The Kitazono girls spent their Monday off (it was a national holiday called “Foundation Day”) by taking a trip to Yokohama Chinatown.A little boy checks out the storefront of a restaurant where we’d just eaten our lunch.We’d just missed Chinese New Year, which had been the night before, because of the sumo tournament. It’s too bad that we missed the Chinese New Year celebrations but it was cool to check out these dragons that were on display as we entered Chinatown.There were many vendors, like this one, steaming food along the street.There were numerous panda-themed shops, such as this one, which visitors enter via magnificent giant-panda-head-tunnel-entrance.
Pandas are rad. Yokohama Chinatown has the right idea. Panda socks, pandas in window displays, pandas wearing panda hats, pandas informing you about how to dispose of your trash, and panda buns – believe me there is so much more where all of this came from, thank goodness.
Yokohama Chinatown has other offerings too! Implying you need anything other than panda everything to keep you satisfied.
Across the street from the yellow panda store pictured above was this amazing temple.Naturally, we climbed the steps to check it out (after figuring out whether we had to pay to enter. We didn’t!)
It seemed, however that there was a cost to enter the interior of the temple, so we watched on as other visitors burned incense outside and made their way in to pray.
When we were done at the temple, there were plenty of great shops to check out.I finally encountered Kit-Kat bars with crazy flavors! But they were 840 yen for a box of 12. That’s about 9 USD. Not okay! top: KitKat Tamaruya Konten Wasabi Flavor bottom left: Yokohama Edition bottom right: Tokyo Rum RaisinJody did some jewelry shopping.
There are vendors all along the streets selling roasted chestnuts, and they try to rope you into a purchase with a free sample. Katie became the very pleased recipient of many a free sample.
Oh. And I learned that banana ketchup is a thing that exists. In case you’re curious, it’s popular in the Philippines and was created during World War II when there was a shortage of tomato ketchup. Learning is fun, thanks Wikipedia!Yokohoma Chinatown was a great time thanks to its plethora of pandas, free chestnuts, and the fact that this happened.
