Today is my second day back at work, and it just made me realize how much I want to find a different job that encourages creativity. It also made me fully realize that I am officially out of vacation mode, and back from Japan, which I had to say was the most exciting experience of my life!
When Paul and I got to the airport, we were just filled with excitement! We were walking around LAX, a little rushed and sleepy, and frantically finding ways to entertain ourselves. Once we got on the plane, which by the way was a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 (double-decker .. whaaaaat!), it was pretty much impossible to sleep. The airline was very cool, and very accommodating. The only uncomfortable thing about the flight was that Paul and I were in between two people in a row of four.
I was pretty impressed with their Japanese movie selections. Uchuu Kyoudai, Thermae Romae, Rentaneko, and Rurouni Kenshin were all on there (Sorry, this computer doesn’t have Japanese capabilities so I will update this post later with the correct kanji & kana). They also had a great music selection. Paul and I spent a good amount of time playing multiplayer Tetris though, haha!
Yeah … and then there was the food. Haha, Singapore Airlines sure knows how to make you want to bother other people to get to the bathroom. They served as full course meals and drinks of our choice. As well as snacks and desserts. Though Paul and I didn’t indulge in any alcohol, the option was there, which was pretty cool. The flight to Narita was one of the smoothest flights I’ve ever been on. Despite the fact I was in between people the entire 11 hour flight, we ascended, experienced almost no turbulence, descended, and arrived earlier than schedule without me even knowing it! What a great pilot!
Once we got to the airport, I went through customs and all that good stuff. The customs workers in Japan really are a lot better when it comes to customer service, I must say. Well, really the entire country is better with customer service. Even the camera they used to take a picture of me when I arrived was cute! Paul and I got our bags, exchanged money, got me a super useful Suica card, and purchased our Narita Express ticket to get to Yokohama. Though I understand and speak Japanese fairly well, I was just intimidated the first day I was there, and I let Paul take the lead for me since I didn’t know Narita airport too well. We were done within an hour! These Suica cards were one of the coolest things we bought. It’s basically a card you put money on for the train, and all the turnstiles will just scan when you go through. So useful and I drastically overestimated the costs of trains there too … what a nice surprise for me!
Paul got me a Narita Express ticket which is a special, faster train that has less stops that took me through to Yokohama way faster than a normal train. We arrived to our stop (which is about a five minute walk from our hostel) about two hours after we landed and it was raining. However, once we got in the hostel, we turned up the heater, and knocked out to get some rest for our crazy packed schedule!
Day 1
When we woke up the next day, we decided to take a long morning walk to take in our surroundings, and eat up Japanese morning weather (which was really cold … haha). We went to find a marketplace. Not a convenience store (or conbini), but a real street-food kind of marketplace. We found one about a mile away from our hostel and it was a great way to start off our trip. Because the food was locally made, a lot of it was really cheap and we ended up finding crazy huge pieces of Chicken Katsu for 100 yen each (Psh, that went in breakfast for the next three days!) We also got takoyaki because you know, Paul and I do love takoyaki and kewpie!
Kewpie… 🙂
The top of our hostel had a little garden area with benches you could sit on and hang out. It was really small and pretty. We didn’t spend too much time up there because not everyday was as sunny as the day I took this picture, haha but nonetheless I liked it a lot!
Since we decided to take this whole day and explore other parts of Yokohama, it was only right that we visited China Town! We lived a good five minutes walking distance from Chinatown, and at night, it really shined! It was so exciting, and had such great food!
It was so lively! People trying to sell you stuff left and right, people inviting you into their restaurants, free samples everywhere, it was great. There were lots of pretty light designs everywhere too.
This tree was right outside a playground, and it was the first of many I saw. After this day, I began to realize Japan has a ridiculous amount of playgrounds and places for kids to roam and play freely. That is AWESOME.
Such good AnMan~ !
Though my hair is a mess because of cold, hard winds, and I look like I just got out of bed, I had to take this picture with the China Town Hello Kitty store mascot ^^ … I had to have my fix, you know!
