No need to resolve the timeless dilemma when meal-time comes, as you can do both at the same time, and all in the comfort of your own home!

In Japan, for every season and every moment there are noodles, called men in Japanese, to match. From hot, delicious ramen, the spicy sesame-ness of tantanmen, cold Korean-style reimen, dipping tsukemen, to the ladies’ (or for that matter some men’s) choice, and my personal favourite, shime ramen, or ramen at the end of a night of drinking – only slightly more refined than the U.K. equivalent of a greasy kebab at three in the morning.

So in summer, as the temperature rises, Japanese people flock to places where they can eat cool, refreshing nagashi somen (flowing somen noodles), by attempting to catch them as they fly past along tubes in a stream of water.

▼ Nagashi somen in its natural habitat, in this instance near Kyoto.

But now, thanks to something which looks like the marble madness toys of my childhood, it’s possible to slurp down the re-hydrating deliciousness from the safety, and possibly superior hygiene, of your own home. Based on the kind of flumes you might find in a particularly fancy water park, the video assures us it is so exciting that even whales, sharks and party-hat-wearing foreigners are thrilled by the notion.

At 73 centimetres (29 inches) tall and with 500 centimetres of slide, your noodles will have the time of their lives before being eaten. It also features a special ice tray to make ice characters, so your noodles will keep cool as they fall, or slippy-slide, to their inevitable devoured doom.

▼ To use the motor, the slider can be plugged into a socket or used with batteries

▼ There’s also a deka slider (deep pool slide) if the fun gets too much and you want to slow things down

The soumen slider is available to buy from the Takara Tomy Mall website for 18,144 yen (US$162).

Source: Takara Tomy Mall
Top image: Takara Tomy Mall
Insert images: SoraNews24, Takara Tomy Mall