Day 15 – March 18th, 2014.

Up and ready for breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

Japanese Breakfast Buffet

The buffet has some western style items that really don’t look fantastic to me and the containers are cold to the touch. But that is not a problem, we had already made our choice about foods and that was to eat sample all things Japanese… And breakfast is no exception.

Hotel breakfast buffet

First up rice with some curry… Yummy, (I later have seconds) then more rice this time with pickles, tofu, seaweed, plum, dried onion, sprouts all topped with some broth, called Daisho. Again very tasty. Then yes… more rice, this time with other additions and some miso soup.

Japanese style breakfast

We got a bit more adventurous and tried the fermented beans (absolutely disgusting) but we later found out that we should combine them with rice and a few other ingredients, on their own yuk, lol. When you mix them it’s like a spider’s web, all sticky and smelly. That’s when I went back for my second bowl of curry and rice. All in all a good filling breakfast.

Now onto some work

Again the wifi is super fast. About 11.45am we fancy a coffee, but not yet done with work so I ask if we can have a takeaway coffee to drink in the lobby, apparently not, so we move into the restaurant and take up two lunchtime seats to drink coffee still using the wifi…

A bit later we call it a day and head out to explore more. First up I need to post some papers back to OZ. The post office is not far and the lady who spoke no English was very helpful, eventually we got it sorted after a few attempts and not complicated at all.

Cool signs; Cyclists must get off and push

Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse Park

Our direction now was towards the red brick buildings. You need to watch out when walking for cyclists as they share the footpath with pedestrians. We saw a local get bowled over as they came around a corner!!

Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse Park

Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse is a place with a museum and funky shops on three levels. The buildings stand out amongst the other architecture or Yokohama’s skyline. Again it is very cold and windy so we wrap up warm, scarfs beanies etc we look like Michelin men… Funny though the Japanese locals are nowhere near as wrapped up as us, many with just tights on and people riding bikes with no gloves!!! I would be frozen.

Inside original brickwork and sliding doors

Walking around the shops is interesting and I like it as we are not buying stuff, you know what I mean. Shopping always means buying and as we can physically not carry any more stuff it’s great. But I tell you, you could easily fill your case with funky items.

Ladies offering food and drink samples as we walk around and we go back for a second coffee taster… Coffee tick…

Coffee fix…. Free coffee sample

“Crispy fried buns with various fillings”

Now to food and so it goes on. We finally decide to get a fried cheese and beef bun. Sort of like a crispy dumpling with a filling, crunchy on the outside. Very tasty.

Crispy fried buns with various fillings

Yokohama China Town

Now we decide to walk to China Town following the signs and again stop to ask someone who confirms we are on the right road… And sure enough we turn the corner and there are the gates to Chinatown.

Yokohama China Town

Yokohama Chinatown is one of if not the biggest in Japan. We are fortunate to see it in daylight and then at night as we stroll around looking, smelling and eventually sampling some foods.

Enjoying dumplings

Time flys when you are having fun and after eating some pork and vegetable dumplings and then some more pork ones, we fancy a beer so a quick stop into a 7/11 we buy a can of Asahi and drink it while watching people. By this time it is dark and getting on so we try to navigate our way back home. After a few wrong directions, we find our route back and it’s not long before we are back home in the warm…

Yokohama is a great city to visit and I have compiled a list of the top ten things to see and do in Yokohama which you should take a look at if you’re serious about visiting Yokohama.