It’s finally, FINALLY golden week! And I’m planning to have a golden time. In a few hours I’ll be in Hiroshima, then famous Kyoto.

The week’s gotten off to a fabulous start. Yesterday I took a tour of Yokohama Chinatown with none other than the toast of the town, Loco in Yokohama.

We started off walking around, taking in the sights and atmosphere. At night the place is all lit up with orange lanterns strung everywhere. It’s like another, well, another country out there. Everywhere are charismatic Chinese smiling and gesturing and cajoling, on the hustle trying to get people into their stores or restaurants. It’s not like everywhere else where people are content to leave you alone when they realize you don’t want whatever they’re trying to sell you.  I couldn’t understand everything they said, but I understood the tone:

Just try it! You’ll like it! We’ve got exactly what you could ever want or need. We promise!

We were trying to find a place to eat ’cause I was staarrving. People kept trying to sell us chestnuts for some reason. One wanted to get rid of his so bad he smoothly dumped one bag, then another into a third bag as he explained he’d give us a 3 for 1 special. But Loco put it perfectly when he said as we walked away,

“It tastes like shit, so why would I want three bags of shit?”

Another guy pleaded with us after we wouldn’t eat the chestnuts he thrust in our face with a desperate, “Onegai yo!” (Come on! Please!).

I decided that since we were in Chinatown, I wanted Peking duck, ’cause I’d never tried it before. We let a seductive picture of Peking duck draw us into one of the restaurants, and I was excited…until the duck actually came: four thin strips of duck skin with some meat hanging on. The rest of the food was even worse, but at least the beer was good, and the company. I need to make my way back to Chinatown, because even though that place sucked, I just know there’s some family run joint somewhere that’s the bomb.

Finally we hung out at Yamashita Park for a while. It was a nice warm night and there were a lot of people there. The glowing Minatomirai skyline was our backdrop, party ships all decked out in lights floated on the dark water. It was a really great night!

Keep a look out for more golden week updates.

Liked this post? Read this too: