10 Days in Japan: Yokohama and Kamakura
We planned a trip to Japan many moons ago before we knew August was going to be busy, and before we knew we were going to be moving homes in late September. The ten day trip was sandwiched in between all that. Looking back, I think we needed the quiet and peace of Japan after a busy month and before we settled into a new space. Yin and Yang, masculine and feminine, the divine balance of it all.
I sit here in my new dining table, after the first night of sleeping in the new house (which hopefully I can talk about in a future post! It’s been so tiring but exciting!), while I get our sofas and carpet cleaned. The sounds of vacuum and dryers, I shall imagine to be airplane sounds instead.
So we landed in Japan and went straight to Yokohama.
Yokohama is a port city just outside of Tokyo. The buildings were mostly European-looking, but they are also known for their Chinatown. It was nice people watching here. It was very very quiet and not too busy (unless it was rush hour, where people fled in and out of stations but ever so quietly, which I find so interesting, as a person who lives in such a chaotic country).
Food recommendations, as a vegetarian are:
Rice Cuisine Suya has the best Vegan Tantan Sesame Ramen! I honestly think you would love this too even if you weren’t vegan/vegetarian! They have good cocktails and wine selections as well.
Gooz is sort of like a deli slash konbini. As soon as you walk in they have good jazz playing and a wide selection of coffee. They have packed meals (great great pastries and my favorite seaweed onigiri from the entire trip!) and you can just hang outside. Really a favorite.
Chinese Ramen Yoshu-Shonin Yokohama Stadium is not vegetarian but has really good vegetarian options. They have a tomato noodle soup which is tangy bordering on sinigang or tom yum, but it is quite good. They have a bok choy garlicky noodle soup that I like more though! Apologies, they were all written in Japanese and so I don’t know what they are called but their menu has pictures!
The following day was the beginning of many days of rain. We took a train to Shinjuku to get a second hand camera (we didn’t, ended up with a brand new one instead), and to go to Sekaido (which turned out to be my favorite art supply store in this entire trip). I am tempted to make a video or a post about the favorite things I got from Sekaido but maybe honestly will have time to do that after I fully move in the new house. Let me digress a little bit: despite appearances if you know me in person, I can be quite shy in front of the camera. But this is something I want to get over with. And I am excited about my Sekaido art supplies, so…let me get back to Shinjuku. Well it was super rainy and windy which explains the lack of photos (my camera is not weather proof, you see). But for food we ate at Ain Soph. Journey, a cozy vegan restaurant. We got their Teriyaki Deep Fried Soy Chicken and the Veggie Hamburg Steak with Tomato Sauce, both of which were fantastic. The matcha beer was very memorable for me.
The following day we took at train to Kamakura, a seaside town around 40 minutes train ride away from Yokohama. We went down the wrong stop, a station before where we should have, but the detour turned out beautifully. We walked under the rain along tree-lined temples and shrines. I love the sound of rain beating down my umbrella.
We went on a Monday and most of the places on my list were closed and so if there is anything you should learn from this post about Kamakura is that you should go other days than Monday. We did stop by Chocolaterie Calva as we were meandering. Their chocolate ice cream was so good. We did have a snack at Iwata Coffee Shop, a retro Showa-style kissa. They are known for their thick pancakes, but I got their fruit and cream sandwich and coffee. After walking around the whole day to see more of the stores and restaurants closed, we stumbled onto Yorocco Beer Pub. It is an intimate space with a nice little selection of craft beers and limited finger food. I know I need to go back to Kamakura and experience it differently (not a Monday, and not during a rainy day).
We watched the Yokohama Baystars vs the Tokyo Yakult Swallows at the Yokohama Stadium the following day. I’m only starting to understand baseball, but it was very interesting to see the contrasts between baseball games in America, Taiwan and Japan. It was humid day the threatened rain that never really arrived, thankfully. But all things are good when you have cold beer and snacks.
