Batman and Superman were the superheroes of my childhood and teen years. Visiting my lola’s house, I first experienced watching these superheroes on the Zenith TV set sent by my aunt from California. That was when the phenomenon of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) was a good two decades away from its unfolding.

For my grandson Rafa, born of Millennial parents who bought all seven books on Harry Potter authored by J. K. Rowling, going to the Warner Bros. Studio in Tokyo, was a dream come true.

The Harry Potter theme park in Tokyo, is located on the former site of the Toshimaen amusement park in Nerima Ward — accessible by taxi or train from main tourist hubs like Shibuya and Shinjuku. The attraction occupies an area of approximately 90,000 square meters or nine hectares, with lush greenery and trees, nestled within a tranquil neighborhood, whose residents must feel very good about their proximity to this well-planned state-of-the-art recreational facility.

The settings at Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo are designed to be highly immersive, allowing visitors to step into the wizarding world and experience the magic firsthand. The tour features life-scale sets from the movies, iconic props, and behind-the-scenes details, making it feel like you're truly part of the Harry Potter universe.

Visitors can walk through sets like the Ministry of Magic and the Great Hall, where they can easily imagine themselves as characters in the film. The tour also offers hands-on experiences, such as riding a broomstick in front of a green screen and seeing yourself as a moving portrait in the halls of Hogwarts. Just like other visitors, every member of our family of five experienced a fantasy broomstick ride that we will remember for some time because we cheerfully paid for framed photo prints of the simulated scenario.

The tour also provides an immersive look at the creation of the Harry Potter movies, including the use of props, costumes, and visual effects. Indeed, immersive is the operative word, a marked departure from the heyday of Walt Disney characters led by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto of their first generation, later succeeded by Alladin, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King that were popularized through Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.

The Ministry of Magic set is particularly impressive, being the largest ever created for a Harry Potter film. Visitors can also explore the Dursley's home on Privet Drive, including Harry's cupboard bedroom, and the library with displays of Gilderoy Lockhart's books and the Mirror of Erised.

The studio tour experience is segmented into two. At the inception of Part One, it occurred to me that Harry Potter is the greatest British cultural icon after the Beatles of my childhood many decades ago. At the entrance, there are giant frames showing Harry with his buddies in the stories, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. These three form a close-knit group throughout the series, known as the Trio.

Part Two, which comes after lunch at Backlot Café, if your tour began at the park’s opening at ten o’clock, includes the Hogwarts Express Train Station and the Magic is Might room which features a giant statue depicting Muggles being crushed under the weight of a witch and wizard atop a marble pillar — an allegory to the oppression endured by the proverbial wretched of the earth who struggle and strain from the hardships of hand-to-mouth existence.

The Harry Potter Tour is truly a fulfilling experience that demonstrates the inexorable march of progress since the Beatles captured the world’s imagination with hits like I Saw Her Standing There, Yesterday, All You Need is Love, Eleanor Rigby, Let it Be, and yes, the Magical Mystery Tour that beckoned: “The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away.”

Reaching Yokohama from Tokyo is a leisurely 45-minute ride to one of Japan’s major port cities. We went there, to visit CupNoddles Museum, on suggestion of my grandson Rafa who picked up the idea while browsing his mom’s cellphone.

CupNoodles Museum — CupNoodles is actually spelled as a single word — emanated from the vision of Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin Food Products and inventor of Chicken Ramen, the world’s first instant noodles “that revolutionized food culture all over the world.”

Beyond promoting its iconic product, Nissin has created a facility that inspires people to plumb into the depths of creativity within them “by seeing, touching, eating, and having fun.” It is dedicated to provide food education “designed to stir the creativity and curiosity within every child” — an objective it clearly accomplished, as Rafa jumped and ran around the expansive building, apparently stimulated by its eye-catching exhibits.

The CupNoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda came first; it was established in Osaka in 1999. The Yokohama CupNoodles Museum opened later, in 2011. The Osaka location is significant as it stands on the site where Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen. Both are low-rise multi-story buildings that house virtual shrines showcasing an iconic food item that provides instant nourishment in a harried world.

Visitors walk into a mock-up of the place where the inventor patiently labored to create novel food products throughout his 96 years. He is credited with having invented the first Chicken Ramen in 1958, the CupNoodles in 1971, and the Space Ram in 2005. Space Ram instant noodles can be eaten in zero gravity by astronauts in outer space.

The Instant Noodle History Cube shows a selection of over 3,000 product packages depicting how a single product evolved into a global food culture. There is also a faithful recreation of Momofuku’s original work shed which shows “it is possible to create world-changing inventions with only ordinary tools.

CupNoodles Museum also underlines the wisdom of thinking out of the box — which this writer sometimes tweaks into a variant: “What if there is no box?” or “Think as if you’re not bound by any box” — by introducing the concept of Creative Thinking Boxes. Momafuku’s mantra: “Play, have fun, and find the hints within you that can achieve inventions and discoveries. Never give up.”

Learning by doing enables visitors — especially young kids — to imbibe and internalize the CupNoodles ethos. Each is given a My Cup Noodles Cup to personally design before these are filled in the same way it is done in the factory.

My most significant takeaway is a blurb from one of the CupNoodles posters:

“There is no such thing as “too late in life…The entrepreneurial spirit means creating something from nothing…There is always something beyond you to aim for…Time is life…The origin of every activity of humankind is related to food…Human beings are noodle beings.”

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