Yokohama!

We continue our journey.

We drive all the way back to Sendai.

And then take the bullet train to Tokyo.

Along the way we see different animal warnings signs depending on the region we're in. We didn't get a chance to get the monkey sign though. We also didn't even see any of those animals!

Koriyama

On the way back to Sendai we check our Koriyama. Not much going on here, but they make good soba.

The cars in Japan are so cute and small! Utilitarian too. Yes, we just take selfies in front of other cars.

You can get all-you-can-eat soba here!

I was tempted but got normal dishes instead.

We got some wacky ice cream flavours. Sesame (not that wacky) and Zunda Mochi, which is edamame, which are green soybeans in a pod still (I feel like I'm constantly writing definitions, hah).

Umm, this is a weird photo, but its actually a mirror selfie. I was so unusually impressed by how clean the mirror is I had to take a pic of it.

It was a loooong day (or two) of driving and bullet train hell and we just needed to veg out for awhile. We had tickets for Teamlab Planets but were just too exhausted to go.

At least we made it to our AirBnB! Tokyo is intense. It feels like 1000 people walking at you non-stop. The scale of the city is hard to comprehend.

The oven we got in our place is... small. Not sure what we can cook in there. Maybe a party pie?

Yokohama

Cup Ramen Museum

We headed to the cup ramen museum, in Yokohama.

Grab some nice pastries along the way. Never eat while walking! People get real funny about that here.

Yokohama is kinda weird. At least the area we were in anyway. Its like a big convention centre.

The museum was kinda imposing, with the myth and legend of the creator, and giant cup noodles everywhere!

Even the stairs were biiig.

There was a historical view of all nissin ramen over time.

Turns out 'cups' in cup noodles weren't invented until way later!

There were these weird exhibits of 'the six senses of entrepreneurship' or something. Each of them represents how to pursue a business idea to make it a reality. Its actually pretty cool (and relevant to me), but also unusual how it comes from the "guy who made cup noodles".

The cup noodle factory! We can build our own here.

They sit you down and you basically decorate your cup, and choose your toppings and soup base.

Steph... is a little more creative than me.

She drew all this cool chicken stuff.

After you're done, you are given a bag and bicycle pump to persist your creation for eternity.

After drawing your masterpiece, you bring it to the 'assemblyline' where they put it together for you.

I went for curry toppings. I always go for curry. Steph picked the seafood.

Afterwards they seal the cup, then shrink warp it.

They had all these cute dioramas everywhere that were (obviously) available for purchase.

Out the front they also had this big rube goldberg-esque contraption that represents the original assembly line of the cup noodles.

The 4th floor had "noodles around the world". Glad to see the best noodles, pho and mi goreng, show up in the list.

Capybara Cafe

In Kanazawa there is a popular capybara cafe! We took a taxi from Yokohama to Kanazawa. The taxi driver really struggled to navigate, well, anywhere. We got there eventually, after an 8500JPY (!) taxi fare.

Its Capybaland!

We were still kinda stinging about the taxi, but... it was kinda worth it seeing these cute critters.

They're gigantic guinea pigs! They just eat all day and snooze.

Super chill and relaxed. The owner has a patreon going, and it blows my mind that the internet is basically funding this enterprise.

They are pretty cute tho.

Their fur is quite stiff, like hay.

Back to Hotel

We take the train allll the way back to our hotel.

This is the train conductor's view, you don't get to see this much. Its a pretty boring job actually. Mind numbing, yet you have to pay attention constantly.

Steph was excited to see the new Zelda game marketing engine heating up. Tears of the Kingdom out in May 2023!