I was in Japan in early April 2007. I was mostly spending time in Yokohama where my brother lives.
Near the beginning of my trip I went to Kamakura to meet some friends from London and we had once chance to meet up before they left. Quite funny timing that we were in Japan at the same time. We went to Meigetsu shrine and then had some fantastic lunch nearby; we then had sesame and sweet potato ice cream. The rain cut short our sight-seeing however.
I had forgotten how many tall buildings there are in Japan. It is quite a contrast to London. Mind you I have not been out to Canary Wharf in East London lately. I went to an area of Yokohama called Minato Mirai; the tallest office building in Japan is here. In the middle of my trip, I also walked a bit around Ginza and Shibuya with Don Chow; a friend from the Vancouver days; I had not seen Don in a few years. I just managed to some shopping done at Tokyu hands before it closed for the night while we were in Shibuya. While out in Shibuya, we were in a record store and Don's friend the Dj Derrick May came by the shop. Derrick is from Detroit and one the eminent DJ's of the Detroit Techno scene. Derrick was in Japan touring.
I love the packaging design here. I have bought a variety of snacks to try out; the package designs influenced many of my choices. I bought some chill flavoured snacks and it was impossible to eat the whole bag; they were that hot. Snacks are not just potato based; they are made from all kinds of vegetables it seems; well, I could only infer things from the packaging; like the story of how the pea pod shaped snacks make the journey from the farm to the shops.
I have met my goal of eating Japanese food while here. I have had Ramen, Yaki Niku (Korean BBQ) to name a few.
I did go fishing in the bay near Yokohama with my brother; he had a good catch considering he is a bit of a pro at it; I even caught some fish as well; wearing fishing gloves made a lot of difference. I did manage to get a hook myself twice and my brother once when trying to remove fish from the fishing line.
Near the end of my trip; I went to a kaiten sushi restaurant in Yokohama with my brother's family; I had never been to such a big sushi restaurant; it was so big that they would fillet entire whole fish in centre of the restaurant. Check out the photographs and you will see what I mean.
