Day 3 of 15, Yokohama Part 2

The hotel that we’re staying in doesn’t provide breakfast. So we have to look for our own breakfast. Breakfast this morning was bought by my dearest.

A very vulgar looking chocolate bun. Truthfully speaking, it looks like shit (forgive my language).

It even oozes out like shit. Fortunately it doesn’t taste like shit. It tasted like any other chocolate bun. Mat said that I better choose the breakfast next time.

This next item is more interesting.

The texture is very squishy. Very nice to play with… hahaha… and tastes pretty interesting too. Custard filling, Yummy~

Mat left early for his first day of conference. Whereas I took my time preparing myself to go out.

Every tourist/traveller’s worst nightmare…

RAIN!!!!

Imagine, trying to walk around with a map in one hand, an umbrella in the other, and a camera hanging around your neck. You have to do a juggling act to take pictures.

My first destination was the Mitsubishi Minatomirai Industrial Museum. Since it’s raining, might as well enter a museum or something to get away from the rain right?

As I was finding my way there… I got lost :-O

Everywhere I turned, it looked exactly the same.

Btw, this is how a typical Japanese street look like. Very narrow, 1 way streets, and pedestrians seem to be king. If there’s a car behind you, then just simply move to the side. If you’re not sure, just walk in the space between the white side lines and the shops.

I was about to be panicked stricken and wanted to ask someone already, when I saw a very familiar scene. The ferris wheel. So I walked in the direction of the ferris wheel. And to my relief, I found my way back on the right track. Phew~

On the map, there was a something called a moving walkway, and I was curious as to what it is.

It’s something like an overhead bridge, but with travelators. So it moves ppl faster, or you don’t have to walk as much. Cool eh?

I was so looking forward to get out of the rain when I finally reached the Mitsubishi museum… my heart dropped.

CLOSED!

Closed for renovation or maintenance or whatever reason. I checked the website before I went, and it didn’t say anything… grrrrrr

What to do… continue on my walk on this gloomy day lo.

Walked round the back to the Museum of Art. Didn’t feel like enjoying any art at this moment.

Fountains in front of the Museum of Art.
The fountains was soon turned off because it didn’t make sense with all that rain.

Even taking pictures was a chore. Rain was getting heavier, and I was trying to shield my camera lenses from the rain, and trying to put the map away by “kiapping” it between my legs, and holding the umbrella to protect myself from getting wet, and also trying to avoid my backpack from getting wet and such and such… think of it also very tired…hai~

Line of trees in from of the Museum of Art

And hence… the umbrella in the shots -_-

The front of the Museum of Art

Getting very frustrated with the rain, I decided to just rest and stay dry in the Queen’s Square, a shopping mall beside Pacifico Yokohama.

I wonder why I didn’t take any pictures inside the mall? hmm…

Waited for Mat’s phone call, and we met up for lunch. Ate together with his supervisor and ex-colleague.

I ordered Oyakodon, literally “parent-and-child” rice bowl dish. It’s a poetic reflection of the fact that both chicken and egg are used in the dish. The noodles is called Soba. Made from buckwheat flour. Dip it into the provided soy sauce mixture, and slurp it up as loud as you can. For real. No kidding. You think it’s rude… but all Japanese seem to do it that way. So when in Japan, do as the Japanese do

Mat had the tempura rice soba set.

After lunch, Mat went back to his conference, and I continued on my way.

When I walked about 5 minutes to my next destination, the rain was like typhoon. Fortunately I was wearing shorts and sandals. I was soaked from shorts down. And half my bag got wet.

I was like… forget it! So I slowly made my way back to the hotel, dried up, tried watching some tv (all in japanese btw), and fell asleep.

Later in the night, we watched a bit of news (in japanese, as if we understand), there was actually a typhoon which swept across the middle part of Japan. Yokohama got the skin of it.

Mat came back for dinner this time. We decided to try to find something to eat in China Town.

Yokohama Chinatown is the largest Chinatown not only in Japan but also in Asia and it is one of the largest in the world. There are over 200 restaurants.

One of the gates in China Town

One of the streets in china town

The prices of the food in china town seems pretty expensive. And, it’s all chinese food…. duh~

So after walking along the streets and being very undecided on what to eat, we ended up eating Japanese food at a Japanese fast food cafe.

Yes, Japan has it’s own fast food. In western countries, fast food is McD, KFC, etc…  In Malaysia, our fast food is chak fan right?

In Japan, there’s Yoshinoya (yes, some of you have heard of this name before, in Singapore… everybody go… ooooo~),  Sukiya, and Matsuya.

And the dish they serve is Gyūdon (beef bowl).

And food from these beef chains are very cheap! Another option for you who wants to travel on a budget ^^

I ordered gyūdon with garlic shoots and tofu. Came with a bowl of miso soup.

And Mat ordered gyūdon with kimchi set.

Mind you, we didn’t say “I want this gyūdon with garlic shoots”.

The Japanese speaks very little english or none at all. And they talk to you as if you understand japanese. So all we could do is, *point to the picture*, ONE, *point to the picture* ONE… and then they speak in japanese, and then we reply “hai, hai”… as if we understand and they go “arrigato gozaimasu”…. and we go “arrigato”.

It’s always a relief when we enter a restaurant/cafe which has picture menus!

I tell you… it’s an incredible experience trying to talk to the Japanese. Like a duck talking to a chicken. Mat knows a very tiny bit of Japanese, and a lot of japanese words are in chinese characters, which Mat can recognize. So we managed pretty well. Before coming to Japan, we also watched a lot of Japanese dramas. So certain words we can catch, and we try to piece together what they are trying to say.

Mat really enjoyed this dish. His favourite dish of all that he ate for the whole 2 weeks in Japan.

Don’t bother to check my blog this weekend. Go out, have a picnic, go cycling, swimming, have a walk, spend time with your family, cook up a storm, enjoy the weekend ;) See ya next Monday!