This is not that story.
This is the story of how I had planned to climb Mt. Fuji, but ended up visiting the city of Yokohama instead.
... let me explain.
Back in July I made a plan with a friend of mine to climb Mount Fuji in August. Since he works for a Japanese company, we decided that it would be best to do it on a weekend and settled on August 8 for the day of our ascent.
As luck would have it, he managed to talk his boss into giving him a day off on the Friday before, so we bumped our plan up a day in the hopes of a slightly smaller crowd and more sleep before going back to work on Monday.
Unfortunately, fate interceded, and he ended up having to work that day anyway. To make a long story short, we decided with the extra day of work and the likelihood of the weather being bad anyway, we'd have to postpone our journey. This now meant I had a day by myself in the Tokyo area, when all of my friends there would be working.
What to do? After my initial disappointment at not getting to climb the mountain, I decided to be an optimist and make lemonade out of the lemon that was handed to me. I went to Yokohama ^^
All I knew about Yokohama before this trip was that it is the second largest city in Japan, and that it was the first port opened (in 1859) after the arrival of Matthew Perry. I had also heard it described as the favorite city of several of my fellow ALTs, more than enough reason to check it out.
Since I hadn't brought my guidebook with me (it's quite heavy and who wants to haul that up a mountain?) I had virtually no information whatsoever on what to do once I arrived in the city. So I went to the tourist information center, got a map, and off I went.
My first stop was the shopping area Motomachi and the former foreign residence area, Yamate. Here you can find lots of western-looking houses, shopping
and a Catholic cemetery ^^
Then I headed over to check out the Chinatown, rumored to be the best in Japan (and, apparently, the largest in all of Asia).
It was full of shops (a nice, air-conditioned break from the rather intense heat) and restaurants
and as any self-respecting Chinatown should, comes complete with a Starbucks.
It also has a lovely Chinese temple, Kantei-byo
so full of color!
Next I wandered over to the harbor to lounge in the breeze and shade of Yamashita Koen.
Where I actually fell asleep for a while in the glorious, glorious grass. Oh, how I miss grass! They just don't have a lot of it here.
After my nap, I decided to take a harbor cruise. While it was nice to get out on the water and enjoy the breeze, as far as harbor cruises go, this one was fairly so-so. Things I saw:
The bay bridge
The bay
The city
The pier
The only non-Japanese person on the boat ^^
The pier was pretty interesting though. Not only does it look like a spaceport out of a Star Wars movie, it has a fantastic wood and grass promenade on the top
Tell me that doesn't look like a skateboarding fantasy.
Down a little further from the pier is the Minato Mirai 21 area, full of shops and restaurants and an amusement park. It also has a lovely red-brick warehouse (that has been converted into many shops and restaurants) called Aka Renga Souko
where they had set up a large sandbox
and were preparing for a rock concert on the following day.
I'm not entirely sure who they were, but their dress-rehearsal made for awesome accompaniment to my tasty BLT dinner ^^
On the way back to the station to catch a train back to Tokyo, I strolled past "Cosmo World", home of what was the largest Ferris wheel in the world when it was built in 1989 (and still the world's largest clock)
And a beautiful view of the Landmark Tower
Not quite Mount Fuji, but all things considered, not a bad way to spend a Friday either (^_^)
2 comments:
That sucks you didn't get to climb Fuji, but I'm sure you'll get a chance later!
now THAT sounded like big fun. glad you decided on that fresh-squeezed lemonade ;)
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