Day 12 Rain Rain Go Away

Fun fact, I forgot to pack an umbrella. Silly I know, seeing as how I knew I was coming to a country where June is their rainy season. I also refuse to buy one of those frilly, lacy things that Japanese women call umbrellas for the ungodly sum of 900 yen (roughly $7.25). Secretly I love those umbrellas, I just don't want to haul it home. But our hotel will let you borrow a very nice umbrella whenever you want. Thanks Intercontinental! That's a very nice perk when the weather has looked like this for the last 2 days:

Love being up in the clouds

Obviously the answer to more rain is more shopping and more sushi! But this time the good sushi.

Chutoro, fatty salmon (salmon with blow-torch crisped skin drizzled with mayo and green onions), and unagi (freshwater eel, blow-torch caramelized sauce)

Poop emoji book in Japanese

Hair drying glove?

Ear pick? At least it has cute animals on the top.

Adorable miniature animal containers to carry your sauces to and fro

For dinner, Ethan and I decided to head out to the Ramen Museum to try different types of famous ramen from around the country. They have 9 different ramen restaurants that are scattered around a replica street from 1958 Japan. That was the year that the first instant ramen was invented. Now their website advertises that there are sample size bowls available to allow the guest to try many different types of the noodle dish. What I thought would be a couple bites of noodles, and maybe a 1/2 cup of broth, was in fact a very nearly full sized bowl of ramen. I guess the prices reflect the bigger than anticipated size of the food, but they were again more than I was expecting. Each bowl was 550 - 800 yen. So not terrible pricing, but the price coupled with the size of the bowls was pretty prohibitive in trying the many many types of ramen. Between E and I, we were able to share 4 bowls of the sample size and one giant gyoza each. We would have loved to try more, but we were literally stuffed!

Salt broth with pork. This shop, Shina Soba-ya, uses a special wheat flour to make their noodles. And the chicken that is used to make the broth are raised by the shop master himself. There are over 30 ingredients, all specially sourced, to make this ramen special.

Same shop as above, but the soy broth also with pork, This was both E and my favorite from this shop.

Sumire ramen. This shop has been called the most famous miso shop in Japan. They specialize in a rich, miso broth and have Hokkaido style noodles which are slightly thick and curvy.

Sumire again, but with a soy (maybe soy and miso?) broth. This was my favorite! It was so rich and satisfyingly salty, lol.

HUGE gyoza. See my phone in the upper right for comparison.

Day 2 Yokohama Adventures

It was a rainy day here in Japan. Between the rain and jet lag I took a nice long nap in the morning. Then I ventured out to find some food. It was kinda cold and dreary, perfect weather for ramen! I found a place that had a spicy pork ramen lunch special served with gyoza. Gyoza are a type of dumplings. They're typically made with a lighter wrapper than typical Chinese style dumplings which are made with a dough. Lunch was delicious, and I was super glad when one of the waiters offered me a disposable bib to help keep my shirt clean!

Our hotel is next to an upscale shopping mall and train station. It's got a ton of shops that I've never heard of, but also some familiar names like Tiffany & Co., H&M, and the Disney store. They've also got a good selection of food places ranging from traditional Japanese style, Tonkatsu specialty restaurants (a fried pork cutlet or tenderloin), conveyor belt sushi, lots of French places, Starbucks, McDonalds, Krispy Kreme, and lots lots more.

Our hotel is pretty fancy. It attracts a lot of international guests. It offers 5 different restaurants, a gym and indoor pool, and spa. Cars like this bad boy are frequently parked out front. 

Lobby

Our room is up on the 18th floor and has some pretty sweet views.

Our room is pretty sweet too. It's not the nicest hotel room I've ever stayed in, but it is probably the best laid out and cleanest. The Japanese are all about convenience, ease, and cleanliness. There is plenty of room to store our suitcases and still be able to move around. There's a place to put our shoes, a big closet, and lots of nooks and crannies to keep stuff up off the floor. The beds are firm, but comfortable. Same with the pillows.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'm venturing out of my little bubble and into a new mall! Sayonara Queen's Square. Konnichiwa MarkIS.