in Yokohama. Raumen as a local dish was speedily popularized from Yokohama, Hakodate and Japan’s other port cities to every corner of Japan during the Taisho and Showa eras (mostly during the 20^th century. Subsequently, raumen restaurants reproduced some of the recipes from the big port cities and eventually ‘experimented’ with new local tastes and identities. Thus every local boasts its own unique style of raumen and raumen became the national food of Japan.

This is the entrance of the Ramen Museum

Zoom up green bowls of Ramen Museum

That's the ticket I bought which costs me 300 yen (approx. RM12.00) and it could be reused to enter the museum again on the same day itself

 The museum is consists of two sections. One is the present and another one is.....at the basement.

SCROLL DOWN~~~~ and the photos will be explained through caption.

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As soon as you enter the basement…….voila!!

The magical and nostalgic mood of the good old days of Showa 33 (1958) was recreated for the visitors.

Even the skies have been modified to fit the evening mood. Remember this is at the basement.

The museum is not just about Ramen but also about Japanese culture on the whole.

 That is the search and destroy found station whereby if you lose your belongings, you can claim it back there. Invalid in the museum itself.

Train ticketing booth showing all the stops (stations) and prices as well. That was in the 50s. Heck their technology is so advanced.

Along the 'street' some people were enjoying ramen

An old tobacco/cigarette shop

An old mail box in front of an old house.

Clothes hanging in the older times

A poster ad about white snow brand (Shirayuki (白雪））

At the public bath aka Sentou (銭湯). Public bath was(still) popular in Japanese because of lack of space at home for bathroom except for toilet.

Old locker at the public bath

Visitors buying some sweets

That's me as a proof of my visit to the Ramen Museum

 Night clubs in the olden times. Well just the front part. It is not accessible actually

And this is School for Adult （oto na no gakkou) well not really though, it is actually a 'school' for Adults only...well you know with the red cloth hanging there..

 On the left, that's the undergarments well in front of a prostitution center and on the right, is an entrance to a club

A Japanese small guardian post for praying

making a 'phonecall' in the old telephone booth

An old Japanese Police Outpost (Koban)

An old Coca Cola Drink dispenser, could be in the 70s perhaps. I don't think it is also from the 50s but this machine is still working and as you can see, they are selling a bottle of coca cola for 200 yen (RM8.00)

An old red scooter, not sure if it's still working? Brand looks like Suzuki?

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And now entering the Ramen shop section. 

Basically raumen or ramen is all about the soup and topping recipes. Soup recipes ranges from miso soup, soya sauce soup as well as tonkotsu. Toppings usually involve hard-boiled eggs, pork, seaweed, chicken and so forth. In this museum there are 9 kinds of famous recipes (or styles) to be chosen; Toride (Tokyo), Taiho (Kurume), Ideshoten (Wakayama), Ganjya (Saitama), Komurasaki (Kumamoto), Eki (Sapporo), Ryushanhai (Yamagata), Shinasobaya (Yokohama) and last but not least Nidaimegenkotsuya (Tokyo).

Most of the ramen restaurants in the museum are long established institutions from different region of Japan. For example ‘Ryushanhai’ was run by the same family for three generations (50 years) in Yamagata prefecture. .

How do you feel when looking at this photo? These are all in the basement. To make this trip more interesting, it is highly recommended that you visit the museum with Yukata.

Panoramic View of the Ramen outlets around

That's my big (largest) Bowl of Tonkotsu ramen from Komurasaki. This bowl cost me 800 yen (Approx RM32.00)

And we finished the whole bowl CLEAN! That was sooo delicious! おいしかった！！

 That's the end of the Showa Era section of Ramen (Raumen) Museum. I would like to thank my two friends (Ramen King and Ramen Queen) who have brought me to this wonderful museum. 

(本当にありがとうございました！）

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