by Marcus Tan (P5 2021)

        “Ring! Ring!” My alarm clock rang. I woke up with a jolt. Today was a very special day as I was going to Tokyo with my family. I had been looking forward to this day for a very long time as my parents had said that they had planned many interesting things for us to do in Tokyo. I got out of bed and got ready to go to the airport.

        Once I was ready, I went to the living room to greet my parents. Once we were all ready, we went to the airport with excitement. After a while, we arrived at the airport and checked in our luggage. Our flight was in an hour, so we decided to eat something. An hour flew by quickly and soon we were on the plane. After the safety briefing, we took off. I decided to watch some movies.

        After an eight-hour flight, we arrived in Tokyo, hearts full of anticipation. Since it was already night-time, we decided to have some dinner, then go to the hotel we would be staying at. We went to a restaurant named “Ichiran” which is known for its ramen. After a delicious meal, we went to the hotel to rest and as I slept that night, I was excited for the next day.

        The next day we went to the Nissin Cup Noodle factory. Inside, there were many cup noodle packets of different designs. There were also many signs telling us about cup noodles, including its history. I also found out that the first cup noodle was made on the twenty-fifth of August which was the same day as my grandfather’s birthday. I immediately snapped a photo of the sign and sent it to him.

        After a while, we got to make our own cup noodles. We went into a room with some tables, and on the tables there were many items which are used to make cup noodles. I worked with my mother while my brother worked with my father. We got to cut, roll and do many more things with the dough. We had tons of fun. Once we were done, we gave the dough to the instructors to cook them.

        After that, we went into another room. However, this room was for visitors to design their own cups. We each got a cup and went to a table to design the cup. There were many colour pencils and markers for us to use to design the cups. We decided to have a competition to see who could design the best cup. My father tried to draw the cup noodle mascot, a chicken, but it ended up looking like a dragon. We had a good laugh about it. After a while, I had an idea to design the bottom of the cup. However, when I was almost done, my father realised what I was doing and told me that I was not allowed to draw on the bottom of the cup. Fortunately, when we checked with the instructor, she said it was okay.

        Soon, it was time to leave. Before we left, the instructor gave us our cups with the noodles we had made inside. I could not wait to eat it. That adventure was without a doubt one of the best ones I had ever had. That was a very interesting visit as I learnt many things like how to make cup noodles, its history and many more, and now I even have a personalised cup of noodles. That trip was one of a kind. After that, we left the factory with a heavy heart, but we were still excited for the next adventure.