One of the modern symbols of the hot and humid summer in Japan is a fairly popular  Japanese drink which is consumed by many at various festivals. The beverage in question  is called ramune (ラムネ) and there is a museum-of-sorts dedicated to it and its unique glass bottle which has a great sense of nostalgia for a lot of people.

With the majestic Mount Fuji lingering in the background, the S-Pulse Dream Plaza can make for a beautiful setting on the right day. This shopping mall is located in Shimizu city, and is home to the Japan Sushi Museum which I visited on my last trip to this part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Little did I know then but there was also a museum in the same building devoted to the country’s classic drink bottle.

Within a couple of minutes arriving at Shimizu station I was on the free shuttle bus that goes to S-Pulse Dream Plaza every 15 minutes. I headed straight for this museum which is not really what I’d call a museum as it’s basically just a little shop with a few exhibits in it but that’s the way things are done in Japan where the word is used slightly differently.

This carbonated soft drink is available in a quite heavy Codd-neck glass bottle that doesn’t have a cap. Instead, it is sealed by a round marble and needs a bit of practice for first timers who sometimes struggle to stop the marble from blocking the flow. I was certainly out of practice when I tried a bottle but more on that later.

The name ramune is a kind of Japanese bastardisation of the English word lemonade but the taste is different to that and similar lemon-lime soft drinks like 7-Up or Sprite. I think it has its distinctive own taste which may explain why you can sometimes get ramune-flavoured candy or ice-cream.

It is naturally the array of bright and colourful glass-bottled drinks which draw people into this place.

The green Shizuoka cola is one that has featured on Tokyo Fox a fair few times and I’ve tried a couple of others too such as eel cola and sakura shrimp flavour.

This drink may be part of Japanese culture but it was actually the creation of Scottish-born pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim who created the drink when he was living in Kobe’s foreigner settlement. There is some information about this as well as exhibits displaying  the history of ramune including a machine that shows how the glass bottles are filled and then capped. There are also some old signs and advertsing posters from the 150+ year history of the drink.

The progression of the bottle design over the years is shown as are some of the rejected designs too.

It should be noted that not all the bottles come in the aforementioned Codd-neck style. Also, if you didn’t know then the word サイダー (cider) has a completely different meaning in Japan! It tends to just mean soda and is definitely not the alcoholic drink made from apples (not common here at all) which is known as シードル (shīdoru).

For all that, it is inevitably still the drinks fridge which is the most interesting part of this so-called museum. There are (at a rough guess!) around 25-30 different flavours with the crazy and whacky flavours like eel cola, wasabi ginger ale, sakura shrimp and curry bread getting the most attention.

The bottles are a tad pricey at around 300 yen each so I just bought a couple that I’d never tried before.

Curry pan cider was the first I tried and it really was surprising how similar it tasted to the real thing. I was impressed by that but it’s certainly not a flavour you’d ever want to drink regularly!

Next up was the banana one and it took a while for me to remember how to even open it as it’s been a few years. Basically you have to unwrap the top part and use the little plastic plunger to push forcefully down on until the ball drops into the bottle. Banana is generally one of my favourite flavours of anything but I guess there is a reason that a banana soda has never become a mainstream favourite on the fizzy drink market! Again, it was interesting enough just for a one-time consumption.

Japan is certainly the country to be for a wide array of ever-changing unique flavoured products and the ramune museum is a great place to try a novel taste, relive your childhood or just simply quench your thirst.

• Shimizu Ramune Museum is located on the 1st floor of S-Pulse Dream Plaza at 14-14 Irifunecho, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka-ken. It is open everyday between 10:00am and 8:00pm.

Click here to read ‘What Can You Expect To See At Japan’s Sushi Museum?’

Click here to read ‘Sitting Amongst The S-Pulse Faithful In Shimizu But Quietly Supporting The Opposition!’

Click here to read ‘The Great Buddha, Monster Hospital, Quality Dog Time, A Sushi Museum & Live J-League Football!’

Click here to read ‘This Old-School Game Centre In Tokyo Will Take You On A Nostalgia Trip’