Yokohama

Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan and a major port city. It has a nice harbor area and a lot of nice skyscrapers. There is also a little theme park called Cosmo world. It has a nice ferris wheel that was the largest in the world in 1989 but has since been surpassed.  

Minato Murai 21 (harbor of the future)

Nippon Maru, a 1930's sailing ship that serves as a museum. 

Yokohama Landmark Tower

Each city has their own decorative manhole covers

Yokohama also has Japan's largest Chinatown. It has beautifully designed gates and a bunch of great restaurants and dumpling stands. 

Busy making perfect rows of Chinese dumplings.

Delicious steamed buns. The piggy one is pork, the red is strawberry and the white pandas are chocolate.

Chocolate filled steamed bun. It was interesting, not bad at all. It tasted like chocolate Malt-O-Meal, but not quite as grainy.

A major specialty of Chinatown is whole roast duck. We also found the Yokohama special Strawberry Cheesecake kit kats and Rum Raisin kit kats.

We were able to see Kwan Tai temple, which enshrines the diety Kwan Tai who was a general in 200AD for the Chinese Imperial Army. The Chinese shrines are so ornate and colorful!

Everything in Yokohama was Panda themed, even the caution road rails.

The second temple we found was Mazu Miao Temple where the Goddess of the sea is worshipped. 

We went inside where a sweet man walked us through Kau Chim, a chinese fortune telling practice. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! We were told to ask a question (there was lots of kneeling and bowing involved). Then they give you a cup filled with 100 sticks, each numbered. You then shake the cup while it is tipped slighly forward until one stick comes forward of the others and falls out. To confirm that you got the "right one" you toss two wooden blocks called Jiaobei which have a flat side and a rounded side. If they fall with one facing up and one facing down, then the stick you drew is correct. If not you must start the process over again until you get a favorable result. My fortune is below, google translate as always was very unhelpful. Someone my friend knows was able to translate it partially for me, and he said it means that now is a good time for change and for moving forward, whether it be major life events or travel. 

Map Links:
Yokohama Landmark Tower
Kwan Tai Temple
Mazu Miao