First Day in Yokohama - Day 2

June 13th (we lost a day going across the dateline) 

The next day, Bryan and Desmond joined us. Unfortunately, while I had been able to reclaim Desmond’s and Bryan’s checked bags which had flown along with me, my bag and our garment bag with clothes in it for all of us for formal night were nowhere to be found. A team of ANA staff spent hours working diligently with Bryan at the airport when he arrived only to discover that the bags had never left Portland. So the bags would not be coming on the cruise with us. 

This being the case, mom and I embarked on a shopping spree to replace “reasonably necessary items” so that I could still participate in the cruise activities I had planned to. I was grateful for the time I had spent using the Pimsleur Japanese courses. The phrases I had memorized came in handy. Where my knowledge left off, mom took over with Google translate. 

Within the next few hours, we had replaced the essentials and, with my highly simplified wardrobe in a couple of paper shopping bags, I was ready to go on a cruise. 

Meanwhile, the boys bought button up shirts and ties in lieu of suits, and also did some souviner shopping at a shopping center full of all sorts of amusing things. Dylan found some Pokemon plushies, Desmond scored some Splatoon amiibos, Bryan resisted some Transformers that wouldn’t fit in his luggage, and Dad window-shopped. 

Next we all met up to have lunch together. We chose a Japanese restaurant serving katsu. Our server used Google translate and hand signals to help us. I used a couple phrases I had learned to ask for forks for my parents, and water for everyone. I am really proud of myself for being brave and speaking to people even though I know so little. Travel is certainly humbling, and I believe that is one of the reasons it is so beneficial. 

We enjoyed our lunch. I tried the clam soup that came as part of the meal, using my chopsticks, as I had seen a woman across the restaurant do, to fish the little clams out of the broth and eat the meat out of the shell. The fried katsu and deep fried shrimp were tasty, and along with the rice and cabbage made for a very filling meal. There were various sauces and flavorful pastes decorating the plate, and they brought my dad a mortar and pestal to grind up some sesame seeds to accompany his meal. 

It has been interesting to be traveling with other family members, as each person has their own perspectives and notices different things about our surroundings and the culture. For example, my dad, noticed how slender people are. And, wearing a Hawaiian shirt himself, he noted that most everyone was wearing black and white or other very neutral colors.

After a bit more shopping we stopped in the food court for Baskin and Robins for those who wanted a treat.  There was no non-dairy options, so I was sitting and chatting with Dad while the others made their selections. Suddenly I felt someone’s breath on my ear and a low voice speaking. I spun around with my arm extended and had the personal space-invader at arm’s length in half a second. Only at this point did I see that it was Desmond. His eyes wide he apologized for startling me.  He had made his voice low to sing the first line from the song Wall-e listens to “Put on your Sunday clothes…” but all I knew was that someone was far too close and I was (apparently) prepared to defend myself.  Goodness!  We had a good chuckle about my ninja-like reflexes. 

At this point we were ready to head back to the hotel for a rest. The main point of this day was to eat meals at the correct time of day and stay mostly awake (so as to begin to reset our internal clocks). So, after a couple hours of rest, it was time to force ourselves to go out in search on dinner. 

And so began the great grilled chicken (and dumpling) hunt of 2025!  Having had fried food for lunch, we were hoping to have something not greasy for dinner. Ideally, we wanted to find a restaurant that had both yakitori and dumplings. Dumplings are Desmond’s absolute favorite food currently, and he was excited to try them in Japan. 

After much walking around, and many restaurants that an Internet search indicated would have yakitori and dumplings but didn’t (or required reservations) we were feeling very tired and a little frustrated. But God is good, and we finally found a restaurant that served chicken skewers, and it was such a fun experience. 

The host took us up a narrow staircase, at the top of which we removed our shoes and placed them in cubbies. Then we proceeded down a narrow hallway to an opening on the side that led into a sunken table with room for all six of us.  It was so good to sit down! And the ambiance of the place was very different than anywhere I’d eaten in the past. We were excited to try the food. 

When our waiter came to the table and asked which one of us spoke Japanese, he was obviously unimpressed by me saying in Japanese that I don’t understand Japanese. He gave us the menu in Japanese, and as we tried to use Google Translate to order, it was awkward, but we managed to select chicken yakitori and order 6 of them, and waters. 

There were a number of difficult exchanges, as we tried to answer his questions and order our food. A short time later a Japanese waitress came to our table and smiled at us and began to help us in English. We were so grateful for her kind help!  She showed us the QR code and got us an English menu. She confirmed that we had already ordered some food from the other server - and brought salad to the table which she explained was refillable for free.  The waitress asked Desmond if he wanted a fork. I was proud of my parents for not asking for forks, but using their chopsticks for the salad. It had an interesting corn dressing, and grapefruit sections in it. 

When our order arrived we were in for a surprise. On a small appetizer plate there were six tiny chicken skewers. We each ate one and laughed that we thought we had ordered meals, but had only ordered individual skewers. They were delicious and we promptly got to ordering more online, along with some more “delicious waters.”

Unfortunately, the waitress returned and told us our selection was sold out. They were a special limited time offering - chicken neck meat. So we ordered other preparations of skewers. One had seaweed wrapped around it (I was surprised to find I liked it) and the other had a plum sauce with it. 

Our waitress asked us where we are from and told us she is planning a trip to Canada soon. It was fun to visit with her. And we got the feeling she was enjoying practicing her English before her trip.

At this point it was pretty late, so we let the waitress know we were done, and she brought the coffee to our table to finish. We got a group photo with our waitress and headed happily back to the hotel. 

As we were on the way, a concert let out that had been taking place right next to our hotel.  It was remarkable to me how quiet and orderly thousands of people were as they left the concert to go home. Some talked quietly to the person next to them, but most just walked silently. I mentally compared this to a concert getting out near the Moda Center at home, and how rowdy and chaotic it is.

Tomorrow we leave on our cruise!

Want to keep Traveling with the Schmidts? Read Day 3