It was cloudy day when we made our way to Yokohama early Sunday morning. We took the trains to Sakuragi-cho Station and followed the paths that led towards Minato Mirai 21. We walked pass the Landmark Tower, which is the tallest skyscraper in Japan. Since the skies were so cloudy, we decided not to go up to the observation deck at the top. However, we did walk around the port and saw the ships that were docked on the side. Across from the Landmark Tower stood the Cosmo Clock 21, which is this gigantic ferris wheel with a clock in its centre. It looked really cool from a distance. Actually, the entire area looked really cool and futuristic, which probably doesn’t come as a surprise, since Minato Mirai translates to ‘Port Future’.

Since it was a Sunday, there were a lot of people setting up stalls along the sidewalks. Most of the items were just sprawled out on the grass, which was kind of neat. We followed the path from the Yokohama Maritime Museum out towards the Shinko District, which itself is a little island connected by bridges. We stopped at Yokohama World Porters for most of the morning and did some shopping inside the mall. After lunch, we headed towards the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse* and browsed through the shops as well. It was a really trendy area selling a lot of art and one-of-a-kind products. The garden in the centre was so beautiful with all the flowers in bloom.

After leaving the Warehouse, we walked a bit closer to the pier and took pictures of some of the larger ships leaving the port. Afterwards, we took the Shinkobashi Bridge back out and worked our way towards Chinatown. I was really looking forward to Chinatown since it’s one of the largest ones in the world. I was already excited when we approached the gates that led into Chinatown. Unfortunately, it started to drizzle outside, so I was fumbling with my bags and camera and trying to balance an umbrella. Not graceful at all!

Chinatown was surprisingly busy even with the rain. I was fascinated by the kinds of food they had on sale there. We walked into a few bakeries and I was definitely surprised when I noticed that they had ‘moon cakes’ on sale. A little early for autumn I think! There were also a few stalls that sold steamed buns from these huge wooden baskets. It bought this gigantic bbq pork bun from one of the vendors. It was like the size of three buns put together! So delicious! There were also stalls selling roasted chestnuts. Most of the vendors usually hand out free samples to entice possible customers, so I would purposely walk back and forth to get free samples. The ploy worked for a little bit, although I did give in and paid for a bag myself. It was so good!

On a side note, I had no idea if I was suppose to talk to the shop owners in Chinese or English. I didn’t know how to ask for a bbq pork bun, so I kind of said it like that in English and pointed at a sign. I think they actually refer to it as ‘char siu bao’, which was probably what I should have said in the first place!

The weather was getting more miserable the longer we were in Yokohama. Originally we had wanted to walk towards Motomachi, but since it was getting cold and wet, we decided to head back to Tokyo early. We stayed in Shinjuku the rest of the evening and ate at a kaiten sushi place at Kabuki-cho. Nothing too exciting, but the sushi was delicious as always.=)

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*I was buying a purse from one of the shop owners inside the warehouse and he had asked me where I was from. After telling him that I was from Toronto, he said something like “cows running loose in Toronto.” I must have had the most perplexed look on my face, cause, you know…Toronto has no cows!! It was only afterwards that I found out he wasn’t crazy after all. =)