Yesterday, it became clear that Robert didn't see Yokohama's Chinatown, and for Willem, Martijn and Youri, it would be their first visit to
Yokohama at all, so we decided to go there today.
Not really a spectacular trip in terms of distance (about 50 minutes from Ueno either with a Local or the combo Yamanote-Shinkansen-Yokohamaline), but since we grew tired of travelling for hours, this took long enough as it was. ;)
Thanks to my fabulous sense of direction, we initially went the wrong way, but after some asking around, we got a faint idea of where to go, and so we went.
Yokohama is a beautiful city, with many great spots to see or just to go and relax.
It holds the Japanese record for the largest building (Landmark Tower, at 295 meters quite an impressive piece of architecture) and a very special ferris wheel called Cosmo Clock 21. This ferris wheel has a clock at its center, keeping time. As day turns into night, the spokes of the wheel become illuminated, thus becoming an indicator for the seconds ticking away.
Every 15 minutes, the clock's computer produces a light show, making use of the RGB LED-bars on the spokes.
Here is a short video I shot of it back in 2005:
It does it's thing for a minute or 5, after which it reverts to being the world's largest second hand.
Viewing this from Landmark Tower's Sky Garden (as I did while making the video) is very recommendable.
We also visited Anna Miller's; the first chain to go with the maid-like waitress-concept. Now, some years later, maid cafe's are booming business in otaku-laden districts like Akihabara, but AM stayed the same.
The concept of Anna Miller's is simple; cute waitresses serve slightly overpriced food in an American-based setting. I visited the AM in Yokohama in 2004 for the first time, after I read MeTo; one of the characters works or used to work at Anna Miller's in Meguro.
The waitresses at Anna Miller's were well-endowed, by the way. But not too much; just very pleasing to the eye. ;) Oh, and sometimes they show a little more than they intend to; Yuriko (one of the waitresses) wore white today.
Well, as this was our last day on our Rail Pass, I won't be making any long trips tomorrow; just some last-minute shopping, packing stuff and sending goodies home.
Cheers, K.