Day 25

the semi double bed at superhotel wasnt very big but thank God their rooms are specially designed to be sleeping-inducing so i slept well. not sure abt tobias though. to make full use of the last few days of the JR pass, we decided to travel round. 1st stop to Yokohama, Sakuragi-cho station. this is the Yokohama Landmark Tower.






it was bright and sunny, thank God for the good weather and we strolled around downtown bayside area. it began to feel quite hot so me got a little grumpy. got back onto the train to get down to Yokohama's Chinatown at Ishikawa-cho station, supposedly the most famous around japan. there were lots of grand gates and waitresses trying to get customers to go for their chinese food buffet. since we've got our own Chinatown in Singapore and since we're authentically Chinese, we werent too impressed by Yokohama's Chinatown. but it was a must-visit. ohwell. this is the Seiyo-mon gate.

the Enpei-mon gate.

the Zenrin-mon gate.

[these gates are called Pairos (Chinatown Gates) and are built according to feng shui. there are 10 pairos in Chinatown, representing the colour and directional guardians of Yin-Yang and the 5 elements]

travelled further down to the Yokohama Bayside Marina Outlet which required us to pay extra 310Y per pax because u have to take a separate monorail (Seaside Line) to get there! when we were there we proceeded to storm the shops in an orderly fashion. armed with a map and a pen, i'd cross out stores we've already visited and had no interest whatsoever in and jot down prices of goods of the stuff we may get.

had to get lunch. but Outlet does not provide a wide variety. we ended up at Long after eliminating all the other places we do not want to eat at. lunch was 2100Y and it didnt really taste good. my fried rice was ok but it only had 2 prawns. i also had a cold noodle dish which had alot of bean sprouts. me is sad cos little meat. his set meal wasnt tt fantastic either. plus his noodles were the hk crunchy type so he had a fun time chewing through his meal. in the end he resembled an angry chewing goat/cow cos he was constantly moving his mouth. haha~ so adorable!



we got quite abit of things. i bought a pair of asics after spending more than an hour in the shop trying to get help frm assistants who dont have very much brand knowledge and looking high and low for the right size. then he also went back and got his denim berms. watch out for his new look! we also got a bunch of reebok tees but misinterpreted what the sign said. in the end the tees cost slightly more than expected but it was still reasonable.

had a very hard time trying to decide whether to get birks frm Birkenstocks or ABC Mart. the latter sells them at a cheaper price but its not really birks birks so the contouring of the footbed isnt tt comfortable. at the real Birkenstocks, they dont have the colour i want in the design i like. which is really sad. and it made me kick myself for not grabbing the LAST pair i saw on uber discount at Sapporo. even though tt design was number 2 on my favourites, it was only close to S$35? for a real pair of birks. and it fits. perfectly. one of my regrets of this trip.

finished up with Outlet and went down to Odaiba, a man-made island in the middle of a water body accessible via the Rainbow Bridge. once again, there was a monorail ride on the Rinkai Line which wasnt covered by our JR pass. but the monorail was cool. like some roller coaster ride tt takes u through the city. really pretty cos we were there in the evening and all the lights were on.


saw this really really pretty chapel near a hotel right outside the monorail station (should be Hotel Nikko Tokyo). it was built just for weddings cos there's also a looong walkway before reaching the doors of the chapel. the entire chapel is made frm full-length glass windows and guests are seated facing the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower. it was lit a romantic blue-purple at night and we were totally wowed by it. he even suggested we might have our wedding here. haha~




saw the statute of liberty (finally). the replica of course. last yr he took me on a wild goose chase and made me walk long distances. in the end, he was mistaken and we were at the wrong location. need to grab dinner cos we were hungry. chanced upon a Fugetsu branch in the Adua City Odaiba so decided to go in with fond memories of our 1st time at Cannel City Fugetsu. ordered the most expensive okono with noodles to share. but the guy got our order wrong and it came without noodles. tobias got really upset but they didnt even try to compensate us or anything. in the end we were still hungry after the meal cos okono without noodle is hardly filling at all. didnt make it to VenusFort cos it was too late.

well thank God for the supermarts near our hotel. we got diet jelly instead to fill us up. not so nice ending bcos of the meal but the entire day was rather fulfilling and even romantic towards the night. thank you for the meticulous planning!