Chinatown

Today, I went to Yokohama! It was a tour arranged by SISEC (Sophia International Student Exchange Council), an international circle in Sophia University. Around 125 people showed up for this event! There were so many people that, at first, I wondered, "Is it really going to be okay?" because usually, with large groups, things are very unorganized and a lot of time is wasted trying to gather everyone's attention. However, things worked out really well; I was really surprised.

We were divided into seven or eight groups of nine, and then each explored the city on our own. To break the ice, we played a few games together: charades and the like. After, each group went off on their own. My group first went to Chukagai, the Chinatown of Japan. There were soooo many restaurants and food shops/stands, cloth stores, and various souvenir shops. In comparison to the Chinatown in New York, this one is relatively small, but it is surely a thousand times cleaner and actually even more crowded.

A panda store! EVERYTHING inside was panda-related. 

We walked around a bit and then went to eat lunch at a restaurant called, "梅蘭," (bairan). The food there was okay. Actually, as I flipped through the menu, everything was wayyyyy expensive--definitely two to three times as expensive as New York Chinese food. A simple order of dim sum soup dumplings here was ¥840 (about $9), whereas in Flushing, the most it could possibly be is ~$3.50. As for quality and taste, definitely no match for Flushing Chinese food.

If I didn't already mention, almost all restaurants in Japan have a 3D display of their menu.

Pan-fried dumplings 

Handmade steamed dumplings

After lunch, we walked around some more and went to try the street food. There were a lot of stands selling roasted chestnuts, sesame balls, baozi, mantou, etc... I saw an ingredient shop that sold laoganma! (a delicious hot sauce). I have yet to find Chinese black vinegar, though. :(

Panda meat buns! That's what they're called, so I wonder is it panda meat buns or panda meat buns?

Yamashita Park
The view of Tokyo Bay was amazing.



They had these tiny trees planted around the park.

 

You can see Yokohama Bay Bridge in the background!

Can you see the ferris wheel? That's from Minato Mirai 21, an area of redeveloped docks. 

That rectangular building at the left is the Landmark Tower, the third tallest structure in Japan.

They had these rickshaws outside the park, which reminded me of the ones pulled by horses in Central Park. These were, of course manually cycled by people. The good thing is that they provide blankets for the passengers!

There is still so much of Yokohama left to see. This time, I only went to Chinatown and Yamashita Park. I still have yet to go to Minato Mirai 21, the Foreigner's Cemetery, and the Sankei-en Garden.

A bit more about prepaid cellphones: I went with my friend to buy a prepaid cellphone the other day, so I can tell you guys a little of what I found out. We went to the Sofmap store in Akihabara, to where all the cellphone companies were and asked the employees there. Initially, someone told us that cellphone companies have stopped dealing with prepaid phones since over a year ago, with no explanation. He told us that the best bet was to get a rental a the airport. However, I found this hard to believe since another one of our dorm mates just purchased a prepaid phone the other day. .____. Anyway, so later, a guy at one of the companies (I think it was willcom or softbank) came up to us and said they could do it. The cheapest plan there was had a ¥3000 fee, plus some more for the actual phone. The total cost ended up to be about ¥5000. So what you need to bring with you is your passport and your residence card. The paperwork was long, so be prepared to sit for an hour~. Also, if you don't really know any Japanese, please find someone to go with you! otherwise, you'll be in there forever, since no one speaks English.