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So I’m about to do something a little crazy in Tokyo…

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
204

Too. Much. Time.

Every once in a while in this hobby you decide to do something a bit crazy because, well, you can.

Of course, what counts as crazy will vary from hobbyist to hobbyist. For some people, crazy is flying 33,000 miles in a week. For others, it’s buying 1.25 million miles through pudding. For yet others it’s taking wheelbarrows of coins to the bank to generate miles. I could go on and on with  stories of positioning yourself to strange lands to jump on cheap fares, flying in and out of a long haul destination on the same day just to try an airline’s new product (deliberately booking SQ’s oldest business class seat sounds mild by comparison) etc etc, but it’s safe to say that in this hobby, you can never be too crazy.

So when I tell you that I’m bringing back a few hundred cup noodles to finance an expensive meal in Tokyo, you really shouldn’t bat an eyelid…

Exhibit A: Nissin Nakiryu Dandan Cup Noodles

Can Michelin Star food be found in a Styrofoam cup? Well, that’s what Nissin is offering, in partnership with one-Michelin Star ramen restaurant Nakiryu in Tokyo. Since these babies were released at the end of May, they’ve been getting great reviews and hype up the wazoo.

Image result for Nakiryu ramen tokyo
photo credit: Yummy Japan

“But they’re just instant noodles”, I hear you say. Well, yes, but they’re Michelin Starred instant noodles. A reviewer for RocketNews24 had this to say:

It had a mellow chicken flavor that was perfectly complemented by the sesame. There were also intermingling sour and spicy flavors that were distinct yet refined, for a solid blend overall. One of the more memorable parts of Nakiryu’s Dandan was the delectably textured noodles, and much to our reporter’s surprise the cup noodle version managed to somehow recreate that! Just like in the restaurant, the thin noodles trapped in the broth for an even flavor in each bite. It was magnificent.

Image result for nissin nakiryu dandan
photo credit: Rocketnews24

Look, I have no idea how they taste, but the hype is going global and everyone wants to try them. Unfortunately, the noodles are currently only available in Japan, and buying them online incurs ridiculous shipping costs (not to mention they’re all sold out). Fortunately, I’m headed to Tokyo at the end of the month, which creates an interesting opportunity…

Exhibit B: AirFrov

Image result for airfrov

My first option would be to buy back a few cartons of these noodles, list them on Carousell and flog them off. But then I’d have to arrange meet ups with individuals, travel all over and respond to messages like this.

Enter Option B- I wrote about AirFrov a few years back when they were just starting up and since then the community has really grown.

For those of you who haven’t heard about it, AirFrov is a P2P delivery service that lets you monetize the luggage space you’re not using when you travel. People post requests for items they want from overseas, you negotiate an acceptable price, buy the items and drop them off at AirFrov’s headquarters when you return. The requester pays 7% plus S$2 as a service fee; the traveler doesn’t pay anything.

If you enter the code UID53 when you sign up for an AirFrov account, you get S$10 of credit which can be used towards paying AirFrov fees as a requester (I get S$10 too).

This will be my first time using AirFrov, but I’m satisfied there are appropriate user protections in place (you can read more about it here, but TL;DR- once you’ve agreed to buy something on someone’s behalf, the requester deposits money into an escrow account by AirFrov which is released upon delivery. Once you’ve bought the item, the requester can’t back out) so I’m not worried.

Singaporeans go crazy for the latest Japanese food trend, and it’s no surprise that these Nakiryu noodles are one of the most requested items on AirFrov with over 244 requests (each request can be for multiple units) as of right now.

So it’s now just a simple matter of figuring out how many I can carry back. Which leads me to Exhibit C…

Exhibit C: SQ First Class Ticket

To get back to Singapore, I’ve redeemed my miles for a First Class ticket on SQ (I also used the stopover trick to add another trip to Sydney a few months down the road (hopefully with SQ’s new A380 cabin products), saving 40,000 miles in the process).

SQ gives First Class passengers 50kg of luggage allowance. As a Krisflyer Gold member, I get another 20kg.

When the weight concept is used, number of pieces is irrelevant. I have 70kg in total, which I can spread across as many bags as I wish. Each of the noodle cups weighs 140 grams. I doubt I’ll have more than 20kg of personal items, so there’s plenty of weight left over to lug noodles back.

Actually, the restriction isn’t so much weight but volume. The noodles come in hard packaging measuring 12x11x11 cm. So unless I bring along a few cardboard boxes, I might have to do some Tetris-style packing. But that sounds like a problem for future Aaron.

