A Weekend In Yokohama: Day One

I have just returned home from Yokohama, Japan! It was really nice and I enjoyed the time that I spent there. I will be splitting this post into two or three sections, so follow my blog to be alerted when I post the next one!

My aunt and I had to take a taxi, a train, and a subway in order to get to Gimpo International Airport. It took us around three hours, and once we were there, my aunt realized that she had forgotten her passport. So, she put me on a flight to Japan by myself. I had never flown alone before, so I was a little nervous, but everything was very clearly marked and the staff were really kind and explained things to me.

Now, the flight from Seoul, South Korea to Tokyo, Japan is about a two hour flight. My plane didn’t take off until around four, so I didn’t land until six. My aunt had told me, “As soon as you get to the airport, text me, so that I’ll know you arrived.” Well. I arrived at the airport, connected to their wifi, but the internet was unavailable. I couldn’t use my service because it wasn’t Japanese and I was not going to pay whatever ridiculous price it costs to send a text overseas. So, I waited.

I sat in the airport for around three and a half hours, people watching and playing games on my phone, until I heard my name over the loud speaker. I thought it was weird, and I was a little nervous that I had done something wrong. I went up to the information counter where a woman asked me my name and it’s spelling, and then she called someone on the phone. She was on the phone for around five minutes before she came back over to me. She told me that my father had called and had asked me to call or text my family to let them know that I was okay. I informed her that I could not and explained why, and she nodded and I returned to the arrivals waiting area. I expected them to call my family back and let them know why I wasn’t contacting them, but they didn’t do that.

Another hour of waiting and boredom goes by, and finally my aunt arrives. She snaps a picture of me to send to my mom and calls her for me. I talked to my mom for awhile and told her that I was okay and told her how the flight went. After we hung up, my aunt and I were picked up by some friends to head to our hotel.

We were spoiled with the amazing hotel that we got to stay at (thanks to the school that my aunt works for)! It was called “Hotel New Grand”, and had two buildings. One was originally built in the 1920s, but we stayed in the newer one built in the 1990s (I think), but it was still styled like the 1920s. Famous people such as Charlie Chaplain and Babe Ruth stayed there! It was so nice and fancy, and the staff were incredibly sweet and helpful. I don’t think they stopped smiling the entire time we talked to them.

That is one difference between Korean and Japanese people. Koreans can sometimes come off as cold or indifferent, and if you can’t speak Korean, they won’t try to speak English for you (this is at least the case around where I live in Daejeon). But in Japan, people everywhere, no matter who it is, will smile at you the entire time, are ridiculously polite, and will try their best to use English to help you understand when you are confused. I love Korean people and their culture, but I think that the Japanese are ranked above them in politeness towards everyone.

My aunt and I didn’t arrive at the hotel until close to midnight, so we went to bed immediately.

The next morning, I woke up and my aunt was gone, and I had to go out to get food for myself. I texted my mom to let her know so that she wouldn’t be worried if I didn’t respond to texts. I grabbed my backpack and headed out of the hotel and down the street. I had been shown earlier by my aunts friends where a mall-type store was that would have snacks and food. It was a MAZE inside. Shelves went up to the ceiling and they were stacked full. They were turned at random angles and the store was huge. Signs that led you around were hard to see and read, so I just wandered around, hoping that I was headed in the right direction. After walking around for a good amount of time and finding nothing but candy, I left to try and find a convenience store.

Above is a river I passed to get to and from the hotel. On the way back, I bumped into my aunt, who had just come back from the hospital. She asked me if I had had breakfast yet, which I hadn’t, and so we went to a Hawaiian restaurant called Eggs ‘n Things. It was delicious! We ate there twice during our stay. The first morning, I got chocolate chip pancakes with powdered sugar and a tower of whip cream, and my aunt got eggs benedict. Doesn’t it look deliciously amazing?

After breakfast, we headed across the street to a park and river walk. The park was beautiful! There was a large garden with all types of flowers and statues. It looked like a wedding could have been held there.

There were also a couple large ships docked and a souvenir store. I got a cute penguin keychain and my aunt got a Godzilla magnet. We also saw a school on a field trip, with ONE teacher, and probably somewhere between FIFTY to ONE HUNDRED students. The kids were so incredibly well behaved, which is why they only needed one teacher. We learned that, in their first three years of Elementary school, Japanese children aren’t given any tests. Instead, they focus on learning respect, discipline, and social skills, and that is why they are so well behaved.

After walking along the river for awhile, we turned around and headed to a convenience store to buy some food for me. After that, we put the stuff away at the hotel room and headed out again for some more exploring before dinner. We went in a “mall”, looked at restaurants, looked at cute animals in pet sores, stopped by a fish tank, got coffee, and probably more that I don’t remember 😅

We ate at a place called American Diner. We ordered virgin cocktails (or mocktails) for our drinks. For food, we had fried zucchini as an appetizer, and pasta and a patty melt for our meals.

After dinner, we found a huge shopping street in Motomachi, Yokohama. It was so big and so cool. There were so many different types of stores and restaurants. We browsed around several shops and looked at the different meals restaurants offered. After we came out on the other side, there was some random guy driving forwards and backwards in a race car… not really sure what was happening, but it was cool.

We then browsed around China Town, which was super nice, and looked into restaurants that we may want to eat at later (which we did). We also went in some cute souvenir shops which were interesting.

After that, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep before our next day there. I’ll try and write my next post by Saturday, so stay tuned!