Yokohama Night Walking Tour

Went to visit the unagi guy and had a great dinner. I mistakenly ordered a regular and not a large. How sad!

The unagi master takes the prepared eel, dips it in sauce and gently grills it over wood charcoal. This shop uses wild eel, usually from Kyushu island or western Japan.

Unagi-don-buri (una-don) is in a ceramic bowl and tends to be smaller. Una-jew is in a special box and tends to be larger.

Went to downtown Yokohama for an evening walk that turned into a nice long hike. I started at the base of the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan and currently 45th worldwide. It has the second fastest elevator in the world. Whoosh! It costs $10 to go to the top. I didn't go since I thought I was running low on Japanese currency.

The Ferris wheel is huge and can be seen from far away. Actually, I can see it from my hotel room. No way am I going on this thing.

There are a couple large old brick customs (tax) buildings built in 1913. They survived the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 that destroyed much of Tokyo and Yokohama. It did relatively well due to the iron reinforcement. The U.S. Army occupied the buildings for a while after WWII. Now it houses little shops.

Yokohama Bay Bridge. Japan formally surrendered to the Allied Forces aboard the USS Missouri in Yokohama Bay with some 100+ other US warships present. What a sight that must have been.

View from the cruise ship terminal. As a kid I wanted to take a container ship to Yokohama. I would trace the shipping lanes on my globe to see where they went.

There were many couples, both young and old, sitting together enjoying the city lights.

Yokohama has one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. Many shops had already closed and most were getting ready to close for the night.

I wandered up and down the streets enjoying the lights and checking out what the food vendors were selling.

That was quite a hike! Even as a lone foreigner with a big camera around my neck, I never felt unsafe. Also never felt lost. I'm not sure how to get truly lost.

Tomorrow morning I have a few hours to walk around Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya. I enjoy Japan but I am so happy to be going home.