Day 11 – Yokohama
The next day I slept in a little since I was out so late with the baka gaijin. I had arranged to meet someone I met on Mixi in Yokohama later in the day so first I explored Tokyo a little more. I don’t remember anything of particular interest in that time so I’ll just skip to my trip to Yokohama
Lots of times on trains I would get stared at by people. Sometimes if they’re girls and they don’t look away when you look at them it’s hard to tell if it’s because they’re so curious about the gaijin or if it’s because they like what they see. On the train to Shinagawa, a girl kept looking at me and I wondered but didn’t think too much of it. Then we got off at the same stop and as we were walking up the stairs she said, “Hey.” I was surprised and asked why she spoke English. It turned out she was actually from Taiwan, and she was in Japan trying to build a better portfolio or whatever you use to build your career in makeup. We talked for a little bit and she was really cool so she said to meet her in the same place again the next day ’cause she and her friend were going out to shop and eat. I told her I’d try, but I wasn’t sure since I had to register for school the next day. Then I headed on to Yokohama
I met Ai in the Yokohama station and we immediately started heading to Minato Mirai since most of the day was already gone. She had just gotten out of school and was going to show me around a little before she went home. It was nice to be able to speak Japanese again and we just talked a lot as we walked to different places.
I was amazed when I saw Minato Mirai. The name means “Future Port” and it feels like it. The place is very clean feeling with great architecture and nice parks. It feels like what a city should be instead of a random jumble of stuff that ended up close together. It has the tallest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower, some other nice office buildings and hotels, an old ship, an old warehouse, a free-entry amusement park, etc. It’s definitely my favorite urban place in the world and when I was walking around there thought about what it would be like if I worked there at some point. That’s pretty amazing now that it looks like I’m going to be going to school there for a year.
First we went up the Landmark Tower which is the tallest building in Japan and I think has the fastest elevator in the world. You go in the elevator and the lady gives a stiff speech about the tower and the elevator and it really doesn’t feel like you went anywhere and you’re at the top. Unfortunately it was pretty hazy on the day I went and you barely even see Tokyo. On a good day you can easily see Mount Fuji. I took a few pictures and looked around the place but we couldn’t stay too long because it was getting late.
Next we went to see an old ship that’s docked outside of the tower. Again, we didn’t have much time, so we just looked at it and moved on. I’m looking forward to being able to see these things in more depth later. Next we walked over to the warehouse which is a very old, very big, brick building. The brick looks very out of place in Japan, and this warehouse is famous I think for it’s size and age. Now it’s been turned into a mall I think and there are stores on the inside. finally we walked over to look at the amusement park stuff real quick and then headed back to the station.
We ate dinner in a restaurant in the station and I headed back to the hotel. I wish I had gotten to see Ai again, but I didn’t go to Yokohama again while I was in Japan. Hopefully we can hang out again since I’ll be living there next year. When I went to bed it was pretty sad, because I knew my freedom expired. This was the last day my rail pass was good and from then on if I just up and wanted to go to Hokkaido one day, I’d have to pay (a lot) for it.
