Yokohama – where I developed a fish and chicken habit and was reunited with some great friends

In Yokohama I met up with some dear friends, one of which I hadn’t seen for eight years! So I was very excited to catch up after all that time. It was so great to see them and we had fun just like eight years ago.

And I was doubly happy that they kept their whole weekend free for me and agreed to go along with my touristy plans.

First stop: cup noodle museum!

The instant noodle manufacturer Nissin created a museum for their products. The most famous one being the chicken ramen.

It was amazing to see just how much cup noodle related content they were able to create to fill up a whole museum.

They displayed their product range right from the very beginning of the company (two different flavours)…

…until today (tons of different flavours).

There was cup noodle art work, a film about the invention, a model of the inventor’s home and in the end you could of course taste the famous chicken ramen and other noodles from around the world.

Afterwards we decided to get some fresh air to clear our heads from this Nissin indoctrination experience (it worked for me, I have already bought chicken ramen twice since then) and walk along the waterfront area.

Dinner time in China Town! Seeing that we all studied together in Shanghai and that the Yokohama China Town is famous, it only seemed appropriate to take a break from Japanese food.

And this must have been the cleanest and most well organised China Town I have ever seen. I mean, in London, New York or even in Vancouver, China Town usually smells of China Town and has rubbish scattered around and dodgy back streets with fake Prada bags.

But not in Japan!

And then my friends got me into a dangerous desert habit: Taiyaki! A fish shaped cake with different fillings. My filling of choice is custard cream. So good! Now I have a hard time not buying a tayaki cake when I pass a vendor.

The next day was all about art. We met up at the Yokohama Museum of Art to see the triennale, a contemporary art exhibition that is held every three years.

On my way to the museum I already came across some art.

This was outside the museum:

And this was inside:

Yokohama seemed to me like a very modern and airy city. There was lots of space.

In the evening, my friends took me to an absolutely fantastic izakaya. An izakaya is a Japanese pub that serves tapas style food. This place was buzzing with people coming and going, the staff shouting “welcome” whenever people arrived, food being prepared, people chatting, smoking, drinking draft beer and sake and highballs. It was a very energetic and lively atmosphere.

My friend ordered a lot of delicious food for us. (See the plaster on her hand? It has a Nissin chicken design! Museum shop purchase. Genius.)

The signature dish was a massive platter of sashimi which tasted so fresh and delicious. We also had tempura, different salads, beer, sake…

This dinner was really one of the highlights of my trip so far and the perfect way to finish off this fun weekend in Yokohama!