Yokohama | Stories from the sidelines

OK, I just got off work. Finished at 8 pm. I can’t take it anymore. I need to empty my head.

So I browsed through my Japan photos and I was transported back to Yokohama. I covered the conference for four days straight, wrote my stories on the fifth day, all day. I wasn’t able to leave my hotel room (which was really tiny, with a tiny soaking tub), except to eat in the restaurant just across my hotel.

I attempted to go to the mall in the early evening to have dinner but my editor was messaging me furiously on my Skype and I had to jump out of the train going to Minatomirai and back to my hotel in Kannai to fix one of my stories being edited.

So it was only on my sixth day and my last day in Yokohama that I was able to see a bit of the city. I just walked from my hotel and didn’t care where I ended up.

So Yokohama is a port city, the first one to open up to foreign trade. So naturally it had Western-style old buildings like this, which was the old Customs house of Yokohama.

Which was bursting with flowers…

I crossed the highway and ended up at the Red Brick warehouses, historical buildings which were the customs warehouses during the late 19th century. They are now shopping malls/event centers.

And there was an adjacent park where I lingered for a bit.

And walked a bit further…Hey hey hey! There’s the Pacifico convention center. Minatomirai.

And I just enjoyed the cloudy spring morning.

The flowers. Flowers everywhere. Everytime I come to Japan, there are always flowers everywhere, which I dearly love.

I spent the rest of the morning taking photos of flowers around Minatomirai. I can’t remember where I had lunch but I remember going into one of the malls in Minatomirai. I left Yokohama at 1 pm-ish to go to Tokyo central, which was about 45 mins away…not bad.

I spent 6 days in Yokohama and didn’t see much. Hahahaha!

I’ve always been fascinated with the country ever since I was a little kid. I grew up watching Japanese animation, from Voltes V and Daimos to Ranma ni buno ichi (Ranma 1/2). My mom also went to Japan for post-graduate short courses so she brought home toys, clothes and stories from the country that was so alien and yet intriguing.

Then I fell in love with Japanese anime. I binge-watched Fushigi Yuugi, Rurouni Kenshin (all episodes and arcs, including the OAVs), Ghost In the Shell, and a lot more. I am still in love with Studio Ghibli. My favorite movies are still Spirited Away (Chihiro no Sen) and Love Letter (live action) by Shunji Iawai. I picked up a few Nihongo phrases and sentences along the way.

So in 2009, I went with my bestfriend to Kyoto and Nara and stayed there for eight days. Which weren’t enough. I vowed I will come back.

Then I got hooked on Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) by Makoto Shinkai. I was a goner.

So I came back on 3 May for some work-related stuff (during the Golden Week!!!) but this time alone in Tokyo. I was there for 11 days, which I still find were not enough. I was so bitin. I think I will never get enough of it.

I spent the first 6 days in Yokohama, working like crazy and it was only on my last day I was able to see more of the city on the edge of the Pacific before I headed back to central Tokyo.

So on my first day, after the 1.5 hrs drive from Haneda Airport, I searched for the train station that would take me to the nearest stop to the conference venue. Of course, being me, I got lost. Walked around for 2 hours. I found myself in Yokohama’s Chinatown.