Yokohama, Japan

Yokohama, Yokohama, Yokohama...... I have such good memories of this place and I cannot wait to go back because it was just soooo amazing.

We started out the day by getting up at 5 in the morning so we could go up on deck and watch us pull in to the dock. However, the weather gods decided that we should go back to bed because it was raining like a mother chicken. So we went back to bed! Then later that morning we got up again and got ready for the day. For some odd reason it took forever and a day to get the ship cleared and we did not even get of the boat until like 2 when we were supposed to off by 11 so we pretty much lost our whole day. Once we got off we started walking out and we say our first vending machine of Japan (everything in this country could be found in a vending machine, it is crazy!)

So my group of homie g's and I came up with an indy trip to got to Tokyo! We began to walk all the way across the city of Yokohama to find the train station. We bought train and subway tickets to get ourselves to Tokyo. We had to take two subway lines to get to the train station, and that gave us our first insight to how crazy the subway system is! We found that when you have multiple colored subway lines and everything is in Japanese plus you have to find the automatic ticket booth (which is in all Japanese) and buy your tickets then find your gate where the subway leaves! Holy, the first couple of times using the subway was amazingly stressful, but by the time we left Japan I was so pro at, it was like I lived there! Once we finally got our selves to the train station we saw a small group of kids that were probably 9--10 ish and we could tell that they just got out of school and they were just super cute! They were playing a game that was sort of like "patty cake/ rock paper scissors" but it was way different. We got the courage to try and talk to them (which made them all embarrassed cause I don't think that they knew much English) but we finally just started trying to play their game with them. It was really fun cause we just kind of bonded with some random kids!!

For some reason or another we all were fascinated by the trains, some of the things that really stuck out to us was people don't talk at all and it is just very quiet. People seem to really know their own personal space because you can be standing on a super packed subway and not be able to move, but no one will ever bump into you. We also noticed that people rarely smile at others, especially people they don't know. People are also just very respectful to others and especially their elders. In the subway "the younger generations" would get up and give there seat away so some one older could sit down, it was also true for disabled people or women that were pregnant. I also saw some crazy adds on the subways and the most crazy one was an add for a cream that could make your skin whiter! Its true after I saw that sign noticed that people were vary fair skinned and I noticed how crazy dark I was compared to them.

Another really big thing that Kristen and I noticed was that people dressed in very “blendy” colors. All of the men wore dark blue or black pants, with a white t-shirt, and very shiny shoes. The women all wore either and white or light khaki shirt with a black formal skirt. We got really excited when we saw a Japanese man wearing a green shirt cause we had not seen one for a while.

After a medium length train ride we ended up taking the JR line (train) to Tokyo and then transferred lines to Asakusa where we found a student hostel to stay the night. The hostel was called Sakura Hostel. And it cost roughly 25 dollars each for the night and we had six of us in a room. The hostel was very nice for what it was, we had free Internet, our room had three bunk beds in it, there was one boy and girl bathroom on each floor to share which was nice. It had a nice big common room with a kitchen where you could go do whatever you want. It was a really nice place. That night we went out to celebrate Leila’s birthday (was on the September 9th) and had dinner at this really cool restaurant. We shared vegetable tempura and chicken soup. I tried sake for the first time and we toasted to Japan. We met a husband and wife who were presidents to a magazine in Japan. They were bundles of energy and let’s just say the woman enjoyed her sake a lot!

O, side note. So Japan is a very “green” country. The electricity only came on if you put a key in your room, otherwise if you left your room and needed your key everything would turn off. The escalators only turned on if you got within the sensors, that way they were not running all day! Also when every you are in a public place pretty much where ever there would be a trashcan would be there would always 3 or 4 waste bins. One cans and bottles, one paper, one “burnable” and one “unclassifiable.” Cool hunh!

So the next day our group got up pretty early after a long nigh out and headed out on a mission, we were going to go buy sumo wrestling tickets! I know, cool hunh! Well we got really lost on the way there and people got to the point of being really tired, hungry and then just angry! To fix that we found a cute little bakery that we had breakfast at right after we bought the tickets. Since we had plenty of time until the bouts started we had some more time to walk around Asakusa. We ended up finding this amazing park where it seemed like a movie should have been shot, then we found some temples. Right before we went to the sumo matches we wanted to find some lunch and we found this place where I am not even joking you I had the best meal of my entire life! You walk in and you have to order through a vending machine where you put in money and look at the pictures and choose what you want. So I ordered a beef bowl and a beer…. Oooo but it was so good and I enjoyed every single bite, I think it was just the spices or something!!!!

The Sumo matches were soo amazing! We sat up in the 1st balcony for $22 but if we have wanted to sit on the 1st floor you would have to pay anywhere from $200 to $400 . I had so much fun during the whole experience and I have some video that I took of some matches, so when I get home all of you guys can see that. The “bouts” are very short but there is lots of superstition and tradition. It was just super cool to watch! Then later on we went walking in Tokyo at night and just consumed all of the lights and crazy times!

I really just had an amazing time in Yokohama and Tokyo and I cannot wait to go back someday! I LOVE JAPAN!