The biggest logistical issue I see is getting these noodles to the Narita airport. I’m not sure how many I will be able to fit into two large expandable bags plus a duffel bag carry on, but if all else fails I’ll just get a trolley to wheel some cartons as well. This may be an issue if I take the airport limo bus because apparently every customer is limited to 2 pieces of luggage (they say on their FB page they’re happy to take excess baggage if there’s space though). Taking an Uber to the airport would totally burn up any money I make on the noodles, so I’m going to have to be smart about this.

Putting it all together

This isn’t going to be a great money-making venture for me insofar as these instant noodles have a rather poor volume/profit ratio. The noodles themselves retail at 200 JPY (~S$2.50) per cup, and the lowest price I’m willing to buy them at is S$5. That means a profit margin, on average, of S$2.50 a cup*. My goal for this exercise is to generate enough money for one nice (non-instant) Michelin Star meal in Tokyo.

*My actual margins will be different once I account for 7% GST. Yes, you do need to pay GST on items bought for AirFrov buyers because they’re not for personal use. On the other hand, some people are willing to pay more than $5 a cup so it does balance out.

As of right now I’ve committed to purchase 111 units (generating about S$344 of profit) which should be a right barrel of fun to get to the airport.

I’m well aware that there are other things I could help bring back from Japan which would have much better volume/profit ratios, but buying just one type of item allows me to limit the amount of time I spend hunting things down. Besides, I love bringing food to people; I’m a giver that way. Also, the thought of building an instant noodle fort in my seat and doing the world’s first in-air taste testing of Michelin Star cup noodles complete with Krug and caviar gives me big boy feelings.

The other issue (which I probably should have mentioned first) is that the popularity of these noodles means they’re all sold out in stores. Fortunately, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy, and a few phone calls were made. The catch? For it to be worth his while, I’d have to place a large order. Like 11 cartons large.

“That’s too much to bring home”, said brain.

“Shut it. This will be good for upper body development,” said biceps.

And that was that. That’s how 132 cups (11 cartons of 12 units) now sit in my hotel, awaiting my arrival.

And no, I’ve not forgotten about you, dear readers. Although the people on AirFrov will have to pay theirs the hard way, readers of The Milelion are a special, hunky bunch. So I’ve set aside 10 units for readers, to be given away in 5 sets of 2. No charge.

If you’d like to get your hands on a pair of Nakiryu instant ramen cups, simply sign up for the mailing list on the left of your screen AND leave a comment below and I’ll put you in the draw that will take place at 12pm SGT, Wednesday 30th August.

If you’ve already subscribed to the mailing list, congrats! Nothing for you to do but leave a note below commenting how monumentally stupid this idea is.

So yes. 132 cups of Michelin Star instant ramen. One SQ First Class seat. This’ll be fun.

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Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.
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Comments

204 COMMENTS

  1. Excellent idea!

    How do they compare to the dandan noodles at the HKG Cathay The Wing lounge dandan noodles? (Best DanDan in the world IMO)

  4. Me me me!! I will be eating those cup noodles while reading your posts, and waiting for the next one to be published! ????

  5. Hahaha awesome idea! Am a huge ramen fan so curious how these taste…give us a tasting review once you’ve gotten your hands on them…Bon voyage!

  7. I would like to try my luck to get one of those! I’m quite keen to try it!

    You’re about as crazy as me because that sounds like something I will do as well. 😀

    Been following you since really ages ago and it is nice to see this community growing day by day. It is like your baby and hardworking, please feed it well k ^^

  13. I once brought 12 bottles of Chun Cui He from Taiwan in my check in luggage, so I totally feel you now. It’s an admirable thing you’re doing – fulfilling the wishes of the Nissan-hungry masses in SG. Haha…

    • Good question. Working on it. But I am cautiously optimistic about the carnivorous capacity of my 2 rollers and 2 duffel bags.

      • Not sure if you have figured it out, but similar to Flo’s comment, you can prob send the cup noodles via Takyubin or smth to the airport for a fee (quite affordable, cheaper than Uber) and collect it on the day of departure. Very handy service! I’m sure the hotel concierge can help with that. And pls count me in for the draw too please! Good luck with this!

  29. LOL this idea is so ridiculous that it’s brilliant! No, I don’t wanna eat the cup noodles. But then, my wife is a big fan of them. And you know what they say – happy wife, happy life! Gimme some noodles pls!

    P.S. Japan is very big on luggage deliveries. Just go to your hotel concierge and ask 🙂

  30. Michelin or not, these noodles are taking SQ Suites. That potentially up the value of each cup exponentially. Gotta try those suite treat. Cheers!

