Getting Out in Japan

First off, my feet are tired and sore.  I truly love that so much of Japan is so very accessible, however my feet are not used to this much activity.  I am hoping they catch up and get in the game soon or the next 3 years will be painful – I’m not giving up seeing everything just because of pain.

We had a nice weekend!  Started Friday with meeting a new friend, Abby, for coffee while our husbands were doing a work thing.  Found out we have a lot in common, specially with regard to our marriages and some moves.  Then the four of us walked into town and they showed us where one of the 100 Yen sushi places was.  This is a convenient way to try different kinds of sushi.

Saturday:

 

We decided to go into town and try a different 100 Yen sushi place, one that was recommended to us.  This one was much better – the sushi was cut quite large and just seemed fresher.  Also, there were more choices coming around, we didn’t have to order anything special.  

We also ate at a restaurant in the big mall in town, which was interesting.  I really need to search out some good soba/udon noodle places.  I’m eating too much rice and ramen noodles.  Time to kick back into the diabetes friendly eating habits.  Soba is buckwheat noodles and Udon is wheat so both should be ok for me, they are however, not as easy to find here as I thought they would be.  Ramen is the norm.

We also found out that with our sliding doors open, sound carries easily to our neighbors here.  I won’t go into detail but I’m sure you can figure out what it seems they heard.  =D  We will have to be more discreet I think. lol

Sunday:

I was excited!  Going on our first train excursion alone and we forgot our little English cheat map and “I’m lost” cards lol.  Time to put up or shut up.  We got to the train station and picked up our passmo cards.  This is a transportation card you put yen on instead of buying tickets every time you want to ride the train.  Nice. 🙂

Ok now, figure out where Yokohama is on the map and how many stops, then figure out the limited express train.  They have different trains you see.  One hits all of the stops, one hits some of the stops and one hits only the major towns.  <–that’s the one we want.  My husband has it figured out (I think!) so we head to the platform.  I see the train just pulled up and it says limited express…hey that’s the one.  Yep, he concurs and compliments my catch.  We jump on with a bunch of other people.  Here we go, hopefully in the right direction. lol

Next station shows up, yep we are on the right train, YES!  Success!  Ok…Sit back for Yokohama.  About 10 minutes later I’m guessing, we pull up and head into the crowded station.  Wow, there’s a huge underground shopping district right at the train station.  And I mean HUGE.  Restaurants, clothing stores, purses, jewelry, souvenirs, more clothes, shoes, OMG the shoes!

We decided to have lunch in the restaurant section there then walk more in town.  We chose a place that had a lot of different kinds of meat on a stick in their window.  So, we got in line (yes there was a line just about everywhere, seating is somewhat limited in these places.) and waited.  Then two very cute older women got in line after us and walked up to sign in, oops we didn’t do that.  They notice we didn’t so one shows my husband up to the stand and helps him.  She was very nice.  The hostess spoke basically no English so we had to gesture our way through the conversation.  She sat us next to the two ladies who helped us. 🙂

To our dismay none of the meat on a stick was on the menu, must be only for dinner. 😦  Well, we choose a couple of bowls and decide to try the gyoza (potstickers in U.S.).  I ordered what turned out to be grilled eggplant over rice with a very raw egg in the center.  Seriously, poached egg is good but this was just barely white!  My husband ordered a dish that looked like scrambled egg over rice.  Turned out to have some kind of seafood in it and his egg was barely cooked as well.  We are quickly learning the raw egg dishes are not our favorite.  But the meal was enjoyable and the gyoza was lovely.  Ah, the hot tea was very nice as well.  I truly love that my husband is adventurous in this way.  Many would shy away from the unknown when it comes to food.

Time to walk.  We head to the Sky building and go up to the 29th floor which has a great view of Yokohama.  The building has a lot of shopping and food.  Lots to look at.  One floor is dedicated only to women’s shoes, it’s huge.  My husband sat down on a chair to wait for me to look around.  I actually lost him for a while!  Took a few minutes to find him.

I got lost in a shoe store. >.<

We walked further towards another shopping area and more food.  Really this is amazing, so many choices!  I notice also there are a few Italian restaurants and looking at the menu outside, it looks pretty close to the real thing!  More so then the previous spots which was basically tomato and garlic for sauce.  Oh and I saw one place had the Napolitan spaghetti advertised.  It has become quite popular in Japan but I can’t imagine it being good on this Sicilian’s tongue.  I’ll try it one day.  It’s sauce base is ketchup!

Lots of walking and we decide since we don’t know really where else to go and my feet are getting tired, to return to Yokosuka for now.  At least we got a sense of Yokohama and fully intend to come back to explore more.

This week:  

Today: I’m sitting in the apartment waiting for the maintenance men to show up (just did but said waiting for another guy who is late so will be at 1:00 instead) so they can create an access panel in our kitchen ceiling.  Finish up some paperwork.

Tuesday: Lunch with one of the husband’s coworkers who has been in Japan for many years.  Then possibly head into town with new friend Abby.  Check into the free Japanese course here on base.

Wed/Thurs:  Possibly run into Tokyo to check out some art expeditions with a couple of ladies.

Friday:  Happy Anniversary to us!  lol  If the husband can get time off we may run to Kamakura and spend the day there exploring.

Saturday/Sunday:  We are planning to spend all weekend in Tokyo for the husband’s birthday and doing a pub crawl for St. Patrick’s Day.