Hey Hive!
So if you missed the last post, we're currently on another journey to Japan after we finished our final semester of college back in January 2019! And it was coincidentally around Valentines' Day too! We initially talked about wanting to visit South Korea but a Delta Airlines deal kinda changed our plans so.. to Tokyo once again!
But this time we were staying somewhat outside Tokyo in an area called Omorimachi And last week we started exploring the largest Chinatown in Japan, at Yokohama!
I didn't finish writing about the day in last week's post though so here's the continuation!
13 February 2019. Wednesday.
We ended with this cool picture of Sean in front one of the four majestic and ornate-looking gates that border the Chinatown:
There was also this avenue in the Chinatown called China Square which basically had a lot of small retail shops. It reminded me a little of the old shopping centers in Singapore/Malaysia, or night markets.
Then we were curious about the huge souvenir store so we decided to go check it out!
And man there was so much merch in there! Like these super cute and colourful Japanese noren curtains.? They're like these half curtains with unique designs you'd see in Japanese restaurants where they use it to separate the kitchen and the serving area.
I initially thought of having something like that for my kitchen too, but figured a door would be more practical.
There were also these super cool calligraphy paintings done by a local artist:
And these super adorable name plates/custom keychains! I actually did something similar to this before but a long long time ago in another country.
We also saw this really cute shiba bag that I was so tempted to get ngl. But I have so many tote bags that I odn't really use so I didn't get it.
Sooner or later we started getting hungry so we decided to get a snack from one of the nearby stalls and we saw this one:
We decided to get the egg tarts since those are easy to eat and won't potentially burn our tongues.
I like this shot; it looks like that mascot is sneakily look at Sean. XD
I remember the egg tarts being pretty good! Just like your normal egg tart - pretty flaky but I think I would've preferred more egg custard. It was good though and the crust itself was just a little sweet and gave it that crisp.
There was also this street in the Chinatown called Hong Kong Road! I'm not sure which particular road it's modeled after though but it did give the sense of some HK back alley.
And just outside of Chinatown we came across this Peking Duck restaurant! We'd seen a couple of these around Yokohama, I guess it matches with the Chinatown vibe.
But they actually had takeout in the form of a Peking Duck Roll! I'd never tried that before but I figured it'll be like how you'd eat peking duck anyway? With the sliced duck meat and vegetables wrapped up in the special pancake like this:
It'd been a while since we've had peking duck, and we've definitely never had it in Japan before, so we decided to give it a try.
So this was the chef manning the takeout counter and we saw him prepare our roll right in front of us!
And this was what it looked like!
It was actually a pretty decent sized roll compared to what you'd normally eat when you get peking duck. I initially thought it was going to be the normal peking duck size and if that was the case it would be quite a scam for 250yen, but thankfully not! It was similar in size to a popiah (Teochew-style fresh spring roll) you can get here in Singapore.
And it was pretty yummy! It wasn't warm, but the duck was nice and tender, the sauce was sweet and the vegetables gave it the moisture and crunch it needed. Definitely felt like we were eating legit peking duck!
And just after that we saw this chonky doggo wearing a cute little jacket crossing the same street as us!
There was park called Yamashita Park not too far away and we decided to go take a leisurely stroll there and enjoy some nice scenery.
And bonus: we saw doggos there too!
I'm not sure what this structure is supposed to be, but the architecture was so unlike the typical Japanese buildings it felt like it was transported from somewhere in Europe or something.
The park was also right next to the harbour so it was kinda cold there with the sea breeze. But it was so cool to see!
If only it wasn't so cloudy though, I bet we would've been able to see a beautiful sunset with the bridge in the background.
There were also some nicely manicured flower beds and benches in the park for people to enjoy the seaview!
After a while we heard quite a lot of barking and found out there was a doggo hangout spot nearby! There were soo many doggos with their cute little winter coats omg!
Especially this cute little dachshund!
We also saw another big boi walking past but he only had 2 booties on his hind legs for some reason. It was so cute though!
After that the lights came on and we saw this beautiful fountain!
Apparently this is the Guardian of Waterthat was presented to people of Yokohama by the people of San Diego in May 1960!
That would explain the different architecture styles in this park! Especially this industrial style rose arch.
There was a lot of exposed brick and metal scaffolding around.. I guess typical American architecture?
It did look really cool though! And not something you'd normally see in Japan for sure. I like that they kind of dedicated this park to that relationship with San Diego.
After that we started heading back to our apartment and stopped by at a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner! Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the actual restaurant but it was interesting to see Japanese servers speaking Chinese with a slight accent.
I was in the mood for something warm now so I ordered some spicy tantanmen, which is a noodle dish born in Sichuan Province of China that combines spicy minced beef and sliced Sichuan pickes!
Sean opted to get the mapo tofu set which includes a bowl of white rice, soup and cabbage and a special coconut dessert.
It was actually pretty yummy! I'm not a big fan of tantanmen but it was alright, but Sean's mapo tofu was really good! I got really stuffed from the soup though but I tried not to drink too much since it was kinda spicy.
Then we retired for the night back in our apartment since we were so beat from walking so much today!
And that's gonna be all for this post! Tune in next week when we go to a very special place! Here's a hint:
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #124 (Japan 6.0): Exploring Yokohama Chinatown! 🍲