  34. This is the most overly elaborate entrepreneurial idea I’ve seen. Looking forward to photos of your michelin meal, hopefully it lives up to the effort you put in to pay for it.

    • Well, if you don’t declare it I imagine you’d be hard pressed to say it’s all for personal use. But the milelion obeys all rulers and authorities, even at a 7% cost

  49. Nomnomnom
    My friend and I have had 11 pieces of luggage lugged onto the airport limousine to Narita and they didn’t bat an eyelid.
    But granted it was pretty empty.
    Hope to get some of these noodles!!

    • Awesome to hear. Did you use the airport limo or Tokyo shuttle? Shuttle is 900 jpy. Dunno if they’ll be more niao

      • We took the airport limousine to Narita.
        Had a bit of problem at check in as my friend was on a LAX-NRT-SIN itinerary which was working on a piece basis.
        So in the end I had to have 8 pieces of luggage tagged to me and we still exceeded the luggage allowance but I guess flying Suites helped 😉

  55. I’ll be very interested to see how you will manage to lug 11 cartons of noodles to the airport!

    Let us know if the noodles taste the same in the air!

  57. You are a man among entrepreneurs! I will be traveling to Tokyo on Suites in November and I certainly won’t try this without prior approval from my wife! But count me in for the draw, if my wife gets a taste of this noodles, she may change her mind! :-p

  61. I got the email notification to this post but did not click on it as I was outside. When I got home, I went direct to the site and saw that this post already had 60+ comments and I wondered what was the content of the post. Wow. You always bring in new and good ideas to this miles game, making it exciting. Any how, I think there’s a typological error in the first paragraph under “Putting it all together”. I think you mean sell it at $5 instead of buy it at $5.

    • oh what I mean is “buy them on someone’s behalf”. so the lowest price i’ll buy for you is if you offer me $5. unless you’re a milelion reader, of course!

  62. Have been an avid reader for more than a year, and thanks to you my husband and I have 500k< miles between the two of us.. Please count us in for the draw! (Can't travel to Tokyo anytime soon with a toddler.. But it's in our future plans somewhere!)

    • Also looking forward to whether you took an Uber, airport limousine bus or luggage delivery to get these to the airport!

  72. Love ur articles. This is quite a crazy idea and I would like to read about how you pull this off!
    Count me into the draw for this cup noodles please! Thanks!

    • Yes, as I mentioned I’m accounting for 7% GST. You need to declare this when you bring into Singapore, it’s the law

      • Oh man you just gave me something new to look for! I just touched down this morning and have not seen this yet, though I must say I’ve only stepped into one Family Mart so far … any chance you have an extra carton or two from the some guy who knows some guy you know? ? Count me in for the draw!!

  83. Crazy but brilliant at the same time!
    Never heard of the noodles up until now but would love to give it a try 🙂

  84. By the way Airport Limousine can be quite sticky about the number of pieces of luggage they’ll put in the luggage hold for you, though they’ve not stopped me from lugging a sling, huge backpack, large Tokyu Hands paper bag and a cabin bag up the bus when they would only put 2 bags in the luggage hold for me (go figure). The bus was maybe about a quarter full that time so I had the luxury of using the seat next to me. But with 11 cartons … I think Taqbin would be the best bet in sending them ahead to the airport as the bus can get quite full. Good luck with them!

  87. I really hope that this works out for you! You just gave me an idea for my trip to Tokyo in November! Hopefully the craze hasn’t died out then.

    I hope I get to try the legendary cup noodles to work up my eagerness for the November trip! 🙂

  89. Added myself to the mailing list. Tried to find them earlier in my trip to japan however i couldn’t. Hopefully, I can win it from you 🙂

  93. I usually don’t make full use of my luggage allowance, so this was an instructive example of how to earn some money for free! Thanks for the tip on using Airfrov.

    • Oops I missed an earlier post. Seems like you’ve covered all angles of the deed. Thank you for this refreshing idea!

  96. You should have gotten the folks to deliver the cup noodles straight to the airport!
    I’m sure you will amaze all the Japanese now with your muscles ((;

  102. Love your wit and writing style, my fellow manly man. I always learn something new from your posts!

    Now gimme some of that cup noodles… Can’t wait to enjoy some big boy feelings as I cup my coveted cup! 🙂

  104. lol! and suddenly, your comments section exploded. i don’t believe i’ve ever seen anything more than 50 comments on a post! hahaha..

    this reminds me of when i went to gao xiong. and brought back 12 cartons of beef noodle bowls. each carton had 12. lol!! fortunately, i had the luxury of the ship to bring them back. while i flew. lol!

    you, my friend, are hilarious. and crazy. and this is so totally something i would do! makes me half wish i were visiting tokyo too, and doing this crazy idea.

