Unconventional museums around the world

The museum's first floor is devoted to the history of ramen, the noodle dish that’s a national obsession in Japan. However, the main attraction revolves around the nine ramen shops in the basement. Each shop sells a different style of ramen, including Sapporo ramen (miso-based soup) from the north and Okinawa ramen (shio-based soup) from the south. We highly recommend the miso ramen at Sumire.

Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum/ 2 Chome-14-21 Shinyokohama, Kohoku Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 222-0033, Japan

This museum is the passion project of photographer and love doll enthusiast Yoshitaka Hyodo who, after purchasing a two-story building, was finally able to immerse himself in his interest and create a life surrounded by dolls. Every collection on display comprises more than 20 mannequins and love dolls dressed up in varying themes that change every so often, from military secret service to hospital. Because this is also Yoshitaka’s home, it's only open to the public three times a year (check his blog for the dates), but if you can make it, it's well worth a visit.

E-mail hey@mbc.nifty.com for reservations, and you'll receive the address upon confirmation.

Don’t expect anything to make sense. Instead, just let your jaw drop to the floor when you see all the bizarre things compiled together in this weirdest of wunderkabinetts, including Happy Meal toys and celebrity stool samples. Their regular Menagerie Nights give you the chance to pet some interesting creatures too, like lizards and tarantulas.

The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History/11 Mare St, London E8 4RP, UK

This museum, the former home of the renowned Austrian shrink who moved to London in 1938 after fleeing the Nazis, has changed very little in the years since Sigmund Freud lived in it. It’s essentially a slice of Habsburg Vienna slap-bang in the middle of Hampstead, where you can see his collection of antiquities, and the famous couch upon which his patients shared their thoughts, dreams and neuroses.

Freud Museum London/20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX, UK

Mathematics are made fun at this Manhattan venue, which features cool interactive installations that allow you to explore the principles behind geometry, algorithms, optics and physics. There’s even a corrugated track that lets kids ride a square-wheeled trike as smoothly as a conventional one.

National Museum of Mathematics/1 E 26th St, New York, NY 10010, USA

If you consider a visit to a famed New York restaurant a major cultural experience, then America’s first-ever museum dedicated to eating, dining, cooking and everything food is for you. Apart from showing exhibits on rotation, MOFAD also offers special talks and tastings after museum hours.

Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD)/62 Bayard St, Brooklyn, NY 11222, USA

This museum displays a rare collection of toilet designs used in different periods and places throughout history. In addition, facts, pictures and objects explore the historic evolution of toilets from 2500 BC to date, and comprehensively detail toilet-related social customs, toilet etiquette and prevailing sanitary conditions.

Sulabh International Museum Of Toilets/Sulabh Bhawan, RZ-83, Palam Dabri Marg, Mahavir Enclave, New Delhi, Delhi 110045, India

This is probably the only museum in the world to display a collection of more than 250 penises and penile parts belonging to 46 different kinds of mammals that can be found in Iceland, including specimens from Homo Sapiens. It also has a collection of about 350 artistic oddments and practical utensils related to the museum’s theme.

The Icelandic Phallological Museum/Laugavegur 116, 105 Reykjavík, Iceland