Today was our last day that our JR Rail pass was valid so we decided we'd better use it for one last hurrah. After looking into places to go that were fairly nearby, we plumped for the city of Yokohama, which, despite its proximity to Tokyo is actually a separate city. We hopped on the metro and made our way to Yokohama. We'd left it slightly late so by the time we arrived we were already sitting down on the harbour front and eating our lunch. Compared to earlier parts of Japan, the weather wasn't great, it's was quite chilly and threatening to rain but we got through lunch without getting soaked. As everything in Japan is sold through vending machines, we decided to treat ourselves to an Ice Cream from one, as it was such a lovely day. We had a nose round a shopping centre after lunch but found nothing worth staying long for.
Our afternoon was spent doing what we came to Yokohama for. A visit to the instant noodle museum, surely a must do for anyone who visits Japan. The company is called Cup Noodles and the idea of making them instant and putting them in a cup was thought up by a Japanese man called Momofuku Ando. You enter into a huge, plain white foyer and walk up some stairs to the second floor. Behind you as you ascend the stairs is a giant Cup Noodles, simply because, why wouldn't you? It is the Cup Noodle museum after all. The second floor consists of a room that displays the packaging of every single product the Cup Noodle company had launched since its first one 1958. The first product was simply chicken flavour instant ramen noodles. Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup dish, it consists of noodles served in a meat or fish based broth. Charlotte and I were slightly unsure what to do in this room but we could see other tourists and locals taking their pictures with the noodles, so we followed suit. It did get slightly strange when a family asked us to take their picture and then asked if we wanted ours taken, we went with the flow and posed with the noodles. There was more action on the second floor but we had a date on the third floor at half past 2. We had the chance to design our own Cup Noodle pot, which would then be filled with dried noodles, dried veg and sealed as our own little souvenir from the Cup Noodle museum. We cued up with the 2 million school children (there were one or two people our age there) and paid 300¥ to get our sterilised pot from, you guessed it, a vending machine! Mercifully, they sat us with normal tourists like ourselves (if you could call any of us normal) rather than with the local kindergarten children. We had a great time colouring in our pots actually, and tried to make them as apt as possible to Japan and they will be another thing to add to our travel cabinet upon our return. After we'd finished our colouring we headed to the production line to fill our pots with yummy instant noodles and put them in a protective bag that we pumped full of air.
I just want to add a hilarious (it was at the time, atleast) noodle-based anecdote we picked up while in China. We were sitting in Xi'an station patiently waiting for our train to be called. Opposite us was sat a girl, who just kept eating and eating and we were amazed at just how much she consumed in a short amount of time. Now, they loooooove instant noodles in China, they are big, big business and even we had our fair share while we were there. They come in pots that you fill with water or packets that you'd put in a bowl and then fill with hot water. There is obviously a distinct lack of boiling water in the middle of a station departure lounge, so the lady opposite us cracked open her packet of noodles and preceded to eat them, dry, straight out of the packet, as though they were a simple chocolate bar. By the time we'd managed to pick our jaws up off the floor she'd consumed the whole pack as if nothing was wrong. I'm still sat here (in Vietnam) writing this, laughing to myself about it.
Anyway, back in Yokohama. With our noodles dangling in our inflated bags we went back down to the second floor to finish the museum tour. We were treated to a video explaining the history of Mr.Ando and how he carried on inventing right into his 90s, when he made instant ramen that could be eaten in space. After the presentation, which was quite enjoyable, we exited opposite a replica of the shed that he stumbled across the way to dry our noodles to make them last. He did this by putting the noodles into hot oil after he saw his wife making tempura batter. The final part of the museum was a timeline of Momofuku Ando's life and achievements. What was originally a bit of a laugh turned out to be a quite interesting and rather interesting afternoon. After leaving the museum, we treated ourselves to a Starbucks and wandered along Yokohama harbour front and enjoyed the lit up skyline as the night drew in. We had a quick walk up and down the main shopping street but it was all slightly up market for 2 weary travelers. It was time to call it a day so we caught the metro back to Yokohama Station, stopping at the shopping centre we'd been to that morning, in order to get some dinner. It was a nice relaxing ride back to Tokyo and a bit of a relief not to have to cook dinner after a long day.
