Golden Days!

Golden Week was last week.. so called because of a series of holidays that all take place during the same time, and most companies give their employees the whole week off work.  And by most companies i mean not mine.  Tuesday and Wednesday weren't holidays so i had to go in for two days of work last week.  It seems really pointless to me, and also limits my travel time.  Boo.  But what can ya do?  So i just tried to enjoy my Golden "Week" as best as i could.

Monday i met up with fellow blogger Kawaii Kaba, who came here to Japan with her bf for vacation.  To be honest i was a bit nervous about meeting up.  As much as i enjoy new encounters, i'm just not the most out-going person and the uncertainty that comes with it all just makes me nervous.  But as expected it was an enjoyable day!  :)  We met up in Yokohama- my first time in the area- and walked around, looked at the waterfront and the surroundings..

We stumbled upon the Nissan Gallery Global Headquarters!

I was quite excited.  I love Nissans.  Look at all the beautiful, shiny cars.

My first car was a Nissan though, so i could just be biased.  It was a really nice car though, until the accident!

Then we headed to Shin-Yokohama to check out the Ramen Museum.  It was bookmarked in my "Japan" list of things i wanted to do when i came here last year, so i was excited to finally go see it!  The top floor had a lot of stuff on the history of ramen, but as there was no English translation for my lazy self i didn't spend too much time trying to read about it.  There was a little gift shop too, but we headed downstairs to the main attraction- a recreation of a 1950's Japanese town, with retro-looking buildings and signs and the like.  There are nine different little ramen shops to choose from, and we ended up going with the tsuke-men, since the line was one of the shortest, lol.  It was a bit pricey as far as ramen/tsuke-men goes, and i forgot to ask for mine to be 肉抜き (without meat), but it was still very delicious!  Not the meat.. i just ate around that.  

There was a little stand selling drinks in cute little glass bottles, and i love when things are sold in glass bottles.  I feel like everything these days is made of plastic and it all just seems so cheap, so i quite enjoy when things are sold in glass.  I actually even have a little collection of glass jars and bottles that i keep around (and also my cool steel tin that my quick-cooking oats came in!).  Anyway, back on topic, i saw those drinks and we ended up getting the yogurt drinks.  It was good, and nice little dessert in a cute glass bottle that i have added to my collection. :)

The two of them were going to do some more exploring, but i opted to head home so i could get my Kansai-trip preparations done since i wouldn't have time the next couple days because of work.  

Had a bit of a surprise encounter on the train ride home though.  I fell asleep at one point, and when i woke up and looked up, i did a double-take at the guy standing in front of the door across from me.  I was 99% sure it was K-to, one of the Japanese guys that would come and hang out with us when i lived at the sharehouse.  There was still that 1% doubt in my mind, so instead of saying anything i just sat and stared (probably made me look like a creeper), hoping to make eye contact and that if it was him he'd recognize me and say something.  It had been a few months since i'd seen him last..

Anyway, i was beginning to think he'd never look away from his phone or iPod, but he finally did.  He did a double-take as well (actually, i think it might've been a triple-take!), his eyes got all wide, and he just went, "Oh!"  We waved to each other, and he took out an earphone but just kind of stood there, so i stood up and walked over to him.  We talked until we got to my station, where we both had to back-track.. the train we were on was an express train which didn't stop at his station, and i just had to take the train one station back to go get some things at the 100-yen store, so we both got on the same train again.  It was a nice coincidence and good to chat and catch up with him.  Made me miss the sharehouse!

Working on a video/photo slideshow of the Kansai trip, which i probably will get to finish sometime this weekend.  And i know i said i'd upload Disneyland pics, but since we put G-chan in charge of picture-taking and he's such a busy busy boy, i still haven't gotten any from him yet!  Hopefully i'll get to post some of those soon though, too.