Ramen is of course delicious, but have you tried Japanese traditional somen? It is a type of thin wheat noodle usually eaten cold, and dipped in a small cup of sauce to eat. Especially in the summer time, there is a traditional activity called "nagashi somen" to catch somen noodles on a half sliced bamboo slide. And inside the bamboo has a consistent stream of cold water flowing from above, this simply makes the somen noodle more chewy because of the cold-compress, as well as entertaining at the same time.

However, not everyone has bamboo around their home. The Takaratomy company came up with an idea to “double the fun” by switching the bamboo to a water slide, just like the ones in water parks. The slide length is 3.6m, enough time for your focus and catch the sliding somen. But, don’t be careless! If you haven’t mastered the chopsticks properly you may lose the train, and ended up eating the somen in a lame water pool.

The somen water park also include a special ice maker tray, which makes thinner shape ice cubes to slide through and keeps the sweet cold temperature under-control.

And a friendly whale gate to help slow things down a notch.

You can find the Big stream somen slider on Takaratomy's merchandise website, where it sells at 7,538 yen. Although the appearance looks like a kid toy, it’s actually a proper somen feeding machine. It’s for people who are 15 years old or older, someone who likes to make and eat their delicious somen out of an indoor water slide.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.