Day Eight: Yokohama

I think I am probably Queen of Awkward Bowing.

I swear it’s not my fault; I just have absolutely no concept of when to bow and when not to bow. Because of this, whenever someone bows to me, my return bow is so hurried, it looks more like I just spotted something interesting on the ground, and I’m bending my head while slightly tilting my body to look at it. Except instead of actually looking down, I just stare at the person who bowed to me, and smile hugely, trying to look as friendly as possible. This tends to make me look like some sort of psychotic creeper. And quite frankly, I’m not sure what to do about it, because if I don’t smile, I use the murder gaze instead.

But enough about my bowing issues.

Today I went to Yokohama station to cash my Japan Railway pass, and afterwards, Otosan and I headed out to visit the city. Not Tokyo, but it was close to Tokyo. Yes, this is going to be the name of the city because I actually have no memory of the name of the city. Perhaps it was Yokohama, because that would actually make sense.

Whatever the case, we ate the lunch we’d bought earlier in a cute little garden corner because there were less people. Not-Tokyo-But-Close-To-Tokyo was incredibly crowded. For example, whenever it was safe to cross the street, entire crowds of people would head across in a steady stream in both directions. Actually, river is far more accurate that stream. The streets were a little less crowded because people had more space to spread out, but they were still the busiest streets I’d ever seen.

Joining the crowds of people, Otosan and I made our way over to the amusement park where there was this massive Ferris wheel. We purchased tickets and entered the line. While we waited, I watched this one pink roller coaster as it whipped around overhead and dove through a hole in the pool. What I mean is there was a large pool of water, and an opening through which the roller coaster would go. Some people may have read about or seen pictures of this. I know I had.

Once this source of entertainment was exhausted, I started watching a commercial for some sort of movie or show. It was clearly a romance, but other than that I really don’t have any clue as to the plotline. I grabbed a flyer anyway.

Our little Ferris wheel compartment was very exciting because it was made completely of transparent material. I took a few pictures with Otosan’s camera (mine was charging) and just generally stared out the flying box in a amazement the whole way.

Following this, we looped around a little and walked through a park. While there, I saw what I originally thought was a man with a dog, but it turned out to be a man with a pet rabbit. The rabbit had a frilly pink thing around its neck that it didn't seem thrilled about, but it still stuck close. It probably figured the man was the only one who could take the humiliating object off.

The other noteworthy animal person we saw was a woman pushing a carriage with four small dogs in it. I’m not really sure what her goal with this was, because clearly that’s not going to give them exercise of any kind, and I don’t know why else you’d take your dog out. But I the dogs looked pretty happy, although this was likely because they could stare around without being expected to do anything.

Just before we headed back, we watched a man juggle flaming sticks. This was really entertaining, and gathering from the audience’s response, the guy had a sense of humor too. Yet another reason I wish I spoke Japanese.

That evening, I wound up teaching Otosan about iTunes cards when I used one to purchase an anime I had a sudden, desperate need to see again. On a side note, did you know that iTunes cards purchased in Japan won’t work on an iPod set to Canada settings? Huh. Wish I’d known that before.

And to conclude this blog: If you have a pet rabbit, don’t put a frilly pink thing on it. This will only induce embarrassment in the event of four carriage-ridden dogs staring at it.