Mall’s Well That Ends Well

Friday, April 26, 2024

Saying goodbye to Nagoya, we took the shinkansen to Shin-Yokohama. We were awed by Fuji’s powerful presence.

From Shin-Yokohama, we intended to take a local train to Yokohama Station, but something went wrong and we found ourselves at the end of some other line. It was easy enough to jump on the next inbound tran and return to Shin-Yokohama, where we found the correct train to Yokohama Station. It was rather warm by this time, and we were very happy to be nearing the end of the day’s journey. 

Before we could get out of Yokohama Station we had to go through a mall. What else is new? Every major station here in Japan seems to be attached to a mall - or several malls. (I think shopping might be the national sport.) Naturally, there were many restaurants, so we decided to have lunch and try a local favorite, katsu curry. It was cheap, quick, and delicious - a trifecta.

The brand new Hilton Yokohama greeted us with audacious hospitality. We even found little cruise-ship-shaped taiyaki waiting in our room, alongside the luggage we had shipped here from Tokyo, way back when. Taiyaki are pleasing little waffle treats, filled with sweet bean paste. They are usually fish-shaped, but I can accept cruise-ship-shaped.

Lovely, large room

After we got settled in, we felt like a walkabout. There wasn’t anything nearby other than a grocery store and a 7-Eleven, so we walked to both of them to see if there was anything we needed.

Fruit is often given as a gift in Japan. You can buy perfect specimens, often in a presentation box, at grocery stores and speciaty fruit shops.

These lovely little watermelons are about $20US

The cantaloupe would cost you close to $26US. About $50US for the pair of smaller mangoes. For a dozen loquats, $16US. The cut fruit is much cheaper.

Nice looking daikon! It would take me a year to use up one of them.

Crazy mushrooms! I don’t even have names for them.

Grocery stores in other countries can be so entertaining.

And so ends Part 1 of our Spring 2024 journey.

Today’s fabric is vintage Japanese cotton fabric with Mt. Fuji and sakura trees, from komachidoll on Etsy.