Wednesday, March 20, 2024

I did not sleep terribly well last night with stomach problems so I was up fairly early this morning. Not sure what it was but something I ate or drank did not agree with me…

It was a wonderful day today, not warm, but sunny with very few clouds so we walked a bit around the Ginza area surrounding the hotel. I wanted to show Mel the wonderful Kabuki-Za theatre which, of course, does daily Kabuki (singing and dancing performances a bit like a light opera). It is a large building with the familiar Japanese sweeping roof lines with banners hanging announcing the acts. In front of the theatre was a queue (line) of people to purchase cheap on-the-day tickets.

A short distance north of the theatre we visited the famous, large, Mitsukoshi department store where I immediately headed to the basement where all Japanese department store food halls are located. It was amazing to see the beauty of what was on offer as well as the huge variety including some amazing looking clear-plastic wrapped sandwiches with deep-fried chicken, vegetable and even strawberry fillings, arranged beautifully in a row.

We saw things from all over the world including Fortnum and Mason (London). Of course, the prices were quite eye watering. At one stall they were selling deep fried sweet potatoes prepared in a variety of different ways - Thin cut, shredded, thick cut, in blocks, etc. Offered some delicious samples by the stallholder we eventually picked up two small bags.

It was just amazing to walk around and see what was there - Incredible seafood, and sushi, as you might expect. Another stall was selling perfect looking fruit - A small watermelon for 4,320 yen (approximately £21) but, more incredibly, an amazing looking mango for 33,280 yen (approximately £165). I would be afraid to eat them.

This short trip around Ginza was really as we were making our way to the Ginza subway station because most of our day was spent in Yokohama, initially “Shin (New) Yokohama”, which is a 45 minute trip away. In 2007 myself and my mother spent a few days in Yokohama attending the World Science Fiction convention held there, so I have some familiarity with the area. I had fond memories of visiting the “Ramen Museum” during that trip and I knew that Mel would love it as well, particularly since I had also booked a ramen making class there!

We found our way to the museum without too much trouble, buying tickets on the door. The museum is in the bottom of a rather art-nouveau looking building beside the entrance to an underground car park.

The ground floor consists of a small museum telling the story of ramen (originally coming from China), a small shop, a “Rahaku Sugomen Lab” where you can design your own ramen and have it packaged up for you complete with packaging and in a plastic bowl, and, of course, the teaching area where we would be learning how to make ramen.

The basement is quite magical - A recreation of an old Tokyo street scene with a ceiling painted like the sky, film posters decorating the recreated building exteriors, side alleys and ramen shops from locations around Japan. The upper level consists of an alley following the exterior around in a circle with steps leading to the lower level which has a large atrium with more shops here.

The ramen shops regularly rotate with a wall showing the bowls of the shops that have had residency here over the years. Each shop has a machine out the front that you use to purchase ramen from, providing a ticket you give to your server as they show you to your seat. There were huge queues for each of the shops when we arrived with waiting times posted on the wall ranging from 30 minutes to 75 minutes! We had our cooking class and we also were not hungry so we instead spent some time browsing the museum on the ground floor.

15 minutes before our class we wandered over and were shown to the table containing all of the ingredients and cooking equipment we would be using to prepare the ramen. The class area had a number of large tables along each of the walls which also had various posters explaining about the different types of ramen and how ramen is made, in this case, by hand using a a traditional Chinese method called Aodake-uchi. Even here the cherry blossom was very much evident with flower sprigs decorating the room. We were decorated with hats and aprons while we waited for the rest of the class to join us. A basket was provided for us to put our jackets and bags in. Each of the tables even had a mobile phone holder so you could video your attempts at making ramen…

Most classes are, of course, held in Japanese but they have English classes as well. Our instructors were so modest telling us how bad their English was but it was amazing and we had no problems understanding them as they walked us through the process. They were also quite funny, for example, explaining that they (the teachers) had the cheap flour while we had the fancy flour. Most of the time we were laughing as we prepared our dough, thoroughly mixing the flour and (?) water before firmly pressing it into a disk, then folding several times. After resting it in plastic we were shown the traditional way of pressing the dough even further using a long bamboo pole leveraged against the back of the table and pressed on using the weight of your body. They showed us one technique where they had their leg over the pole and “hopped” up and down to flatten the dough. When it was our turn, it was a lot of hard work but it was so much fun! Eventually the pressed dough is cut into strips using a special chopping device that automatically moves the dough along a precise amount to make the strips even.

