Yokohama...cars

From Shibuya station, Yokohama seems like a short train ride away. We ended up in a shopping mall and we walked through many roads. If I was ever called on to retrace our steps, I don't think I would be able to do it. ^^; We passed by a Nissan car showcase at the Nissan company...so of course we stopped by. ^.^

Fighter rested on the side as Kumi-kun and I looked around. She chose Skyline *points to pic below* as the car to take a pic with.

At the side, I spotted the famed Pivo, the car which can swivel around so you can drive in both directions. The driverseat is actually in the middle. Sugoi! I does remind me of an egg. ^.^

After catching a few of the other cars, I spotted my fav: the Nissan coupe. It was cheaper then the Skyline (which was priced at over 15 million yen.) The coupe was only a bit over 4 million yen. ^^;

We left the carshow and took a break at a nearby mall. At Starbucks, I ordered the mango drink I liked before and we sat and talked. Fighter (who was feeling very tired and was quiet) became more awake. She brought out a conbini rice package that we bought the day before (but didn't get a chance to eat) and pancakes that she made which she rolled up with nuttella inside. Oishi!

Fighter and I shared the conbini rice and we each had a pancake roll before we continued on our journey.

a step into Loveless

The above pic is of a strange sculpture that was outside one of the malls. Reminded us of a roller coaster. ^.^ Inside the mall, we stopped at the Hello Kitty store.

There, Fighter and I each bought a Yokohama Hello Kitty charm which was of Kitty cosplaying as tanemaru, the mascot for Yokohama's 150 anniversary. We tried not to look at anything else.... *drools over the HK stuff* lol As we exited the mall and walked down to the street, we were finally greeted with the ferris wheel.

Nearby was a small amuseument park, but we headed straight for the large wheel which had a recording that went on a loop explaining in both Japanese and English that it was the largest wheel in the world. Not sure about that...but I'll accept it anyway. ^.^ We bought the ticket of 700 and waited on line. Since Kumi-kun was afraid of heights, we headed for the colored gondolas rather then the clear ones. ^^;

Obviously, I love this ferris wheel in particular since this was the one that Ritsuka rode on in ep. 11 of Loveless. Soubi was watching him from a distance....

The above is a random view of the outside. Fighter spotted the giant spider that is part of the 150 anniversary festival. I grabbed a pic of that and more of the view.

During the ferris wheel ride in Loveless, there was this scene of what looks like Yuiko and Ritsuka kissing. What really happened...well.... lol

There are many rides that are featured in the mall and around the ferris wheel. There was even the water log ride. After the ride, we headed inside. We spotted the taiko drumming game at the arcade and decided to play a game. Such fun....

pirates in the sand

Close to the mall of the ferris wheel was the 150 years of Yokohama celebration. The enclosed area in the above pic is the entrance to the celebration itself. However...the entrance fee was 2400 yen. The highlight was the giant spider among a few exhibits...but for that fee, we rather not. (2400 yen for Gundam, yes...but not for the spider.) We skipped ahead to a line of Western dark reddish buildings that used to be warehouses (I think) but have turned into more malls.

In the middle, they had a canopy with tables for people to sit...and nearby a large sandbox where kids play with sand. It was not grainy or dry like those in actual sandboxes. The sand was moist like those on the beach. The steam you see in the pics came from the four corners of the giant sandbox. There were cool mist that blew on you. Lured by the cool breeze and water from the mist, Fighter and Kumi decided to start playing in the sand as I clicked away happily on my camera.

lol Among the things that were first made, fighter came up with this sand sculpture. Ano...the left is a penis aimed straight for the butt at the left.... ^^; We were VERY careful while creating this since we were surrounded by kids. roflol We imagined what the kids might say: "Mommy, those foreigners made brother's wee wee...." *dies* We destroyed the sculpture after I took the pic. ^.^

Kumi worked long and hard on sculpture in the above pic. It's a tribute to our pirate crew we're a part of: the Flying Bananas. ^.^

Fighter made a pyramid (right) followed by a sphinx-turned-kitty (left).

Kumi made a few smiley faces in the sand...

...while fighter created Godzilla. Other sculptures were made as they were quite busy. ^.^ A few guys passed by who look longingly at the sand and we observed that they probably wanted to play too but were too proud to jump in. lol Throughout it all, the music of Disney blasted in the background. There were alot of 'Stitch' music at the end so fighter and kumi started to hula dance in the mist. *click went my camera* After they stamped down on their creations, the next logical thing was to start throwing sand at each other. Since I was an innocent bystander, I stayed moderately sand-free...but of course, fighter had to fling a bit at me at the end. ^^; Ah...fun.... We left the sandbox to sit on the bars overlooking the ocean...or the harbor towards the ocean.

After we rested, we started walking to Chinatown along the boardwalk. We stopped by a Lawson so that kumi could buy Takarazuka tickets from the machine there.

The pic of the little girl is the 'Statue of the Girl with Red Shoes' and the one below that is 'Guardian of the Water'. I don't know the stories behind the statues, but both are iconic of Yokohama. *runs to wikipedia*

Chinatown all over

We turned right at the statue of the 'Guardian of the Water' and up the street is one of the gates to Chinatown. We looked around at the various restaurants...and discovered how expensive they were. Something I thought was quite interesting are the giant nikkuman for 500 yen. Really big with various fillings. But, we were looking for a restaurant. Along the way, we saw this shark display in the window. The shark fin dish was soooo expensive. O.O

We finally came to a restaurant that served little dishes for 390 each. They had a variety of veggie dishes so we decided to stay. We each chose 2 dishes and shared amongst us (except for kumi who is a vegetarian. ^^;) The little fried fish was too fried but the fried squid was very chewy and tasty. Fighter ordered sake and for dessert, we orderd black bean buns. The waitress spoke chinese (which I confirmed when I asked what the filling for the seasame balls were) but she continued to speak to us in Japanese. *shrugs*

The strangest part about it was that we were the only ones in the restaurant. Even though it was dinnertime, no one else came in. ^^; The best part about it (besides the fried squid) was this statue at the door.

Kumi-kun noticed it first. A bear holding a fish (we shall assume it's salmon) in the mouth. O.O Junjou Romantica! roflol Afterwards, we headed out and I grabbed a pic next to a panda Hello Kitty. (My French roomie had a pic next to the same kitty before. ^.^) We headed out of the Chinatown area and found a train station where we could ride straight to Shibuya. Needless to say, we were super tired and fighter and I slept all the way there. -.-Zzz