It has been a while hasn’t it? I apologize for the delay! Let’s see… since my last post I’ve moved into my new apartment in Yokohama… didn’t have furniture or internet for a couple of weeks. Then there was the trip to Baltimore for the final week of the New Leader Program. After returning “home” to Japan I had all of my household goods from Hawaii finally delivered and I got internet set up so that left me with a lot of cleaning and organizing to do… throw in a couple of typhoons and on top of all that… been working that overtime! So, busy busy busy…
Well, all that aside now, this past week was a great week because a friend was finally able to visit for the first time in three months so spent the week doing all sorts of things in Japan. Enough things to make a new blog!
So, everyday was pretty filled with doing something… I’ll go day by day I suppose:
Day 1: Today, walked around Minatomirai. First stopped at the Red Brick Building where they had their annual Oktoberfest going on. Didn’t actually go in for Oktoberfest but it sure was crowded! After that, headed to the Cup Noodle Museum and did a quick little self-guided tour and learned about the history of instant ramen! Then went to the World Porters Shopping Mall for a little bit and headed back to the apartment. At night, took the train to Minatomirai and walked around Mark IS shopping mall for a little bit and did some grocery shopping – expecting to stay in most of the next day due to the typhoon arriving.
Day 2: Today, just walked around a little bit near the apartment… expected it to start raining around noon with the arrival of the typhoon.
Day 3: Since the storm passed through the night, thought it a good idea to go to the zoo the next day since it was such nice weather and figured the animals would all want to come out to play too. Caught the train early in the morning and headed for Ueno Zoo since they were supposed to have pandas. Fortunately, all the animals were out playing and very photogenic! Every animal I wanted to see I got to see, even the red pandas.
Day 4 & 5: Shopping day near Minatomirai and Yokohama Station… work days for me.
Day 6: This day, traveled all the way north (three and a half hours each way on the JR line) to Nikko for their annual Autumn Festival! Here was the samurai style “1,000 person procession” (which was actually only about 700 people). Also had the chance to see the renovations of Rinnoji Temple, the Futarasan Shrine, and of course the Toshogu Shrine. These shrines and temples all help to make Nikko a World Heritage site! After viewing the shrines and temples, all of which were really nice, caught the bus to Lake Chuzenji (about a half hour ride into the mountains). Having read about it online, decided to go to Kegon Falls, one of the most popular waterfalls in Japan and it didn’t disappoint at all! The interesting part is that you have to take an elevator down 100m just to see it and of course it costs a small fee. After the falls, got some street food and tried some yuba which is supposed to be a local food of Nikko (it was ok…). Then walked down to the lake area to enjoy the sunset and take a couple of pictures. Afterwards, caught the bus back to Nikko and bought a few things and waited for the train back to Yokohama.
Day 7: Being quite tired from the day before, took it easy today and just caught the train up to see Ginza and Tsukiji. Walked up and down the main streets and through a few of the departments stores in Ginza, even got some breakfast at a coffee shop along the way. As expected, many of the stores were pretty expensive. There was even a nice little store selling chopsticks and one of which was ¥100,000. Don’t ask me why because my Google translate wasn’t working too well in the store so I’ll just say they were handmade? After Ginza, kept walking until reaching Tsukiji. Walked around the fish market area a little bit although the main auction areas and inner wholesale areas were closed by this time. The outer markets were still open though so that was enough to see in that area. Made sure to eat some fish while there and bought a few snacks to take back as well.
Day 8: As if the entire week wasn’t filled with enough fun things, the next trip was to Tokyo Disney Sea! Boy, was it crowded… arrived a little after 0800 and didn’t get through the ticket line and the main gate until around 0900. The first ride (Toy Story Mania) took about 3 hours of standing in line to get into! So after that, decided to only do rides with the fast pass (definitely key). In the end, got to see pretty much everything and ride the ones that were more interesting anyway. Stayed all the way until closing at 2200. At night they had the main event with Mickey and then an added fireworks show for Halloween this month.
Day 9: On the final day, just stayed in and relaxed. Was pretty tired from the entire week of events.