Mario Ramen shop set in front of the Nintendo Museum has already shut down

The Nintendo Museum opened in Kyoto, Japan last year, giving gamers a new destination to learn about the company behind Mario, Kirby, Link, and many other iconic gaming mascots. To take advantage of the location, a ramen shop poised itself to open across the street from the museum.

The shop was called Mario Ramen, quite obviously positioning itself as a destination to go after you've explored all the Nintendo Museum has to offer and worked up quite the appetite. However, as images posted to social media show, the shop has now removed its signage, indicating it may have already been shut down.

Speculation points to the shop being renamed, rather than being closed forever, as it had just opened. The person who posted the picture of the sign being down also mentioned that when they went to the store recently, the shutters were open but it wasn't open for business.

Perhaps Nintendo has asked the store not to use the Mario name. Perhaps a rebrand was simply in order. We won't know more until we see whether this store disappears for good, or makes a miraculous comeback.