Each of our batch of prepared noodles were actually two servings so we opted to have one prepared served to us here and take the other one home though Lord knows how we will cook it in our hotel room. They took half of our noodles into their small kitchen to quickly blanche (fresh noodles do NOT need a lot of cooking) then added them to a wonderful, rich, dark, broth (soy sauce-based, “shoyu” style) along with a couple of pieces of pork, some spring onions and bamboo sprouts. It really was quite delicious and it was great to be able to make it ourselves! We were given our second serving in clear plastic bags to take away along with (delicious) packets of the broth to use with them.

Of course, now we had eaten it was time to visit the ramen shops in the basement (!). I was not really looking forward to this with the huge lines we had seen earlier but by now they had really reduced and we waited only about 20 minutes for a table at the shop that has been here the longest - Kumamoto “Komurasaki” (https://www.raumen.co.jp/shop/komurasaki.html) - On the lowest left just on the right. I left Mel for a few minutes lined up along the wall waiting to get into the shop to return up to the first basement level as we had passed by a small shop selling traditional Japanese candies and snacks. I had noticed they had some dried (broken) ramen snack packets so picked those up for later. Returning to Mel in the queue at the ramen shop we only had to wait a few more minutes before we were just outside the entrance where there was a computer console that we used to enter our order. Helpfully the machine had English so we were able to order quite easily and I even requested some “30th Anniversary Memorial Trading Cards” (50 yen) which were, yes, trading cards that showcased the restaurant. I ordered their signature dish “Tonkotsu Ramen with Extra Special Chashu”, large (1450 yen) which famously comes with sprinklings of garlic chips to add more flavour while Mel had the regular “King Ramen” (850 yen).

The server at the door took our tickets from us then after waiting only a few minutes we were invited through the fabric curtains hanging in front of the doorway. The shop seated perhaps 20 people at several long counters. We were positioned, perfectly, next to the kitchen so we could watch our food being prepared but we waited only a few minutes for our order.

This is not a place to stand on ceremony so we just ate and left. The ramen was absolutely amazing - Very rich flavoured broth, delicious slices of pork and perfect ramen (“thin straight” style here). The tonkotsu broth is incredibly rich, made with pork bones.

There was no way we were going to be able to have any more ramen so we took a last look around before returning to the ground level. I wanted to visit the gift shop so picked up a few quite fancy home-cook ramen packs to take back to the UK. I had hoped to make my own instant noodle packet as well at the “Rahaku Sugomen Lab” but, sadly, they needed a Japanese phone number to let us know when to pick up the order!

Leaving the museum we were surprised to see it was raining quite heavily so we got out our umbrellas for the short 3-4 block walk back to Shin-Yokohama station.

When researching for the trip one thing that came up was the imminent closure of an amazing Yokohama attraction: The Gundam Factory which features a full size, moving, Gundam. This was simply too neat to pass on. Sorry, what is a “Gundam”. Ah, so you are not a big Japanese Animation fan then? A Gundam is a massive humanoid robot controlled by two human pilots seated inside the robot’s torso. They have featured in numerous television series and films over the years. Too see one of these in the flesh would be quite incredible so I purchased some of the last remaining tickets (at 3,300 yen each) before the attraction was closed for good. Geek that I am, I also bought the additional “Dock Tower” viewing ticket (another 1,650 yen each) which allows you to ascend the tower the Gundam is “docked” in to see the robot up close and personal.

