Yokohama 横浜 Jan 2012

When I originally made this blog I was still too busy being a student to keep this up to date, but now I'm trying to go back and write about some of the cool places I visited the various times I lived in Japan. Writing about something I did 5 years ago (wow! really 5 years?!??) might mean that I miss some stuff and end up coming back to these posts later as I remember things.

Yokohama 横浜 Chinese New Year

The time of year that we went meant we had accidentally timed our visit perfectly for New Year celebrations and parades. When we arrived we went straight to the China Town area. There were so many people! We tried on some of the Lion dance heads, then made our way through the busy streets with strings of lanterns overhead to where the parade would take place.

After watching the parade we went to Kantei-byo temple, just off the street where the parade had been. It seemed much more colourful and elaborately decorated than a lot of temples I'd visited. 

  In the evening we headed over to the Minato mirai area to see the skyline and take a few purikura.

Oishi ku nare ♥

On Sunday we had breakfast at Nanoka's, so I got to see what japanese breakfast is like. There was rice, salmon, soup with pickles in, scones, and a few other things but I wasn't sure what they were. It was all nice, except I'm not used to Japanese soup. It's served with nearly every meal I've had so far but I've been struggling to have more than a few sips. I need to start liking it... The four of us headed out to karaoke in Shibuya where we met Hiroaki. It was in a little room with a mix of english and japanese songs. We went to do purikura afterwards. In purikura you all go into a little photo booth and pose a bit, then you go to another booth and decorate the photos. It also changes your skin so it looks nicer and also changes your eyes. Although, it doesn't really pick up western eyes very well so mine are how they look in real life in the photo. (it probably didn't help that i forgot to look at the camera and looked at the screen instead lol) In Shibuya we went to see Hachiko by the train station. This is a statue of a dog that lots of people stand by to wait for their friends if they are meeting up. In 1924, a professor at the university of Tokyo took in a dog called Hachiko as a pet. Everyday after work Hachiko would greet him until May 1924. The professor didn't return that day because he had died, but the dog continued to wait at the station everyday for 9 years!

Tom wanted to see what a maid cafe looked like as well so Hiroaki took us to Akihabara. I was thinking that maybe girls don't really go in, but there were several other mixed tables in there. All the walls were pink with cute things everywhere and all the waitresses were dressed as maids. Whenever they brought out drinks to each table they would have everyone at the table "put a spell" on the drinks so they taste nicer. So in the cafe you kept hearing people saying "moi, moi, nyan, nyan, oishi ku nare!" That place was.. an experience... but I think it's something that tourists should do in Tokyo and this week I'm a tourist!

Nanoka had invited us back for tea so we went back and ate with her family. We had gyouza, fish, beef, and some other things (I'm not sure what they were but they were really nice and I will get better at remembering food names!) Her family are very friendly as well. We had to mainly speak in Japanese. I couldn't follow the whole conversation but I understood more than the day before :D