Greetings from Yokosuka, Japan.
Unfortunately, the pictures were posted backwards so my trip will be viewed from the bottom up. sorry. Bon voyage.
Unfortunately, the pictures were posted backwards so my trip will be viewed from the bottom up. sorry. Bon voyage.
Well, I finally left my little neighborhood and saw some of the town. What sucks about being in a “gated community” like mine is that there are only a few gates to exit the place. The other is that I forgot my map. Yeah, I learned a little more about my community on the way out. Well, that was fun. Anyways, I finally got out the back gate and turned left. There was a fountain I’d seen through the fence and thought it was really close. I was wrong. It wound up being what felt like at least a mile. My pamphlet says it was only 15 minutes. I must have been tired from getting to the gate to begin with. What I’ve found fascinating of the country I’ve seen so far is how much the Japanese love their fountains. I followed a continuous fountain down the city street for at least 10 of the 15 minutes; the first picture is part of the fountain. I guess fountain wouldn’t be a good term since there were places that were barely moving, but I don’t know what would be an accurate word. The park itself was cool. I learned from my pamphlet (back in my room at that time) that the park was named Mikasa Park and was the sight of the “famous Mikasa flagship”. I took a picture of the ship but didn’t go there. I did see the people exploring the ship but I was looking for the fountain. The fountain was dormant when I got to it but every hour it is a fountain choreographed to music and what I caught on my escape was cool.(the third picture is the fountain. It looks like a pond but if you look close and see the black spigots, it really is a fountain) However, I was bored and not in the mood to sit and wait in the sun for a half hour so I left and returned to the gate.
Instead of going in the gate, I decided to continue on and see what I could see. As expected, I passed numerous Japanese stores, like two spas and a few restaurants, but I also passed way too many American stores. Grr. Eventually I passed the main gate (with, surprise, surprise: another fountain. Still, something must be said for the genius of each fountain. ) and found a mall obviously meant to cater to the Americans next door with all its English. Still, it held all types of Japanese stuff. New traditional kimonos are worth over a hundred thousand yen. A thousand yen is about 11 dollars, for those of you interested. Sorry, but that’s a little expensive for a gift. Used ones are less expensive but I need to get to a flea market for those. I quickly noticed how expensive everything was there. It was hard to find anything, other than food, for under a thousand yen.
Anyway, the mall itself was odd. It was almost like a department store with little stores in a circle in the middle of each story. It also had a lovely size food court and theater. Also, the department store area was different. Picture Macys or the old Dayton store. In each section (teen, petit, plus sizes…) are divisions for separate designers. Now imagine each designer having their own cashier. It almost seemed like each square area was another store without a title. It was kind of interesting, almost like each department store is its own mall. Odd. I also noticed that apparently jewelrymaking is quite popular over here. There were two stores with a large selection of beads just in the mall. The store was mostly stones and the other part of the mall appeared to be part of the department store similar to Hobby Lobby or Micheals. I picked up some awesome seed beads in small quantities and discovered it’s hard to pick up random, unplanned beads when I know I have limited space and each thing is more expensive than in the States. Also, most of the jewelry sold in the little designer sections looked homemade. Like I said, it was interesting.
I decided to try out the Wendys outside the mall, which was not a good idea. The burger was fine, the potatoes slightly off since they use different potatoes here and the tea was not one I’ll repeat. However, the problem was that I’d been on my feet for about four hours straight and just wanted to lay down with an awesome drink. Eating something that isn’t spectacular for the sake of eating is rarely a good idea. Interesting though, they don’t serve sugar to go with tea. They serve small cups of gum syrup, handed out in containers like creamer is served in. The syrup is super sweet and u should only have used half of the container, if only the tea hadn’t been so bitter. As it was I forced myself to finish the drink as I needed liquid after walking so long. I than headed back to my room. I used the main gate. Now remember I left through the back gate and had no map with me. Yes, I got lost again. I managed to find rather select maps that gave a general idea of where I was and got back to my room after dark after having been walking for an hour. Yes, I turned on my tv, grabbed an awesome drink, and sank onto my couch. Thank God I still have no roommate.
