Mom's visit to Japan: Yokohama and Tokyo

My mom arrived in Japan on March 6th. Of course we were all hoping for nice weather, but Murphy's Law gave us some of the worst weather of the spring! On the first day we were out and about we took this picture huddled under and umbrella. My umbrella had already been broken (took all of 30 seconds for the wind to destroy it!) and I was sharing with Mom.


In fact, just after this picture we headed to the shopping area not far away (it's actually fairly similar to an American style mall, really). We had coffee, warmed up and then went in search of new umbrellas! I inherited Mom's clear plastic one and she was given a nice, Japanese-style one by Shimon's mom.

Luckily the next day (Monday) the weather was a bit better. At least the rain stopped. As Yokohama was the port where Admiral Perry arrived to "open" Japan so that trade with Western nations could begin, there are a lot of really beautiful Western style buildings in an area called Yamate. These buildings are called yokan (yo - meaning Western and kan - meaning building). We went to a particularly nice building that was based on Spanish influences.

We also got a picture of Shimon's mom, Shimon and myself on the lawn outside. Shimon had recently got his hair cut so it was spikey, his mom kept calling him a hedgehog because of it!


After visiting the Yamate area, we saw Shimon's mom off at the train station. Then we headed to the ramen museum. Sounds kind of funny, but really it was a lot of fun! Mom ate two different types of ramen and was continually amazed by the speed at which Shimon can eat a bowl of ramen. :-)

Star pose there!!! Gotta love the ramen. What's interesting about this is that the whole museum is fixed up with shops and things (besides ramen shops) to mimic post-WWII Japan. It's really very fun! Even though mom and I stopped at 2 half-bowls of ramen (really one full bowl is enough at any given time for me), we could still wander around while Shimon got his fill. Really fun time!

After that Mom and I headed for a few days to Yamagata, but I'm going to post those pictures separately.

When we returned to Tokyo, the weather had miraculously gotten better. And we were able to go to the Palace area around Tokyo Station and the Diet to see some of the early blooming cherry blossoms. There's so many types of cherry blossoms that even though Mom missed the "main" show, she still got a pretty good view. Here's just one sample!

Very pretty little flowers!

We also walked to the Palace and saw the famous gate. The gate behind Mom and I is famous because you've got a mixing of Western and Eastern architecture in this picture. The bridges in the foreground are of Western design, while you have one of the keeps (white building behind) from the original Edo castle behind it. Edo castle incidentally was built by the Tokugawa shogun and was the center of power in Japan for over 200 years.


The last 5 days that my mom stayed in Yokohama, she was able to have a seaside room. Which afforded her a lovely night view. Thankfully the camera she brought was really good, so I could capture the view from her room. Really fun to watch the ferris wheel change colors!!


This is the most famous view from Yokohama. There is a pier that has an observation area where you can see all of the major landmarks of Yokohama. The reddish buildings in the foreground are the red-brick warehouses that are now filled with boutique-y shops and restaurants. Then there's the bright white ferris wheel. Also, the tall building to the left with a white line in the center is Landmark Tower. A really beautiful view at night. Sadly it was so cold that we could only stand and look for a short time before we took a taxi back to Mom's hotel.


That picture was taken on the last night Mom was here. We had a really nice visit and were REALLY busy all the time she was here. But the weather pretty much finished like it started, cold at the beginning and the end!