Minato Mirai

Pressed for time as we had to get to the Minato Mirai area by 5:00 p.m. to still enter the Cup Noodles Museum (will be blogging about this next - see the following post!), we took a cab from Sankei Garden to Minato Mirai. (Total cab fare was over ¥2000!)

It was my 2nd time in Minato Mirai, the first time being almost a year ago when my friend George was in town. Sharing photos of the usual tourist structures...

red brick warehouses

the Cosmo Clock 21

I didn't ride the ferris wheel this time. We just went to Cosmo World to sit down and have some snacks after our Cup Noodles Museum tour.

the mall across Cosmo World

pretty pansies in Cosmo World

Snacks in Cosmo World:

my french fries

Ronjie's ramen (it tasted so-so)

Evening shots of some of the structures which make up the Yokohama skyline:

Landmark Tower

L-R: the 3 Queen's Square towers, ___, Intercontinental Hotel, Cosmo Clock 21

Nippon Maru (it's permanently docked & is a museum)

:)

In the evening, Ronjie, A&W, and I met up with my cousin K (who was also friends with A&W) and we had dinner in the basement of Queen's Square.

Ronjie's chicken karaage set meal (spicy taco, if I remember correctly)

my plain chicken karaage set meal (set meal came with miso soup)

A shot of green Japanese pay phones to end this post. :D

Sankeien (Sankei Garden)

The last leg of our Tokyo (and surrounding areas) tour with A&W was Yokohama. We spent the whole of today around Yokohama, beginning with a visit to Sankei Garden (Sankeien).

I never heard of Sankeien until yesterday night when A&W mentioned that they wanted to see it during our Yokohama trip today. They found out about it from japan-guide.com, which lists Sankeien as one of the top attractions in Yokohama.

To get there, we took the train from Yokohama to Negishi (via the JR Negishi line). Then we took a bus from Negishi to Honmoku and then walked to Sankeien from the bus stop (5-10-minute leisurely walk).

walking through a quiet neighborhood to get to Sankeien

map of the garden

the main pond

a duck by the main pond! :)

Yatsuhashi bridge

Sankeien-Tenmangu

Kanshinbashi bridge
(and the Three-Storied Pagoda from afar - the oldest pagoda in the Kanto region)

Main Hall of Old Tomyoji

Taishunken

Buddhist Sanctum of Old Tokeiji

Yokobuean
"The Yokobuean is a country-style tea arbor and it is so named because in this arbor, there was a statue of Yokobue, a famous heroine of a famous love story."

image of priestess enshrined in Yokobuean

Hatsunejaya
Text on the left reads: "The Nobel prize winning Indian poet Tagor, famous Japanese literary Ryunosuke Akutagawa and many others have visited this arbor. In the autumn of 1915, Akutagawa composed the haiku poem on his impressions when he enjoyed tea in the arbor."

Hatsunejaya

the Three-Storied Pagoda of Old Tomjoji
"This pagoda was moved to the garden in 1914 from the Tomyoji Temple in Kamo Village, Soraku District in Kyoto. Tomyoji is a temple which was built under the Emperor Shomu in 735. Surveys indicate that this pagoda was built (in the) Muromachi period because of its style. It is the oldest pagoda in the Kanto region."

Syusse Kannon

I actually misplaced my copy of garden's brochure/guide map, but was happy to find out that a downloadable .pdf version was available online (in English, here), which helped me identify the different structures in the garden.

There wasn't too much to see in Sankeien, and we didn't go around the whole area as we had time constraints. However, I would still like to come back here during hanami season. The park is home to a lot of cherry & plum trees -- would be lovely to see the flowers in bloom, in a clean & tranquil setting like Sankei Garden.

yakiniku in だるま家 (Daruma House)

Almost a year ago, I blogged about dinner at Daruma House and how I had isaw baboy there. Seems like eating there is becoming an annual tradition! :9 We treated our friends A & W to dinner at Daruma House during their last night in Atsugi. Grilled pig's innards are supposedly an Atsugi specialty, so a yakiniku dinner for our visiting friends was indeed the way to go.

started off with tuna salad again
(it's really good!)

beef and chicken grilling

pork intestines marinating

horumon & vegetables

assorted veggies

pickled ginger and dipping sauces (one is soy-based; the other, sesame-based)

beef tongue

beef tongue grilling

grilled beef tongue in lemon juice

on the right are pig & chicken bones

grilling bones

grilled chicken bone (they choose a softer bone part)

pig bone

edamame :)

It's great that Daruma House is just a few minutes' walk from our apartment. We don't come here regularly though because dinner here (maybe yakiniku in general) is bit more expensive than in non-yakiniku restaurants. Kaya sa 2013 pa siguro kami kakain dito ulit. Or maybe when we have visiting friends again.

We smelled so much of smoke after; the walk back to the apartment helped in taking away some of the smoky smell stuck to our clothes and hair. I also bought some strawberry ice cream from the konbini for dessert. :D Happy kid! :)