Now, some random facts about Japan. First, sunrise is before 6 am and sunset is before 6 pm. Yea. Also, the UK is not the only kingdom that drives on the wrong side of the road. That’s right, they do it over here as well. I’m suddenly quite glad I can’t drive. Another tip: don’t drink matcha tea. It’s a common drink here and I tried the Starbucks version. I won’t make that mistake again. It tastes like near pure seaweed. Blah
And now, i'll leave you with one last thought: When did Lady Liberty become a goddess? :)
Well, that’s it for now, here’s to wishing you all an awesome week (or more, till I write again).
Instead of going in the gate, I decided to continue on and see what I could see. As expected, I passed numerous Japanese stores, like two spas and a few restaurants, but I also passed way too many American stores. Grr. Eventually I passed the main gate (with, surprise, surprise: another fountain. Still, something must be said for the genius of each fountain. ) and found a mall obviously meant to cater to the Americans next door with all its English. Still, it held all types of Japanese stuff. New traditional kimonos are worth over a hundred thousand yen. A thousand yen is about 11 dollars, for those of you interested. Sorry, but that’s a little expensive for a gift. Used ones are less expensive but I need to get to a flea market for those. I quickly noticed how expensive everything was there. It was hard to find anything, other than food, for under a thousand yen.
Anyway, the mall itself was odd. It was almost like a department store with little stores in a circle in the middle of each story. It also had a lovely size food court and theater. Also, the department store area was different. Picture Macys or the old Dayton store. In each section (teen, petit, plus sizes…) are divisions for separate designers. Now imagine each designer having their own cashier. It almost seemed like each square area was another store without a title. It was kind of interesting, almost like each department store is its own mall. Odd. I also noticed that apparently jewelrymaking is quite popular over here. There were two stores with a large selection of beads just in the mall. The store was mostly stones and the other part of the mall appeared to be part of the department store similar to Hobby Lobby or Micheals. I picked up some awesome seed beads in small quantities and discovered it’s hard to pick up random, unplanned beads when I know I have limited space and each thing is more expensive than in the States. Also, most of the jewelry sold in the little designer sections looked homemade. Like I said, it was interesting.
I decided to try out the Wendys outside the mall, which was not a good idea. The burger was fine, the potatoes slightly off since they use different potatoes here and the tea was not one I’ll repeat. However, the problem was that I’d been on my feet for about four hours straight and just wanted to lay down with an awesome drink. Eating something that isn’t spectacular for the sake of eating is rarely a good idea. Interesting though, they don’t serve sugar to go with tea. They serve small cups of gum syrup, handed out in containers like creamer is served in. The syrup is super sweet and u should only have used half of the container, if only the tea hadn’t been so bitter. As it was I forced myself to finish the drink as I needed liquid after walking so long. I than headed back to my room. I used the main gate. Now remember I left through the back gate and had no map with me. Yes, I got lost again. I managed to find rather select maps that gave a general idea of where I was and got back to my room after dark after having been walking for an hour. Yes, I turned on my tv, grabbed an awesome drink, and sank onto my couch. Thank God I still have no roommate.
Now, some random facts about Japan. First, sunrise is before 6 am and sunset is before 6 pm. Yea. Also, the UK is not the only kingdom that drives on the wrong side of the road. That’s right, they do it over here as well. I’m suddenly quite glad I can’t drive. Another tip: don’t drink matcha tea. It’s a common drink here and I tried the Starbucks version. I won’t make that mistake again. It tastes like near pure seaweed. Blah
And now, i'll leave you with one last thought: When did Lady Liberty become a goddess? :)
Well, that’s it for now, here’s to wishing you all an awesome week (or more, till I write again).
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