Jun-24
2004
A Day in Yokohama
Topic: 2004: Tokyo, Aomori, & Zushi, Kai: 2004
As I’ve been saying, I love Japanese food. It’s healthy and it’s tasty. But after more than a week of it, I was craving some American-style grease. So we started the day at the Denny’s around the corner from our hotel: bacon, french toast, maple syrup – yum! After breakfast, we took the subway to Shibuya, where we switched to the Minato Mirai line, which brought us to Yokohama, Japan’s second largest city. Coming out of the Yokohama train station, we stumbled into two political rallies that were underway, each at opposite ends of the entrance plaza. Japanese law limits political campaigns to the month preceding the election, which makes for a short and intense campaign season. The only way to experience this intensity is at a rally, as the law also severely constrains what the candidates can say in their TV advertising (they’re not allowed to criticize their opponents, or even speak of their own accomplishments, as that would imply a lack of similar accomplishments by their opponents). So you have to go to a rally to hear them say what they want to say.
After the rally, we headed across the footbridge to the Minato Mirai 21 area, which translates to “harbor of the future.” The most striking feature is the Landmark Tower, which is Japan’s tallest building, and is home to the world’s fastest elevator (28 mph). Our destination was the shopping mall on the lower levels, where we met up with Maria’s aunt “Big Auntie.” This mall is exactly like a US mall, which was actually a bit disorienting, as my mind was firmly set “in Japan” this far into our trip. For lunch, we went to the underground levels, which house a multitude of restaurants. I had udon soup, which has been one of my favorite foods for years.
We drove across town in Big Auntie’s car to the cemetery where the Toyoda tomb is located. Going back to her great-grandparents, all of Maria’s father’s family are buried there (it’s common in Japan to have a single tomb for a family – when someone dies, he or she is cremated, the ashes are added to the tomb, and his/her name is engraved on the stone). Properly maintaining your family tomb is an important tradition in Japan, and as you can see in the pictures, Kai gave it a thorough washing.
From there we drove to the suburbs, and spent the rest of the day with the Akasaka family: Mika, Shige, and their two sons Yasu and Hiro. Mika is Yuka’s sister (I wrote about Yuka in some earlier posts – she stayed with us for a while in June, and Maria met her originally in Osaka several years ago). The Akasaka’s lived in Palo Alto for a couple years when we were still in California, and we became friends with them then. Yasu and Hiro are older than Kai, but they’re still young enough that they were happy to play with him. The lack of a common language didn’t seem to slow them down. As you can see in the pictures, they also taught Kai some karate moves.
August 4th, 2004 at 4:52 pm
more great photos. thanks.
btw, what does “healthy” mean?
August 4th, 2004 at 8:08 pm
“healthy,” as in “not spam”