More wandering....
Trip Start
Jun 24, 2009
1
7
11
Trip End
Jul 10, 2009
Yokohama, Kanto, Japan
Friday, July 3, 2009
The first stop was the Ramen Museum which was a little difficult to get to with a map that didn't have any street names! After getting some general directions we got pretty close but was unsure of the last turn and decided to take a guess and it turned out that it was right there! We've been having lots of luck in that manner. When we first went in they talked about the history of ramen and then we went downstairs to the lower levels which housed the rest of the museum. It was set in 1958 Tokyo with different store fronts and areas. The museum had 9 different ramen restaurants that were selected and considered the best in all of Japan. Many of the restaurants have been owned by families for generations. We wandered around a little while to see what it looked like and then we finally decided to try some ramen. The first shop we tried was Komuraski from the Kumamoto region. The category was "tonkotsu" or salt based. We both ordered one with pork and two types of mushrooms (or at least we thought they were both mushrooms....), it was supposed to be the special. The ordering was a little tough since no one seemed to speak english, but luckily there were pictures on the vending machines where we placed our orders. There were two other types of ramen served at the museum; a soybean paste base (Miso) and a soy sauce base (Shoyu). Next we decided to hit up a shoyu based restaurant, that was Hachiya from the Asahikawa region. The restaurants served both regular and smaller sizes, and by the second restaurant we'd determined that the orange buttons on the machine meant a smaller size. This time we ordered two different items but when they came out we'd forgotten what we'd ordered and had to guess at it. Turns out that we had guessed correctly. After that Chrystal got a melon ball ice cream and I got a green tea lollipop. Yum! While we were eating a rock, paper, scissors tournament broke out. Chrystal joined with 2 other women that we'd just met. Chrystal was a pro at the game! She ended up coming in second place individually and their team won overall.
After that we headed to Chinatown in Yokohama. It was really neat, a lot of people and a lot of shops in a really small area. It was a bit overwhelming and seemed like every other door led to a restaurant.
After wandering around there for a while we walked a couple of blocks to the Yokohama Baystars stadium. Chrystal & I aren't baseball fans but both decided that we needed to experience a Japanese baseball game. The team kind of sucked, but the fans were great. A lot of singing and various chants. Unfortunately it started raining and since neither of us are big fans we ended up heading out of there pretty early in the game. Which gave me the chance of experiencing the last mode of transportation in Japan that I hadn't yet experienced. Taxi ride! It was pretty easy and not to expensive to go back to Yokohama station. The one thing we hadn't counted on was that it was rush hour on a Friday night. The trains were packed! But we made it back and headed back to the base to rest up for our tour on Sunday.
Comments
HILARIOUS!
Dude, this whole post is hilarious - I can't believe the rock, paper, scissors tournament!! haha so random!