After spending New Year's Eve with Matthew and Huong and enjoying a fox-mask festival in Oji and experiencing the first temple visit of the year, aka hatsumode, at Zojoji temple, for January 1st we decided to explore Yokohama as a day trip. I went with Huong and met up with Matthew at Yokohama where our first stop was to ride a seabus across the river and sea ports. We dropped off at Chinatown, and had an all you can eat dimsum and some more Chinese street food. With our tummies full, we then took a bus going to Sankeien garden.
The garden was huge, with a lake and surrounded by traditional Japanese houses, temples and even a pagoda. We spent the bulk of our time here just going around, admiring nature.
At night, we went to Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, one of Yokohama's main attractions. Basically an oceanarium/aquarium, it wasn't the first time I have been to one but we did circle everything and saw some neat sea creatures. The best part of the trip was the dolphin show, but more so on that one part where a beluga whale was performing. That was something new to write home about.Read more
January 1, 2019 in Japan ⋅ 10 °C