Yokohama -2-

This is a sequel of the last post. I'd like to show you some more pics taken in Yokohama.

Some people overseas might know we're currently having a territorial dispute with China. This visit was before we started to have the problem, so Chinese people were friendly and we could take a look around this town very comfortably. Having said that, I still think the Chinese in this area would be kind to us. 

Do you know the chestnuts that taste really sweet? These chestnuts are called "Tenshin Amaguri", and its origin is China. But we can buy similar products at convenience stores as well.  

 I left the Chinatown and came near to Tokyo Bay. This building was right before the station we got off, and its name was "Yokohama Kaikou Memorial Museum". Kaikou means "opening of the port". 

 If you walk from the station for 15 minutes, you can visit this "Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse". Its outside look is oldish, but you can buy lots of fashionable things inside of it. 

We had coffee at this shop in the warehouse "Chez Madu". It is a coffee chain that has only 4 outlets in Japan. It was selling doughnuts as well which you can see on the left. 

I don't remember what this coffee was, but I think it was a cafe latte. I'd say this tasted better than Starbucks, but I'd prefer inexpensive coffee that Veloce serves. 

Some people know I'm a music freak, and I reserved a Korn live dvd that is going to be released next month. And I'm going to see Nickelback in December! What do you expect for after the summer ends?

Yokohama -1-

This is the first time I say this, but I lived in Yokohama of Kanagawa prefecture before I moved to Ibaraki. I usually don't remember the times when I was there, but since it is such a nice city, I see it on TV from time to time. During Obon (the summer vacation of Japan), I came to the China town of Yokohama to enjoy the atmosphere.

It takes only 40 minutes or less from Tokyo station to Yokohama. This is "The Minatomirai 21  line", and it takes you to the China town. As you can see, this station was built recently, in 2004.  

 It was really hot like 35 degrees when I got here. This is one of the gates of the China town. There were so many people who I thought came to eat Chinese food. 

Have you ever tried the sharks' fin soup? This restaurant specializes in it. Since there are several same restaurants in this China town, it would be hard for you to miss this.  

Dumplings. The prices ranged from 400 to 500 yen.  I wasn't sure if she was Chinese or Japanese.

I went to Taiwan last year, and saw many times the commercial for this energy drink on Taiwanese TV. So I tried this for the first time. But it tasted like odd Pepsi.  黒松 would mean "Black pine". 

My friend said he wanted to have lunch at this restaurant. Looking back, I think this was a good choice. 

This dish is called "刀削麺"(Toushoumen), and the noodles are basically cut off a wheat lump. It was cool like water but the taste was spicy. 

There was something like a shrine in the center of the town. Precisely it must not be a shrine, but western people wouldn't be able to distinguish it from Chinese temples, which is the case with me too. 

I want to show you more pics of Yokohama later!

Having fun in Tokyo

Hi, I think everybody is following how their countries are winning medals at the Olympics, but you know in Japan the games begin around the evening, so people go out without being concerned about the results of the Olympics. So my friend and me came to Tokyo again last weekend. 

As usual, I had searched for a nice restaurant in Tokyo. My friend had a stomach problem, so we had kept eating some Subway until recently, but since he recovered completely, we decided to have something that has a very thick taste. 

This restaurant "Chicken Place" is basically a bar, but it serves good rice and curry during the day. I took a pic of this bar, and the pic you're looking at is typically a room for the Japanese bar. 

This rice and curry's price was only 650 yen and the iced coffee 150 yen. I did enjoy the taste and since there weren't many people past 1pm, we could relax after the lunch.  

We were in Akihabara, but my friend found on his iphone that an exhibition of "Tut Ankh Amon" was being held in Ueno. So we came to Ueno to have some fun. 

One ticket per person was 3,000 yen, which translates into 38 US dollars, or 31 Euros. It was costly, but we decided to take a look only to get disappointed because they didn't bring the Tut's mask from Egypt. We waited in line for only 20 minutes. 

It was past 3pm after the exhibition, so we were feeling hungry. So we had sweets at a Japanese cafe called "Mihashi" in Ueno. This is called Kuzu mochi, which was elastic like rice cake. It tastes better with the brown powder (Kinako).  

And this drink was Matcha ice cream. As I said again and again, Matcha is like bitterer green tea. It helped me regain energy enough to walk around in Akihabara again. 

I learned this morning that the Japanese women's soccer team "Nadeshiko" had been defeated by the USA and that failed to grab gold medals. But they won silver medals for the first time, which made me happy nonetheless!