The Gundam Factory is on the other side of Yokohama from the Ramen Museum so we had to first catch a train to the main Yokohama station then a second train to “Motomachi-Chukagai” station then walked a couple of blocks towards the harbour, across a park then along a wide tarmacked pier, the end of which was a building with “Gundam Factory” splashed on it. We were in the right place.

On the rather windy pier the view of the Yokohama skyline, as we approached night-time, was quite spectacular with futuristic buildings to the north (including the hotel that my mother I stayed when we visited in 2007, near the Pacifico Yokohama Conference Centre) as well as other ships moored up in the harbour including an old steamer ship a short distance away that is presumably used for cruises.

Beyond the large rectangular building with “Gundam Factory Yokohama” on the outside we could see the large metal frame that supported the robot as well as the head of the robot itself. After a bit of confusion scanning our tickets we walked along a short tunnel with impressive pictures showing the construction of the robot along the walls.

Returning outside we were able to see the Gundam in its frame on the far side of a square area of tarmac with a large number of people watching a “show” that was already in progress featuring the Gundam moving along to a musical soundtrack complete with fog, spotlights and the like. I quickly made my way to a fence at the base of the robot, about 20 feet away to get an impression of the size - It was enormous at 18 meters/59 feet high (they hold a Guinness World Record for “the largest mobile humanoid robot” and “the largest mobile Gundam”). They have done an amazing job as it looks exactly what you might expect having seen the television shows and films - Utterly believable. It moves with a smooth, slow grace that is quite amazing. The show ended with the robot kneeling and pointing off into the distance then standing back up and pulled back into the metal gantry support structure which also contains the mechanical device attached to it’s back that controls the movement. Really cool to see.

Show over we were early for our tower visit. There are several food trucks here but we were not hungry. Finding the place we were to wait for a show we talked to a man (“otaku” = obsessed fan) from Taiwan who had made the trip specifically to see the Gundam before the attraction closed. Bags are not allowed on the tower but they had small lockers available for our bag, which was good. While we were waiting we saw other tours being taken up the two elevators (lifts) up the tower to just above face level of the robot.

The wind and rain really started to pick up and after waiting some time eventually we were told the bad news: We were not going to be allowed up the tower and, not only that, there would be no further shows that evening. Of course, our money would be refunded but we were disappointed we would not be able to get closer to this marvel.

The building we had walked through to enter the auditorium has a small grandstand where you can take in the show but there is also a small gift shop “The Gundam Base” that we decided to visit. Inside was quite a disappointment with the only souvenirs left being Gundam-branded chocolates (cool looking box) and a robot model kit. Only one. There were no programmes or anything like that. More interestingly, there were two display cases near the door that contained various Gundam models (not for sale), some of which had been created by the attraction designers.

Returning outside we had a look at the surrounding Yokohama skyline at night with the winds whipping up the waves in the harbour.

Climbing the stairs of the building there was a very busy café, toilets and a meeting room with pictures of the robot lining the walls. The entire area was filled with people escaping the wind and rain outside so we gave up on any idea of grabbing something to eat or drink, used the toilets, took some pictures of the harbour and robot from the balcony then returned to the ground floor.

Next to the gift shop was “Gundam-Lab” which turned out to have an interesting exhibit on some of the science involved in building the robot including a small robot being used to assemble miniature Gundam figurines and a huge live video screen of the robot, sadly, sitting motionless in the windy dark.

It took some time to get back to the hotel but we were happy to find the evening snacks and drinks still out so we grabbed some before returning to our room. I put Netflix on the television and used the iPad to see whether I could find tickets for a show at Kabuki-Za. I was happy to find tickets for their Sunday matinee show which has two intervals and features multiple short Kabuki shows. At £70 each for the “second class”, ground floor, back of the auditorium tickets they were slightly more that I would have liked but we both agreed it would be amazing to see. On an off-chance I also took a look at the Shibuya Sky web site and was surprised to find two tickets available for tomorrow so I booked that as well! Score! Anyway, now back to “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off”.

 

>> Next: Day 6