Yokohama (rice bowl)

Living on base is like living in America but you can vacation in Japan on the weekends. This weekend we traveled from one American island to another American island to do a weekend trip in Yokohama. We stayed on the naval base in Yokosuka which was a good “base” (don’t mind the pun) for traveling to see a different area of the Kanto plain. Naval bases are different because they are 1. Located on the water 2. Have ships instead of airplanes and 3. They say “welcome aboard” when you go through the guard gate. But otherwise it is pretty much the same as Yokota with a mess of nondescript cement buildings, places to shop, a few restaurants to remind you of home. People make the 1 ½ hour drive to Yokosuka from Yokota just for the Chili’s on base! I don’t get it, but maybe after I have lived here longer I will be craving some greasy, fake southwestern food too. A big presidential style margarita sounds good. For now, I am still intrigued with eating the local cuisine and international food with a Japanese twist. It is only about 40 miles between the bases but because of traffic it takes 1 ½ hours on a good day to drive there and about the same on the train. Our neighbors came with us on this adventure so we rode with them. We are still without a car (similar to millions of other Japanese people) and are surviving with bikes only.

Yokohama is known for having the world’s largest China town (next to China’s China town of course). So we ate lunch there and feasted on multiple dishes family style. Here are some pictures of some unidentified fruits/vegetables and our new friends that came with us on our trip. They are our neighbors too.

The streets were full of Chinese decorations and shops and food vendors but we were too full to try any of the street food. Next we went and walked along the coast to the many man made islands full of shops and what not. One of the main reasons for going to Yokohama was that they were hosting an Octoberfest. You haven’t lived until you have drank a pint or two or more with 1000s of Japanese people under a tent with a German band playing and everyone singing/dancing along. Here are a few pics to get the idea. One is of the German food options available. I have a video too but I am working on loading it onto there. This was quite the international event with many Germans, Americans, other Europeans and more all in attendance. It was quite popular and for good reason.

Day 2.

We went to the Landmark tower up to the 68th floor on the fastest elevator in the world. It only takes 40 seconds to get all the way to the top. My ears popped twice. The views were incredible. We could see all the way to Tokyo and all the cityscapes in between. You really just can’t imagine how much urban sprawl there is until you see it from one of these observation decks. The pics don’t really give it much credit but here they are anyway.

We also went and walked along some shopping districts and ate awesome Indian food. It is really strange to go eat Indian food and the owner is Indian and speaks Japanese, Indian, and English. We also went up in one of the tallest ferris wheels in the world. It was pretty freaky looking down. We went at night and saw all of the lights of Yokohama and boats in the water along the shore.

Here is a random sculpture or art project downtown.

We had dinner at a swanky Japanese restaurant with all the coolest young urbanites. We had sushi rolls with Kobe beef and a CALIFORNIA roll. Haven’t seen one of those in Japan yet. We had dessert and a drink at another restaurant and then headed back to the hotel.

On the way home the next day we stopped at Denny’s. It bore minimal resemblance to Denny’s in the states and I had some noodle soup while everyone else attempted to order the most American thing on the menu. The egg yolks in Japan are orange which makes you think they should taste kind of cheesy but unfortunately that is not that case. Do you even recognize most of the things on the menu?