After exploring ChinaTown, we made the journey up some really steep hills to an area with a lot of Western Style houses and buildings. There’s also an International School there. I believe the area was called Porthill, Yokohama. But the Western Houses and School weren’t the most impressive things about being on top of that hill …
The view was amazing! There were people all around the park taking pictures and couples strolling around. Paul admitted he had wanted to take me here for a long time … ii na Po-ru-san 😉
As we walked around this area, we came upon MORE PARKS. There were parks everywhere, but this one in particular was really pretty! We could see Minato Mirai all the way from where we were too.
The entrance was designed like a tunnel, haha.
Because it was dark, walking through was pretty funny.
The crazy view from Yamashita Koen to Minato Mirai!
Really nice. I loved walking around the parks! I could never get tired of it. And luckily, the boyfriend loves it too 🙂
We made our way around near the pier, and there was something to look at on every corner! Walking through Yokohama is like walking through a desktop wallpaper! Everything really is as clean and pretty as it is in pictures!
These light fixtures made their way towards the ocean. We found Osanbashi, which was a really cute place (filled with couples) to walk around especially at night!
With light~
Without light. Either way, it was really pretty. Osanbashi seemed to be a kind of cruise ship that went around the bay many times during the day. There wasn’t anything going on at that hour, so we just helped ourselves and took a look around (everything in Japan seems to be open to the public, haha).
We then ended our night in a more high end shopping plaza, that, though closed, housed many different cafes that were really cute (noted for later)!
Motomachi was definitely really pretty as well. Not much going on at that hour either, especially since it was right before New Years Eve. After New Years, this place was packed!
What an amazing day filled with lights and wonderful views! I was already love with Yokohama after that day. When we got home, we indulged in some ChinaTown and Conbini bought food (which is totally dinner worthy!), and hit the sheets for day 2.
Day 2
Our second day there was another day of Yokohama explorations! Paul and I have a lot of family members and a lot of friends so we needed to scope out some good deals for some cool souvenirs. It was a really rainy day in Yokohama, and we went out thinking it would stop at some point (which it didn’t). Of course, we didn’t bring an umbrella, so we had to get one at a conbini. The first stop of the day was to try out a cafe. The first one we tried was “Fruit and Coffee,” and seriously that is all they sell. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? I imagine it has really good fruit because I didn’t get any, but I got some lattes, and they were good, but still a little overpriced if you ask me. It looked like a cute little interesting cafe, so we were still happy with it, and of course it was a warm getaway from the cold rain. The cafe was also filled with people smoking, which is okay because we’re used to that in Japan, but it was pretty small so it felt like a hotbox, haha.
This was the view from our seats inside. It was really rainy that day!
Paul was all like “Mm, Nihon Coffee~~~~”
Pretty good Lattes, but at about 600 yen each, I don’t think it was the best.
Our next stop was the Brickhouse, I forgot what it used to be, but I think it was used during the war or for some kind of military purpose. It’s now turned into a four-story shopping and restaurant facility. It was super cute and nice to walk around and check out some small shops, including some good cafes.
The outside was really creepy looking, but when you got inside, it was full of lights and cute shops!
Blurry, but this was the balcony outside. You could see most of Yokohama from there. It was so beautiful!
Paul being so optimistic despite the rain! He loves Yokohama!
The incredible view from the Brickhouse. It was so foggy, you couldn’t see the top of Landmark Tower. This was such a nice little place to walk around.
We made our way over to World Porters, which is not far from where we were. It’s a huge shopping centers. We also headed over to Minato Mirai area and Landmark Plaza. I swear, if I had no control over money, it would have been totally over.
World Porters has this place called “Leonard’s,” and it had the BEST cream puffs I’ve ever had!
I don’t even remember how many stories this was, but it was pretty amazing!
I love the “express lane,” for Japanese escalators.
And um, this is “food court food?” Maaaaaan, that was good~.
Paul really enjoyed it too … as you can see. Hahaha.
We ended our day a little earlier than usual that day, to go home and get ready for the CRAZY FILLED NEW YEARS. We had so much planned that day, I’ll write about it tomorrow though!
Kazurissa 