Yokohama!

This weekend was our first trip to somewhere other than Tokyo. A woman at the Nishimura's church, who speaks wonderful English, has been asking us for a few weeks now if we had visited Yokohama yet. So we felt it was time to check this city out. Tokyo has been great, but it was nice to mix it up a little and get a change of scenery. Yokohama is also a large city, not as huge as Tokyo, but still big.

We decided to sleep in and head out in the afternoon. I can't sleep in. I really never have been a good sleeper-inner. I just like the idea that I can sleep if I want to. I still ended up waking up at the same time I do every morning though. But I did get a little homework done and reading too. After making a brunch of banana pancakes and pizza-yes, weird and carbo loaded but yet delicious combination- we biked to the train station. It's definitely getting warmer here! Saturday was beautiful; around 60 degrees and sunny.

We had heard Chinatown was a popular tourist area of Yokohama, so we planned to go there but left the rest of the time for whatever we found when we got there. Minako gave us plans to get through the train and subway stations, but never having been to Yokohama herself, her directions didn't take us to the station that led us to Chinatown. We exited at the station she suggested, walked around for a while and didn't find a whole lot. We did get some pictures of buildings and bridges though.

Finally, we decided we should ask someone for help. Lori took charge, telling Mike and I to wait right where we were as she marched up to an older man to ask for help. Way to go Lori! The man was very helpful and his broken English told us to get back on the subway for a few more stops. When we got off at the new station in Yokohama, we found a huge stadium and park right away.

The park was filled with people, especially families with younger kids. There are so many parks in Japan! I love it!

This park had an area with lots of fountains. This was one of them.

We had to walk a little ways to get to Chinatown area. I saw this cute billboard! Mike took a picture of Lori and I standing in front of the two larger people on the right side. They're holding a flower. I think it was for a building company.

Chinatown is really just an area with about 100 Chinese restaurants- all with pretty much the same food and prices! We decided it was necessary to get food at one of the restaurants and started scanning the menus, hoping to find a really really good deal. While Lori and I were reading over the menu of one place, the owner came out and started pointing out lower priced items on the menu and telling us to come in. We told him we were looking at lots of places, so maybe we'd be back. He looked really disappointed, and Lori and I both thought that he must not get a lot of business. We went across the street to look at another place's menu, which did have some things a bit different and better looking. But the guy from the first place was still outside watching us, with sad puppy dog eyes. We talked it over with Mike and we finally decided we'd go to the first man's restaurant, since he looked like he really wanted us to come in.

When we got inside, there was only one other family there but it was still pretty early in the afternoon. The owner sat us down at a huge table, probably for a family or big party. The three of us decided to order a large dinner for two deal, which had several dishes of appetizers, main courses and fruit. We figured it would be plenty of food for the three of us. However, when we tried to order, we had a difficult time explaining to the waitress that we just waited one dinner for three people. Finally, the owner came over along with the rest of the restaurant staff and told us that we would have to pay extra if we wanted to order that item since it was only for two people. We then tried asking if we could order two of the smaller two person dinners, which would be food for four people and the owner agreed to this.

We thought everything was fine and dandy, until the waitress started bring out the food. First, she brought us a bowl of soup that was just the perfect size for two people. Then, she brought out a plate that had two pot stickers on it. Then a two person sized portion of chicken. We kept hoping that we'd get the first meal and then she'd start over again for the second dinner. But when she brought out just two cups of fruit and the bill, we knew something was up. We had been charged for two dinners, yet we were only given one. I called the owner over and tried to explain our complaints the best I could, but his English was good enough to tell us that the dinner was only for two people, so we had to pay the price for a second. And one person couldn't order a dinner for two one their own. Funny that he didn't try explain that to us when we ordered! We had been scammed. On the positive side of things, we did get to try several different dishes and since we ordered the smaller dinners it didn't cost that much per person. But it still wasn't much food for dinner and we got scammed! To make matters more annoying, the restaurant had filled up quite a bit while we had been there so clearly the owner wasn't in need of business from us. Grrr.

After the restaurant, we walked around the packed streets of Chinatown for a while. I tried not to look at the menus of other restaurants for fear I might see a good deal that we could have had instead had we only waited a little bit longer. Since we were still a little hungry, we decided to grab a small treat from one of the many carts on the street. We found this shop selling these big rolls with meat and veggies inside. The line was long, so we knew it must be good! It sure was. The bread was hot and doughy and the inside goodies were delicious.


Other than food places, Chinatown has some souvenir stores and the China Museum, which has more food and souvenirs. There was one store filled with panda bear collectables and another with everything Hello Kitty.

After a while, Chinatown was kind of exhausting so we walked around other parts of Yokohama for a while. It was dark by this point, but it was exciting to see some of the nightlife atmosphere of the city. For not having much of a plan for what we wanted to see and do, I enjoyed seeing Yokohama and just having a laid back day. Our trips to Tokyo have been fun, but we plan several stops and it seems like we've been rushing from one place to the next. I liked being able to just see what was in the city, even if it wasn't always something that would be a big tourist attraction.