Yokohama
We're sadly coming to the end of our time in Japan, with just two more nights left after this one.
Today we took a journey out of Tokyo to the port of Yokohama, Japan's second largest city by population.
It's only half an hour away on the train, so it made a nice easy day trip for us.
The done thing over here if you're taking a trip to another city is to buy a bento box and eat it on the train. Bento boxes are nicely-presented lunch sets with lots of different complementary foods and flavours.
Unfortunately we weren't on a fancy train like the one above and had to stand up for the whole journey, so ended up eating once we got there.
There are a few bento shops around Tokyo station but we couldn't find any of them at first, although we did get a delicious free sample of a maple financier cake. Thankfully one of the staff pointed one out and when we got there, we were overwhelmed at the sheer variety of meals on offer.
Eventually we picked two different boxes, with lots of tasty meat, vegetables and rice.
Next stop was the Cup Noodle Museum, dedicated to the popular instant snack which was born in Japan sixty years ago and has since spawned many imitations.
The educational aspect of the museum was actually quite interesting and gave an insight into the design process and principles applied by instant noodle inventor Momofuku Ando.
Ando started with Chicken Ramen packet noodles in 1958, before developing the product in the 1970s to fit into the familiar cup packaging.
Today we took a journey out of Tokyo to the port of Yokohama, Japan's second largest city by population.
It's only half an hour away on the train, so it made a nice easy day trip for us.
The done thing over here if you're taking a trip to another city is to buy a bento box and eat it on the train. Bento boxes are nicely-presented lunch sets with lots of different complementary foods and flavours.
Unfortunately we weren't on a fancy train like the one above and had to stand up for the whole journey, so ended up eating once we got there.
There are a few bento shops around Tokyo station but we couldn't find any of them at first, although we did get a delicious free sample of a maple financier cake. Thankfully one of the staff pointed one out and when we got there, we were overwhelmed at the sheer variety of meals on offer.
Eventually we picked two different boxes, with lots of tasty meat, vegetables and rice.
Next stop was the Cup Noodle Museum, dedicated to the popular instant snack which was born in Japan sixty years ago and has since spawned many imitations.
The educational aspect of the museum was actually quite interesting and gave an insight into the design process and principles applied by instant noodle inventor Momofuku Ando.
Ando started with Chicken Ramen packet noodles in 1958, before developing the product in the 1970s to fit into the familiar cup packaging.
The fun bit was yet to come.
We were given cups to doodle on, and were told we could pick a flavour and four ingredients.
We turned a handle to drop the noodles into the cups, picked our ingredients, watched as they were sealed with cellophane, and pumped them up with air to ensure freshness.
The finished product looked pretty cool and will make a great souvenir.
We were both looking for a quieter day, so headed round the corner for a Starbucks. Lucinda got a gingerbread latte and I went for a matcha tea latte just to be different, only to have drink envy as soon as hers arrived.
The sun was setting and made a nice backdrop for the sights of Minato Mirai as we headed for our train back to Tokyo.
Tokyo Station is an impressive building, stretching wide and hiding a network of eateries beneath its many platforms.
We'd heard a lot about its Ramen Street, so had a quick Google search and picked one of its restaurants for dinner called Oreshiki Jun.
We both ordered their pork tonkatsu broth which came with four slices of fatty pork. The seasonings were on the table so we were able to add garlic, ginger, soy, pepper and homemade chilli oil to taste.
It was a hearty feed, and set us up nicely for the evening.
I stayed up to watch the football scores come in. Stranraer won again - I'm wondering if I should just stay away!
Tomorrow we've got a few fun bits and pieces planned in the skyscraper district of Shinjuku for our second last night.
George
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