After A Few Days In Japan

On the Sea Bass ferry

I am really liking it here. It is not as difficult to get around as was my original impression. There are plenty of people, at least in Yokohama who speak excellent English. Many of them pay 6,000 yen, $60, for English leasons a day, in a classroom no less. But there are still many people who just do not want to try to speak in English. When I go places they will sometimes even say Hello in English.

The department stores here are absolutely amazing. There are several in the area near my hotel. Sogo is one of the bigger ones. It has 14 floors of shopping craziness. If they do not have it. Then you probably do not need it. It even has a kind of small but very nice art museum with artworks from as far back as 1882, that I could see. They have one whole floor of dishware, glassware, 3 or 4 rows of chopsticks, 1 floor of books, and cds, and DVDs. Which reminds me of Yodabashi Camera.

Yodabashi Camera has just about e v e r y t h i n g electronic. 8 floors of the stuff. Almost an entire floor just of TVs. What brand do you want? They got it. What size? What color? How about a camera? Or a thousand? I spent several hours just wandering through all the stuff for sale here. I wanted to just give them my credit card. `Here. Take this and max it out for me. OK?`

Oh, did I mention that there is also a floor of just food? Western style food, Japanese (of course) Chinese, you name it. Crazy.

The city of Yokohama, and Yokohama Bay.

The other day I took the Sea Bass ferry, which departs from the 2nd floor, there are 2 sub floors, of the Sogo shopping center. From the ferry I was able to get a view of the whole city and it took me to the other side of the city to Yamashita Park, which was put into place in memory of the victims of the Kobe earthquake. An absolutely very nice park, with fountains, and sculpture. I would have spent more time here if it were not so freakin hot. 90+ and 90+ humidity. It is even worse here than on Koh Samui, and I thought that was humid.

Some of the architecture in Yokohama is amazing. I tried to upload some more photos, but alas, stupid blogger is not letting me. Anyway, I will leave here soon and head to Kobe. I have an internet friend who is letting me stay with him and his wife over the weekend. Fun! Another local guide.