After a small earthquake shook the restaurant we were eating dinner at in Nagoya we boarded the night bus arriving in Yokohama on Wednesday morning. Disneyland was closed so my plans to spend my birthday there, spend a night at a fancy hotel and then do DisneySea on the Thursday had to be rearranged. At short notice we found a hostel in Ishikawacho and set up camp there for a couple of days. Spent Wednesday checking out the Italian Gardens, Motomachi and China Town before walking through Yamashita Park to Sakuragicho.
With Disneyland closed I wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel at Cosmo World for my birthday but despite Yokohama not having forced rolling blackouts it was also closed. So did some shopping in Akarenga and World Porters, had dinner in the foodcourt and picked up a small pound cake on the way home. Thank god Stuart was there and had bought a candle and lighter with him or the whole birthday would have been a bit of a failure. We celebrated being together and safe.
Rather than venturing into Tokyo itself we decided to spend one more day in Yokohama and then head back towards Kansai (much to Stuart’s disappointment). We made the most of the day and went to Kamakura to explore Engaku-ji, Tokei-ji and Jochi-ji before taking the Daibutsu Hiking Course up over the hill past Kuzuharagaoka-jinja, Zeniarai-benten (highly recommended) in Genjiyama-koen and Sasuke-inari-taisha to arrive at the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) just after 4pm.
Although we were pretty lucky we didn’t arrive much later as even though it was open till 5:30 there was a blackout scheduled for 4:45pm so they were closing just before that and we only just made it in on time and got some pictures with noone else around (they were turning some other foreigners away as we left). Took a quick stroll on the beach for a bit but decided to try and get home before it go too dark. It was a weird feeling walking to the station with all the traffic lights down and shops closed with a few staff outside getting rid of stock they couldn’t keep refrigerated. One convenience store close to the station was still open (Im guessing because it was part of the actual station building) so we picked up some beers and pot noodles and managed to make it home fine, although a few of my friends in Tokyo said they had to spend another night at work due to suspended train services so I think we’ve made the right decision not to stay in the area and put more strain on it than it needs at this time
No comments:
Post a Comment