Asia Trip - April 19

19 April 2025

Visit to Yokohama. With how long the train travel was to get up to Tokyo, we decided to try a closer stop in Yokohama. The train ride, interestingly enough, wasn’t a lot shorter, but it was nice to have a little reprieve.

Right by the train station that we get off at, Ishikawachoo, is right near some great attractions. We first went through Chinatown. I don’t know how it is every single Chinatown is incredibly busy. It was potentially the most crowded area we had been to. It has multiple gates that cover the roads, and interestingly enough a markedly different architecture. We passed some shops, but were very tempted by the restaurants. The one that caught our attention offered a menu in English, which seemed very convenient. They offered an all you could eat option, or ala carte. We decided for a la carte, and probably a good thing we did. I think we would not have been able to eat more than we had. I find it funny that consistently the best Chinese food I have had comes from Chinatowns in Japan. The place did not disappoint.

From there we headed to Motomochi shopping street, which is a higher end street market. We had a few things on our list to get, and were able to find the last few things we wanted, and then some. One thing that was rather nice about this market street was that it wasn’t as crowded, with merchandise, stores, or people, and was very pleasant to stroll through. After some kitchen item purchases, and some art pieces, we were done with shopping.

Marty had really wanted to try some Fluffy Japanese Soufflé Pancakes, and found us a shop that made them, A Happy Pancake. I will admit that I was skeptical of their culinary appeal until I took that first bite. So delightfully light and delicious, wonderful texture and just the right amount of sweetness. We tried a couple of different toppings and found that to be a wonderful sweet treat after shopping.

In browsing for places to check out or shopping that could be interesting April found that there was an interesting shopping place that was near a Lego store, and had a store dedicated to puzzles. We walked there, and on the way got to pass through some wonderful parts of the city. One thing that is interesting about Yokohama is that it is the first for many things in Japan. It was the first port opened to western trade in the mid 1800s, had the first power plant in Japan in 1877, and the list goes on. We got to pass some of the original brick foundation pieces for the power plant, which was rather cool. We also were able to pass right by the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the third tallest building in Japan.

With shopping done we got back home via the train, and stopped at Seven Eleven for an easy dinner (still being quite satisfied from our Chinese food and pancakes).