YOKOHAMA TRAVEL GUIDE - RTW Day 7 - 2 Minute Travel

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• published: 06 Nov 2014
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So we left Tokyo bound for Yokohama today. I think Yokohama is a bit like the Porirua of Tokyo. It’s right next door, people consider it so close that it’s the same city, though people who live and visit can see it’s pretty different. The two things I wanted to see in Yokohama was the Cup Noodle Museum and the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum. These seemed the most cheesy tourist attractions in Yokohama. For luxury, we decided to catch the bullet train the 10 minutes to Shin-Yokohama station. If you're ever in Japan and catching bullet trains, you'll notice that most of the bullet train stations start with “shin”, which is new. What this means is that they created a new train station, often in the middle of nowhere, which is the bullet train station. It’s not a problem, just don't always expect the station to be right in the middle of the city. We caught the train bound for Sakuragichō, getting off at Yokohama, because we wanted to see Yokohama right? When we got off, Yokohama Station is located in the middle of a spaghetti junction of roads. It was pretty industrial. We then stumbled through the Nissan Global Headquarters, and saw all the new Nissan cars being made. There’s a huge focus on electric cars, including some awesome racing cars, and some really awful looking one person cars, that were closer to scooter than to car. We then walked past a soccer field, and then a bunch of apartments in the middle of nowhere. It was around here that Kathryn decided she hated Yokohama, because of how awful the experience was in travelling from the station towards all the tourist spots. I suggested it may be our Google Maps navigation, but she wasn't interested in excuses. Eventually we made it to the Cup Noodle Museum. It was an amazing looking building, a massive white square with wooden stairs, very clean and modern. Inside you purchase an empty cup, decorate it with pictures you like, then get to select flavours for your cup noodles. I selected Cheese, Spring Onion, Garlic, and Chilli. On reflection, I regret picking Cheese. I could probably pick it out. Before we left, we asked what was the best way back to Shin-Yokohama station. Turns out we should walk to Sakuragichō Station, and catch the train directly back to Shin-Yokohama. So turns out we did get off at the wrong station, then walk through a crappy industrial/residential area, instead of going the normal way. So that was good news. In Shin-Yokohama, we found the Ramen Museum. This was designed to look like a 1950’s Railway Station, with various Ramen shops. Ramen, is Chinese Noodles, often cooked in a Miso or Pork broth, with slices of Pork and sometimes an egg added. Kathryn’s not really a fan of pork, but she was a trooper and had a try of the Ramen anyways. It was super rich, and tasted like eating pork fat. Probably not the best thing to get a person who doesn't like pork to try. But good on her, she gave it a go! It also came with an egg, which sounded exciting, until you ate it. It was brown, salty, and tasted like pork fat. Not the normal flavour expected from an egg. So based on food that was not the best (and cost like $30), a crappy walk, and a bad vibe, Yokohama gets a thumbs down from us. We then caught Shinkansen bound for Shin-Osaka. Osaka is a familiar city to us, and based on this, Kathryn treated us to a Taxi ride from the railway station to our hotel. While she was enjoying the ride, I was trying to communicate with the taxi driver where our hotel was. I showed him the address, which meant nothing to him. After a while, we finally managed to communicate where the hotel was. The hotel, Il Grande Umeda Osaka, while being the most expensive yet at $105 a night, was a bit of a dive. A classic business hotel that was dated, small, and smelt a little like smoke. Certainly not our best pick. Alas, can't win them all. We went out and explored some of the shopping malls, including HEP 5 which has a whale in it, and then settled for the night.