where cider meets condensed milk: Yokohama-- Top 3 Blandest City in Japan!

where cider meets condensed milk

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Yokohama-- Top 3 Blandest City in Japan!

I went to Yokohama for the non-recontracting JET conference last week, which was mildly useful, but could have been done in 2 days rather than 3. Well, actually, the Okayama posse skipped the 3rd day entirely, so I guess we completed everything in 2 days, but don't tell our BOEs. I also checked myself in as Matt and Simon, who didn't bother coming, at great personal risk to myself, so I'm still waiting for my hush-chuhai and hush-chocolates in order to stay quiet. I kept seeing all sorts of people I had met back in Seattle, or at Tokyo orientation, or at the Kobe conference, or from Thailand, or elsewhere over the past 2 years. A bit like what I imagine the JET afterlife to be. ("Hey, how did you get in here?")

Yokohama boasts a lot of "2nd biggest in the world!" or "Top 3 in Japan!" or "Top 10 in central/eastern Honshu!" sites, like the big Ferris wheel and lots of department stores, but it's so close to Tokyo that everything pales in comparison. As for a nightlife, anyone cool would just hop a train to Shibuya, which left us wandering the streets of Chinatown and going to really pricey foreigner/tourist bars full of other JETs.

We stayed in a hostel that turned out to be part of an urban renewal campaign in the sort-of-slums of Yokohama. Slums for Japan just means shabby and crowded with toothless pensioners hobbling around the streets and alleys. The hostel guy informed Kelly and Stu at check-in that 70% of the residents in the area were on benefits, and we shouldn't take pictures in the neighborhood due to past trouble. Hmm. The rooms were the size of closets, without enough room to quite lay 2 futons flat on the ground, but clean and quiet.

Kelly and I in our closet! Kelly is a lovely 3rd year from NZ, and is also a trusty Prefectural Advisor who gets to deal with our little ALT problems.

Stu and Kelly, "coming out of the closet." Yes, this joke was made every morning.

Here's Chinatown-- allegedly the biggest one in Japan, but there must be no competition for that title, as I think I saw about 5 Chinese people and it only stretches a few blocks. It felt like a Japanese street that happened to contain Chinese restaurants, with plenty of omiyage shops and drunk salarymen. Even when you go into the restaurants, they yell "Irasshaimase!" at you, since, naturally, it's staffed and patronized by mostly Japanese people. I rather wanted to hear the chatter of Chinese around me, like you would in San Francisco or Vancouver's Chinatowns, but no dice.

Lobster Christmas tree?

Get your very delicious lunchbox and hot snuck!

Leaving Yokohama on a bullet train headed north! This is how I look every time I ride the Shinkansen- grinning to myself like a fool-- because the Shinkansen is heaven on train tracks, and don't let anyone else convince you otherwise. Efficient! Fast! Convenient! Gets you there with time to spare! AMBITIOUS JAPAN!

posted by Raychaa @ 1:45 AM

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