Yokohama Part 2: Wow, that was high

Don't let the word "second" fool you, the second-fastest elevator in the world is still really, really fast.  Landmark Tower is almost 1,000ft tall. My ears popped the whole way up. It goes about 28mph, and gets to the 69th floor observatory in under 30 seconds.

The elevator operator gives a nice summary of what's happening on the way up, which of course, does one no good if one does not speak Japanese. Maybe she was trying to sell a Landmark Tower credit card (reference Tim & Dana's flight to Jacksonville). As we went faster, and faster, the lights dimmed, which kind of gave the elevator a very cheery coffin-like feel, but we were easily distracted by the counters, the only point of reference to how mind-blowingly fast we were going. It was a very smooth ride, almost like nothing happened at all, except, when we stepped off the elevator, we saw this:

Of course, the panoramic view is much more dramatic in person, and the entire 69th floor is an observatory so there's a 360-degree view. Each bank of windows had a plaque that pointed out major landmarks in the view. We could see all the way to Tokyo.

This picture is a view of Yokohama. The red ovals are Yokohama Stadium, where, in a previous post, we went to a Yokohama Baystars baseball game.

Another thing about the observatory? There are lots of binocular thingies. Very cool. Very powerful. How powerful you may ask?

Yes, this is the actual game that was going on in Yokohama stadium. This is happening in those red ovals.

The elevator ride down is a few seconds shorter, as they drop you off in the mall area of Landmark Tower instead of the lobby area. It's basically food, and shops full of reminders about how expensive things can be in this country.

Just across the street from Landmark Tower is the Yokohama Port Museum. It has permanent exhibits about the history of the shipping industry in Yokohama, including Commodore Perry's visits to Japan and how the city was affected by WWII, when much of the port was taken over by the the American military, slowing the port's recovery from the war.

The most impressive display, however, is the Nippon Maru.

It was built in 1930 and was a training ship for cadets until it was retired in 1984 and, after a year of renovation, was opened as an exhibit.

Stained glass Nippon Maru in the officers' mess

If we had known how many levels of stairs were involved in this ship, and how big the subsequent museum of Yokohama were, Blake and I would have passed. If you remember, we'd already walked around Chinatown, and then all the way to the tower. We were dragging by the time we left the museum. We'd burned through the energy from our Chinatown treats and our legs were burning like we'd walked across an entire city, oh wait... that's right, we had walked across the whole city.

Blake knew there was a station under Queens Tower (another shopping area), so we headed in that direction. We decided to refuel at a place that might as well have been designed for us specifically. The restaurant is called Garlic Joe's, and it is the bestest, most garlicky-est, deliciousness ever.

 

I had garlic rice, with roasted garlic and probably cooked in a garlic broth or something. Blake had the mixed garlic rice (Guess what was in that. Garlic. I hope you got that one right).

That case you see in front of the restaurant is full of plastic renditions of the food they serve. It's very, very common in Japan, and very startling at first. The food is so obviously fake, and so very shiny. It's a way for customers to see what the food looks like before they order it. Also, it's a good way for a non-Japanese person to order because you can just drag the waiter outside and point. This restaurant was very English-speaking friendly, and had English translations of their dishes.

Bolstered by the power of garlic, we made our way back to home sweet Navy Lodge. It was the best food day we'd had so far, maybe the best food day we'd ever had.