My trip to Yokohama

Note: Long post (for my standards)

Last weekend I went to Yokohama to visit a friend. It was the Sunday and Monday after the typhoon hit so the weather was still mostly cloudy with some rain. First some background on my friend. I met Takeshi in Los Angeles at my friend’s house. Actually, he is my friend’s cousin. I was asked to help send my friend his computer, as he was in Virginia at military school, and then set up a new one for his parents. Takeshi was staying at my friend’s house in LA at the time while he was visiting. I took him bowling and went out to dinner with him and my friend’s parents as I refused to accept money for the computer service. That was about all. However, when I got to Japan he asked that I come and visit him in Yokohama and the following ensued.

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After getting up early, I caught the express train to Yokohama to arrive at about 10:30. Takeshi met me at the platform and we headed off to Yamatedori. Yamatedori is a famous street atop a hill in Yokohama that has many old houses, museums, and parks. Our first stop was the Italian house. Here is the first of the damage I saw that was caused by the typhoon. I also found the books in the house particularly interesting. After seeing a couple more old houses and a famous church, we had lunch followed by a visit to the foreign cemetery. Lunch was at this small yet quite expensive café next to the cemetery. Afterward, we visited BayView Park and got an absolutely great view of Yokohama and the Bay Bridge. After a couple more museums, including a cat museum, we waked to Yamashita Park. To my surprise and delight the ‘World Fest Yokohama 2004’ was going on at the time. The festival was very interesting and had food and products from many different countries. After that we went to the top of Marine Tower to get an even better view of Tokyo. I spent a long time at the top of the tower as I love heights. On the way down they had the usual extra attractions and sales gimmicks. The next thing we did was take a nice walk to CosmoWorld. They have the biggest Ferris wheel in Japan (Cosmo Clock) along with some other roller coasters and attractions. After riding the coasters and Ferris wheel there was more walking and sightseeing followed by a train trip and a car ride to Takeshi’s home.

Typhoon Damage!

The Italian House

"The China Mutual Life Insurance Company”.. /w Nazis symbol
"Anglo-Saxon Superiority”
The one in the middle you can’t read is "Essays in Zen Buddhism”

Here is Takeshi with Yokohama in the background

As I was walking I was amazed to see a small cafe with this picture

The foreign cemetery. Yokohama is famous for having lots of foreigners. On the list of some of the famous graves:
"Griffin: Organized the first Boy Scout troop in Japan”
"Morel: Chief architect for the first railroad line in Japan”
Then we have…
"Bernard: Tea taster”
"Carew: Poisoned to death by his wife”
"Thomas: Promoted horse racing”

The beautiful Bay Bridge

I of course had to visit the cat museum… except there were no actual cats there. I did meet some friendly ones anyway.. see video in next post.

Yay, more typhoon damage

Marine Tower. I spent a long time at the top gazing upon the city below.

Yes, its the World Fest Yokohama 2004. That just happened to be held on the day I was visiting.

As I stated before about the foreigners, here is a Taiko group composed mostly of them.

Ah yes, all Americans eat $3 hotdogs on a stick and ride the mechanical bull.

Look Familiar?

And the festival from above

And now it’s dark. So you get a beautiful shot of where I went next.

But before I could go there, they tried to get me to go to some bird park thing. I just took a picture of the bird instead.

ComsoWorld with Japan’s largest Ferris wheel.

The awesome rollercoaster with Japan’s tallest building in the background.

I was fed well by Takeshi’s mother who seemed to be an excellent cook. After completely stuffing myself with wonderful food, and struggling to eat fish with chopsticks I was served traditional Japanese green tea and ‘anko’, which are traditional Japanese sweets. Takeshi’s parents were extremely nice and quite talkative. I spent the night talking with them with the very limited Japanese I knew. I also realized that I was occasionally speaking to them in a friendly form which was not that polite, but I was sure that they were happy with any Japanese that I knew.

I got up at 8:30 the next morning and, still full from last night, was served a beautiful breakfast which included traditional Japanese autumn fruits. A short walk from the house is an old park dating back to the Kamakura era. After enjoying the sights at the park, we started to walk along a path up to the top of the hill that resides near the park. The field was flattened, and there was fallen debris everywhere due to the recent typhoon. About halfway up the path we came upon what seemed to be a fallen tree across the path. After Takeshi said that it was time to turn back, I, of course, had the time of my life climbing around and swinging on vines to get through the obstacle. Nothing the typhoon can deal out can stop the likes of me (evil laugh). Takeshi had a little bit more a difficult time getting through, and ended up getting quite dirty . However, it was quite worth it as we reached the top of the hill and got yet another amazing view of Yokohama. When we finally hiked back down it was lunch time. I was taken to this very nice place that seemed to specialize in ‘unagi’. Lunch was extremely delicious as it was some of the best unagi I have ever had. It even came with these cool fried fish bones as an appetizer. Following lunch, we went to Yokohama Sea Paradise. The Aqua Museum was very interesting as I saw them feeding the penguins and the fish in one of the tanks. There seemed to be more fish than at the Shinagawa Aquarium, but also more crowded. There was also some more roller coasters and rides to go on. One of the rides, where you free fall from a high tower, we went on many times. It was a very fun afternoon.

The beautiful lake and park behind Takeshi’s house

Even more typhoon damage. It’s horrible to happen in such a beautiful place though

The start of the path up to the top. I love these kinds of paths, especially with the added danger of muddy and washed out paths

Like this. Yet, nothing can stop me!

The most powerful typhoon in 10 years

Lunch. Well, before lunch. These fried fish spines were amazingly good

This was lunch

The Aqua Museum at Sea Paradise. Why is it not called an Aquarium?

It’s feeding time for the fish

Afterward Takeshi’s family took me out to dinner… and it was one of those dinners I will remember for the rest of my life. As soon as we walked in the restaurant a person in a traditional kimono greeted us. At this point, I knew this place was expensive but I had no clue what was to come. I was about to eat a very traditional Japanese dinner called ‘Kaiseki-ryori’.
“Kaiseki-ryori uses the fresh ingredients of the season and are cooked in ways that enhance the original taste of the ingredients. Each dish is simply seasoned and presented beautifully in nice dinnerware. Often, things from nature, such as tree leaves and flowers, accompany the dish.”
The many many dishes I ate were all extremely delicious and very elaborately presented. Each dish was in theme with the autumn season and presented in amazing ways. When one eats Japanese food it is eaten three ways: first with one’s eyes, then with one’s nose, and then finally with one’s mouth. The dinner was so amazing it is hard to describe. The service was also above excellence. The dinner is one of the Japanese experiences that I will treasure forever.
With the conclusion of dinner, they walked me to the station and saw me off. It amazes me how much effort and money they spent on me when I visited. Their generosity was beyond anything than what I was expecting. I could not thank them enough and as I left they told me to “please come back again anytime”. Wow, Japanese hospitality is… for a lack of better words, just amazing.