Just a 15-20min ride away from Tokyo, is Yokohama. Although we spent 3 nights there, most of our time was spent attending an event at the Pacifico Yokohama, and we only had half a day free. So I would say it's pretty doable as a day trip from Tokyo, and honestly spending any longer there might get a little boring.
First we headed to Chinatown. Yes, Chinatown. Why go to visit a Chinatown in Japan....? That was pretty much my reaction too, but *Shinta pointed out that it was one of the world's largest ones and pretty much *the* thing to see there. I think for us, the temples and colorful gates were pretty but not too interesting.
Being a freezing cold morning, we instead happily joined the queues for the steaming hot manju, aka the Japanese version of our "da pao".
Was supposed to head over to the Yamate area which was historically the residential district of Westerners, but we got detoured instead to the Harbor View Park which as the name describes, provides stunning views of the harbour and port area.
From there, we followed the walk down to the Yamashita Park (literally "under the hill") which stretches along the waterfront.
Street performers entertain the crowds along the stretch with their juggling antics.
The area is still a functioning pier with vessels docked along it. This one had obviously been here for sometime, and the seabirds with typical Japan manners, had lined up neatly along the chains.
At the other end of the park is Minato Mirai area, where the hotels, convention center, amusement park and shopping centers are. The Red Brick Warehouses as the name suggests, have been converted from warehouses into a unique shopping area with interesting shops and products.
It took us about 5 hours to eat and navigate from Chinatown all the way down to this area, stopping along the way to shop, eat, take photos at an easy strolling pace. After that I headed to the Yokohama Pacifico Arena there to attend an event, while *Shinta spent a good 4 hours shopping in the area after that. So that's about it for our time actually spent in Yokohama itself.
List of things to order is pretty standard. The only question is whether you want a portion, half or whole goose. *Shinta has decided that instead of ordering half a goose, next time just order 2 portions of the goose leg. That way you get the juiciest, most choice part of the goose. Strangely, the standard was a little inconsistent over my 2 visits there. The first time, the goose was hot with crispy skin and tender juicy meat sandwiching a generous layer of fat. The second time round however, the goose felt a bit overdone and not as yummy as before.
I'm a fan of the cured meats, although the rest of my companions each time weren't, and I had to struggle to finish it all. Next time I'll just order a portion of my favorite liver sausage and not the entire mixed plate. The traditional sausage is not bad as well, but not particularly special. These are of course available for take-away. Just slice it up and put it in the rice cooker, and let the fats drip into the rice as it cooks.... mmmm.....
When I accidentally forgot to order the famous century egg with pickled ginger the first time round, the waiter not-very-gently reminded me about it. These melt-in-the-mouth delicacies don't have the pungent strong taste that haunts many other century eggs. Believe it or not, these can also be bought as take-away in a box of 6, which I ended up doing so for friends back home in Singapore who were craving this particular Yung Kee version of it.
I wasn't particularly keen to order this when they brought it around on a tray offering it to each table (not sure why they did that...), but my friend likes it a lot so we took a plate. It was nice and gooey, but in general a bit too sweet for my taste.
There are a whole lot of other good dishes to order at Yung Kee (the first 5? 6? pages of their menu lists all the accolades they have won), but unfortunately my party was never large enough (or hungry enough) to indulge in ordering anything more than the "must-orders". Next time I guess!