    すごいね！now i think i’ll need to get to know too that guy that you know who knows a guy who knows a guy. definitely comes in handy!

  110. Long time lurker here! This is indeed monumentally stupid, but hey at least you’re earning something for all that work! 😉

  119. I’m based in Tokyo and I went to many convenience store, Don Quijote but still couldn’t see a single one. Amazing you managed to get 11 cartons.

  123. this…. !!
    this is an example how to maximise your miles and put them to a good use..
    dude…we’ll be more thrill if you bring a go-pro during this madness so we can cheer for you every time you lift those boxes…. 🙂

    Thanks

  139. I was wondering why there were so many comments..
    Please do the Krug + caviar + instant noodles tasting. It would totally outdo OMAAT..
    PICK ME PICK ME! Haha please and thank you!

  140. Awesome! I’ve been checking your site every once in a while and using the recommended credit card to earn miles, but the possibility of winning instant noodles has now made me sign up for your mailing list.

  142. Cool! The only crazy thing I did was to bring half sealed durian onboard a plane. I only dared to open my bag once ….

  144. My colleagues thought I was the craziest person to chuck 4 cartons of Nissin King Cup noodles and 12 cans of jumbo size fanta grape, all for my nephew and nieces. You are crazier. But imagine the smiles and screams on the recipients face. Count me in for the draw!

  145. So now all the closet readers (including myself) have surfaced from the dark quicker than the deatheaters did when Voldemort resurrected.

    Be warned, If you pick me to win, I’ll gobble the noodles down in a jiffy, bring the empty cup to your place and say “please sir Aaron, can I have some more?” in the most Oliver Twist style accent you’ll ever hear and you might take pity and give me your own share.

    On a serious note, I’d love to savour these Michelin Star cup noodles for lunch at work while reading your blog on how to maximize accruing miles or simply envying your trips around the world. The noodles will definitely draw attention and I’ll promise to groom them up to become studly, sexy Milelion readers. So, as what the gazillion other readers say “Count me in!”

  146. Signed up for the newsletter!
    Gotta say this is one of the most creative giveaways LOL
    Hopeful to win a Nakiryu instant ramen cup!

  155. Ok, I’ll bite. Signed up the mailing list for the noodle draw.

    I’m really curious about these noodles because I know of some friends who are flying to Japan just to get these.

    • they might have trouble though…word on the street is it’s sold out six ways from sunday. I’m trying to secure more stock and coming up empty.

  156. I know right! I once brought almost 70kg worth of stuffs for airfrov requests with a baby in toil! Crazy begets crazy!! But, that was the time of my life transporting all my cartons to the airport & home. What an incredible experience!! My only regret was forgetting to take a photo of the entire loot.

  157. Airfrov sounds like a cool concept- hearing it for the first time here (sorry been living under a rock :P). Does airfrov get 10x on the dbswmcc/uobppv?

    Also, count me in for the draw!:)

  160. Congratulations to Marc, Mark, Poh Siong, Milegroupie and Rez. T- you’ve each won for yourself two sets of the much coveted Nissin Nakiryu Michelin Starred Dan Dan noodles! I’ll be in touch through email to arrange collection.

    For those of you who didn’t win, don’t lose heart- there will be another noodle giveaway coming up, the details of which I’ll reveal shortly…

    P.S: If anyone has any contacts in Tokyo that can help with sourcing additional units, do let me know! It seems the noodles have been discontinued and whatever stock is left is long gone…

    • Congratulations to the winners! Aaron, would be very grateful if you could accept my airfrov request on the noodles you bring back to finance the trip (request no. 350110) so I can still get to try these unicorn noodles!). Cheers and do send us pictures of the cup noodle fort you’ll build in 1st class!

      • I can’t man, I’m completely sold out. I would love to bring back more… if you can source some. I already plan to visit every convenience mart I see

        • If you are still looking, you can find some at Donkihoute’s mega store in Shibuya. I chanced upon them today. Take note that the noodles has expiry dates of 2017 Nov.

        • Unfortunately, I’m heading onwards to the U.S. and it’s too much to carry a large number of these noodles there and back… I bought just 4.

  161. well…., i heard on the radio this morning that you, our mentor and all around stud, will be on the radio this thursday together with muttons. slow clap… Giving out some cup noodle as well… nicely played dude…

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