Today the weather is flawless. Sunny, 34°C and 90% humidity. Like a steam sauna, only that you are clothed and can't just go out, take a cold shower and stop sweating... Oh yeah, I managed to finally make a pic of the breakfast:
In the middle pears and orange, and then clockwise from lower left: squid with taro root, fried chicken, eel rice with grilled eel, miso soup, mushroom omelette, some bean salad, pieces of oyster with seaweed and lemon and silken tofu. I like it.
The advertisement in the lift.
While walking to Akiba station I mused what I wanted to do today and came up empty. So I sat down and browsed the map until my inner random generator spit out "Thou hast to go to Yokohama." So I did. Or more exactly, I tried. The Shinkansen go mostly from Tokyo station or Shinagawa. So I took the train to Tokyo which is only 2 stops from Akiba. As I mentioned it was hot. I tried the new system of booking a reserved seat on a vening machine and it another argument for my theory that they started to hate tourists. You have a lot of options which are not properly explained and even walkthroughs on the internet were plain wrong. Probably the system was changed after they wrote their articles. I gave up because behind me a line started to build up and went outside to sit in the shadow and maybe find a better tutorial.
While is was browsing, those two doves came along, equally exhausted by the heat.
While I was fraternizing with the doves and making plans to fill Tokyo with ice cubes a small and frail Japanese woman came along and asked me in English where I came from, I said Germany and she replied "Guten Tag" and continued to tell me that she wants to visit Germany one day too, especially Schloß Neuschwanstein (of course). I nodded along and maybe got 3 or 4 sentences in, while she happily chatted away in English about all kinds of stuff for 20 minutes. Reminded me of my cousin. After a while it got a bit much and I politely ended the talk saying I want to go to Yokohama. She thanked me profusely for the nice and interesting talk... Anyways if she was happy, all is good and I did my good deed for the month.
On the second try I managed to get my reserved seat for the train to Yokohama. It was not the Shinkansen but a limited express train. The ride doesn't take that long. The train only stops in Shinagawa, Kawasaki and then Yokohama.In Yokohama main station I changed to a local train to Sakuragicho, the first station of Japan Railways and the place wheere it all began.
The entrance plaza.
In the staircases to the platforms they have historical pictures of the station
I didn't go there for the history or the Japanese Railway exhibition of old trains, but for the harbor. They have a line cab there with which you can go from Sakuragicho to an Island with the Unga Park.
The entrance to the air cabin.
The cabins are nominally for 8 people, but there was not much traffic, so the guides gave a whole cabin to couples and also single travelers like me.
The ride is beautiful. Also because every single cabin has air condition. In the background left is the giant Ferris Wheel in a small amusement park which was unfortunately closed today.
Still, really hot and humid. Walking outside is a strain.
Well, it's a tourist trap. The whole complex is in fact a large shopping mall and amusement center.
Really nice brand name. They have a knack for that.
When in Yokohama, order Chinese food. They are said to have a large Chinese community there and there were indeed a lot of Chinese tourists. But this food... It was too much. The things looked small and common on the menu, but everything is about double the size I am used to in Germany. The spring rolls are not the tiny premade convenience thingies you get in every "Asia" stall nowadays but freshly rolled and almost full size. I gave my best, but it was just too much. It was all pretty tasty though, a shame.
An emergency while peeing? Japan has you covered. Though the emergencies I foresee have probably something to do with people getting tangled up in those rails. But how do they press the button then?!
The hot air drier is directly built into the wash basin. Ingenious! Also works as advertised.
Initially I had planned to take a stroll down to the pier called "Yokohama Hammerhead" (it actually looks like one), but there was shadow on the way, so I called it off. The food didn't help either and I was getting dizzy. A Nechusho (heatsroke) in the making.
I went back with the air cabin to Sakurgicho and there was this little gem
If you don't know, Sils-Maria is the Swiss town where Nietzsche lived for a long time.
The way back to Tokyo was uneventful, which was good, since the dizziness got worse. Back in Tokyo station I poured another mineral drink into myself and went out out of the historic entrance, since I hadn't seen it in 2019. It is beautiful.
The wet area in front of the station is actually an open air air condition. And yes, it was definitely a bit cooler around it.
Since I wasn't feeling any better I took a taxi to my hotel and only fetched some drinks from the combini. Those combinis and the vending machines make lifer a lot easier indeed.
After cooling down I phoned home. With Skype you can get a 19 € flatrate subscription for a month which allows you to call mobiles and landlines worldwide. I don't know about that, but it worked with Germany and Thailand. Good enough for me. "Sattelite" (company name) would probably also work
but since they are a German company they send you a letter! on paper! by snail mail with the unlock code. Nifty process when you want to book it while abroad.
After today's experience I will spend my last day in Tokyo tomorrow indoors, hurrying from one air conditioned commerce temple to the next. Also I have not been to any maid or theme cafe yet so that is also on the bucket list.
Going forward I changed my plan of going to Nagoya for he weekend and Kyoto afterwards. Weather forecast is the same as today for the foreseeable future in all three cities. I canceled the hotel in Nagoya (thanks booking.com) and will go far north to Hakodate which is on the northern island of Hokkaido and the current terminal station for the Shinkansen. Up there they have sunny weather and 25°C. Much better. The tunnel under the Hokkaido strait is one of the longest railway tunnels in the world with ca. 54 km. I found a nice hotel directly between the station and the fish market.
From there I could go to Sapporo or back to Honshu and visit Aomori, Japan's "apple capital", Akita where the dogs come from Akita Inu literally means "Dog from Akita". Shiba Inu and Tosa Ino are also both named after their origin. And of course revisit Hachiniohe. The biggest Yokocho which was closed for renovation work in 2019 is open again. Maybe I can time it so I manage to see the morning market this time.I want to visit all three anyways, just the order and length or the stays are not yet decided.
After that I hope Kanto and Kansai regions cooled down a bit and I can go to Kyoto without dying a miserable death because of nice weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment