My second blog ☆instant noodles in the USA☆

My second blog!

In today's blog, I'll show you the interesting cultural difference I found in Japan, and it is also related to marketing!

After I came to the United States, what I miss the most is Japanese food!
So I went to the super market and looked for instant noodles because it is easy to cook anytime I miss Japanese food.

I found a variety of instant noodles at Shaw's super market.

Then I found an interesting products, "Spoon it."

Can you guess why this product is interesting for me?

?

?

?

I'll tell you:)

Japanese people eat noodles with chopsticks, not with a spoon, fork, nor knife!

 So I was surprised when I found instant noodles named "Spoon it" All noodles in japan are long and we slurp noodles with chop sticks.

 But "Spoon it" is chopped noodles, which are about 1 inch long, so that they are short enough to fit into a spoon. 

I am curious about how American people eat noodles, because "Spoon it" is the only product which is made suitable to be eaten with a spoon. What tool (spoon, fork, or chop sticks) do you use when you eat noodles? Do you feel difficulty in eating noodles with the tool you use?  Or you don't eat noodles....?  

It's so tasty for me! I recommend you guys to eat "ramen," "udon," "soba," and "yakisoba," a variety of kinds of noodles in Japan, when you have a chance to come to Japan!

I found another difference in instant noodles.

It is about a flavor.

These are "CUP NOODLE," a product sell in Japan. We have different flavors, such as curry, sea food, chili tomato, salt, and so on. 

And I found "CUP NOODLES" in the United States, too!

Flavors are chicken, beef,shrimp, and chicken vegetable.

Flavors here are different from those in Japan and clearly named by the kind of meet used in the flavor. This is just my imagination, but I guess this is because in the United States there are alot of people who have different religion, and they care the kind of meet.

On the other hand, Japanese people just care about the taste, such as salt, curry, or tomate, rather than a kind of meet.

The company of  both "Spoon it" and "CUP NOODLES" is NISSIN, a Japanese famous food processing manufacturer, so I felt that NISSIN tried to understand the American market and did marketing in a different way from Japan. 

The last interesting thing about "CUP NOODLES"

Please compare the 2 pictures of "CUP NOODLES" in Japan ans United States.

Do you notice one small difference?　

The answer is S!

In Japan, the name is CUP NOODLE

    and in the USA it's CUP NOODLES.

(Sorry. The pictures are so small to find the difference.)

When NISSIN entered into the American market, NISSIN heard that English speakers thought of only one piece of noodle in a cup when they heared the name, "CUP NOODLE." So here NISSIN use "CUP NOODLES."