23rd day - Yokohama Chinatown

Hey everyone!
Hope you are all doing well!

On October 4th a group of us headed Yokohama to see Chinatown!

We headed off in the evening so it was already dark by the time we arrived!
The train tickets were quite expensive - around 600 yen each way!

First we went into a cute little shop we found walking into Chinatown. It was a panda themed store so it had lots of cute panda products!

There was a whole section just for socks! In the center of the store were lots of omiyage (gift boxes) which had cakes, cookies and other yummy treats inside. Many of the snacks in the gift boxes had cute designs on them.

In the picture above, the package to the right is STRAWBERRY CURRY! I really have no idea if this is supposed to be savory or sweet! I didn't buy it, but if I see it again then I will be sure to get a packet so I can tell you all what it is like!

The next shop we went into had lots of cute trinkets, hair accessories and sweets. It felt kind of touristy but it was really nice all the same!

Look how pretty!

Hair accessories

Colourful sweets!

Outside the shop there was this fortune telling machine!

The atmosphere of the Chinatown in Yokohama was much different from that of London's Chinatown. There was a lot less hustle and bustle here, however there were the occasional restaurant workers who would try really hard to get you into their restaurant!
One guy even followed us down the street in an attempt to persuade us!  

Look at those giant buns!

I would say that Yokohama's Chinatown was much larger than London's! And the types of shops were definitely different.

We were all getting hungry as it was late so we chose a restaurant to eat at. And no it was not one we were chased into!

My set!

Pictured above was the meal set that I chose. It came with fried rice, chicken salad, a main chicken dish, pickles, soup, and a dessert.

I would say this was Japan's style of Chinese food, just as Chinese takeaway is England's answer to Chinese food. Neither seem to be close to food you would actually eat in China but it was nice nonetheless. It seems that when foods are imported from other countries they are always modified significantly to reflect the tastes of the country it is imported to.

 The soup was actually supposed to be shark fin soup! Most of us didn't want to eat shark fin soup due to the moral implications but we agreed that given the price of the set, there was no way that the soup would have had any shark fin in it anyway so decided it was probably safe.

It was not the best meal I had ever had but that was to be expected - it not exactly being authentic Chinese food. It was still nice though!

The salad was a Japanese-Chinese dish called Banbanji which is a cold chicken salad dressed with a sesame sauce.
The main dish was a chicken and pepper meal which I ate with the rice - it was pretty tasty.
The dessert was quite good too, it was a kind of mildly sweet almond-tasting jelly which came with fruits.

Overall it was a nice meal and fun to eat in a big group of people.

After the meal we continued our walk around Chinatown and came across this temple. It was pretty spectacular!

We were hoping to go on the big Ferris Wheel nearby but by the time we could have got there it would have already been closed so unfortunately that was off the plate.

After walking around for a while some of us bought some snacks and then we went into an arcade!

At the arcade we took some purikura - yes, I know, again! - and played on some of the games.

The arcade was fun but it was made especially great for me because of one thing that happened.

I had spotted a UFO Catcher with a big Alpacasso inside it in the perfect colour. I had been wanting one of these plushies for a while but they have always been a bit too expensive for me to justify buying one. At first I wasn't going to play, but  I had a change of heart and decided to give it a go.

I put 5 100 yen coins as you get a free go for that amount. However what I didn't realise was that this is only for 500 yen coins, so already things weren't going well.
On the second go I realised the arm wasn't moving over the hole to deliver the prize - the machine wasn't working! I went to an employee to get my 500 yen back and she asked me to try again to show her what happened. After talking on her radio for a few minutes she opened up the machine and handed the plushie to me!

My bounty!!

I was so happy! I may not have had the feeling of winning it but it was almost as good! I was so glad as I had been pining over Alpacassos for a while!

It now sits proudly by my desk and makes my room look just that bit more cheerful!

See you for now!