Saturday
From now on it was in and around Tokyo. There are so many notable areas we knew we wouldn't be able to see all of them in the time we had so we had to choose. Ikebukuro is mainly a shopping area west of where we were staying in Asakusa. Our first stop here, unsurprisingly, was Ikebukuro train station. It's the third busiest tran station in the world, behind only Shibuya (2 stops away) and Shinjuku (tucked in between the 2). Our problem was getting the correct exit, as there were multiple North, South, East and West ones, as well as numbered ones reaching into the 40s. Somehow we managed to find the one we needed, more by luck than judgement I think though as the maps were all in Japanese. There is one huge shopping centre there called Sunshine City, which is home to the Pokemon Store. We decided to stop by and have a look and briefly revisit our childhood. It was so Japanese and over the top, it was great fun. It was also funny to see a grown man wandering round with a packed out basket, while on the phone to his demanding child. From here we hunted down an international food supermarket that we knew was in the area, in the hope of obtaining some home comforts. We found it, which was probably more of an achievement than we realise in Tokyo but were left disappointed by its wares. No Cadbury's chocolate, no decent cheese and no marmite. Not as disappointing as our day at Mt.Fuji but pretty bad. To cheer ourselves up we did a small amount of gift shopping which unfortunately, I can't go into the details of. We had also spent the past 3 hours looking for a Subway (the restaurant not the rapid transport system) but as usual when you're looking for something you can't find it anywhere. So in the end we just grabbed a wrap from a seven eleven and went hunting for the famous pedestrian scramble crossing. This meant getting the train to Shibuya, of second busiest station fame. This was just a brief and unsuccessful stop as we couldn't find it anywhere and by this time the weather had turned miserable so we decided to call it day and head home in the hope we would have more success in finding it tomorrow when the weather was due to be nicer.
Sunday
Today was spent doing a little bit more gift shopping in the areas of Tokyo, this time Hiro'o in particular. Once we'd finished that and picked up some funky Japanese only sweeties, it was such a nice day we decided to walk Shibuya to try and find the pedestrian scramble once more. It was a good half an hour walk but it saved taking the train and it was so hot, who wouldn't want to be enjoying Tokyo in that weather. We arrived at Shibuya at the same place we were wandering round in circles the day before. We decided to enter the station in the hope that it would be clearly signposted from within. But it wasn't. Seeing as the crossing is so busy, we hung back to the side and watched the general flow of people and headed in the direction where the majority were going (quite clever we thought). Low and behold there it was, tucked round the corner, not directly outside the station. All it is is a crossroads, where traffic is stopped from all directions to allow the pedestrians to cross. And when they cross, boy do they cross. In all 8 directions there's just people, people, people. Quite a thing to witness and rather exhilarating to be part of the present rain horde, even if it just a set of traffic lights. With that excitement over and done with, we did a small amount of shopping for gift related things and headed back home to have a relaxing evening. We carried on ploughing through the rice for dinner, not yet bored of it. The only pain in Tokyo was having to sit outside in the corridor when we wanted to write the blog or Skype, due to the shabby wifi. It was cold in the corridor after all.
Sunday
Today was spent doing a little bit more gift shopping in the areas of Tokyo, this time Hiro'o in particular. Once we'd finished that and picked up some funky Japanese only sweeties, it was such a nice day we decided to walk Shibuya to try and find the pedestrian scramble once more. It was a good half an hour walk but it saved taking the train and it was so hot, who wouldn't want to be enjoying Tokyo in that weather. We arrived at Shibuya at the same place we were wandering round in circles the day before. We decided to enter the station in the hope that it would be clearly signposted from within. But it wasn't. Seeing as the crossing is so busy, we hung back to the side and watched the general flow of people and headed in the direction where the majority were going (quite clever we thought). Low and behold there it was, tucked round the corner, not directly outside the station. All it is is a crossroads, where traffic is stopped from all directions to allow the pedestrians to cross. And when they cross, boy do they cross. In all 8 directions there's just people, people, people. Quite a thing to witness and rather exhilarating to be part of the present rain horde, even if it just a set of traffic lights. With that excitement over and done with, we did a small amount of shopping for gift related things and headed back home to have a relaxing evening. We carried on ploughing through the rice for dinner, not yet bored of it. The only pain in Tokyo was having to sit outside in the corridor when we wanted to write the blog or Skype, due to the shabby wifi. It was cold in the corridor after all.
Still 3 more days to write about for Tokyo I'm afraid , catching up as quick as our time will let us though.
Lots of Love
James and Charlotte
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