Nagashi Somen at home with Rilakkuma

Somen are a quiet popular dish in Japan. These are very thin, white noodles which are usually made from wheat flour. During the hot summer days somen are eaten cold while dipping them in a cold broth, which makes them really refreshing.  

But, there is also a fun way of eating somen called nagashi somen (流しそうめん). Here nagashi doesn’t mean anything else other than floating. The somen float down the inside of a water slide, made out of bamboo, and you have to catch them. This really makes for a lot of fun, especially when you are with a group of people. However, only a view restaurants are offering this experience.

So, let’s come back to nagashi somen at home. Just a while ago my husband and I were looking for such a fun gadget which you can put on your kitchen table. For sure, the ones with a water slide are a bit pricy, so I also was fine with just a rotating one.

It was just super timing, that my husband found a Rilakkuma Nagashi Somen Gadget at our game center a few days ago. He got it out of the ufo catcher using 1,000 yen and I was so excited to try it out!

The nagashi somen gadget here consists of four items:

• the bowl with Rilakkuma face print
• the rotator system
• a tiny cover plate where you can put green onions
• a cup, also with Rilakkuma face print

It is pretty easy to use, too. You just need to fill the bowl with a certain amount of cold water and turn the rotation on. Batteries are used for it. Then, put the cold somen in and round and round they go. We only needed to take care not to put to many noodles inside at once, because the small rotator is not strong enough for this. But, being just for two people, the size is just right.

I had a lot of fun catching the somen and it is a nice way of eating if you have some spare time to spend.