As spring gives way to a hot and humid rainy season in Japan, many noodle lovers swap their ramen orders for chilled servings of somen or soba noodles. On a scorching summer day, there's nothing quite like the refreshing relief of cold noodles served up with tsuyu dipping sauce and toppings like grated ginger and chopped green onions.

Now you can enjoy your summer noodles with some charming tableware that'll turn your meal into swimming pool for some cold-loving adorable animals.

These clever "North and South Pole" polar bear and penguin soba bowls will cool you down before you even begin to dig into your meal. While they are intended to be used with chilled soba and somen noodles given the type of animals featured, you can serve any meal you want to give them delicious surroundings.

We decided to try them out by serving up some somen with veggie toppings, and would like to think our animal buddies were just as pleased as we were!

Polar Bear Noodle Bowl

Penguin Noodle Bowl

Check out the adorable penguin and polar bear noodle bowls at grape SHOP.

(We use WorldShopping Global. The grape SHOP page is in Japanese, but if you see the WorldShopping widget appear at the bottom of the page, that product can be shipped overseas)

There's also penguin and polar bear side dishes that can be used to serve traditional somen and soba toppings fashioned in the shape of a snow globe. The top glass half can even be removed to serve tsuyu dipping sauce for your noodles.

Check out the penguin and polar bear snow globe side dishes at grape SHOP.

(We use WorldShopping Global. The grape SHOP page is in Japanese, but if you see the WorldShopping widget appear at the bottom of the page, that product can be shipped overseas)


By - grape Japan editorial staff.