Last weekend we had another national holiday here in Japan plus Steph's sister came to visit... so the three of us headed down to explore Yokohama!
It's about a 1.5 hour train ride from Kita-Kashiwa station to Shin-Yokohama station
FIRST THINGS FIRST...
THE RAMEN MUSEUM!
What I assumed would be rooms filled with Ramen history and photographs was actually just a big room with 10 different Ramen shops to try. Instantly when I walked in I felt like I had just walked into a hotel in Las Vegas with that painted ceiling and artificially distressed walls haha. The place was packed with people (cold weather + national holiday...should have known) and the lines for the individual shops were rapped around every corner.
You get to look at the big menu upstairs before heading down and finding your ramen of choice. What's cool about this place is they serve ramen from all different regions of Japan, so you get to try some new flavors you might not be able to otherwise. We opted for the second one on the bottom left there...Nazimatei which is a pork bone broth ramen with thin noodles. YUMMMMMM
It was some good ramen. The best part was the boiled egg they make...it's like a hardboiled egg with the yolk inside still soft. How do they do that!?? Someone please teach me.
There are so many train stations in Japan and they range from single stop platforms with one vending machine (my home station) to extravagant 10 story building with three malls connected and an entrance that looks more like an airport than anything - Shin Yokohama was one of those.
After stuffing our bellies with ramen we headed out to World Porters which is a giant shopping mall near the Yokohama ferris wheel.
We walked past some live music being played and headed into the mall to take advantage of being next to a LEONARDS BAKERY...AKA MALASADAS...AKA MALASADAS YOU CAN ONLY GET IN HAWAII....AND APPARENTLY YOKOHAMA! I should have known this would happen...Japanese people love Hawaii so of course they would have a whole bottom floor dedicated to all things hawaii. Local Motion shop, Leonards malasadas, Honolulu coffee, and plenty shell necklaces and hula skirts for sale.
...to be continued...
Day one and Yokohama already stole my heart...I think it was a combination of the wide open spaces, big buildings, comfort food, and ocean breeze and made me feel a little closer to home :)