The Japan Trip: Day Five, In Yokohama

I often used the analogy of Jakarta and Bekasi (though I should have used Tangerang as it's more accurate) to illustrate Tokyo and Yokohama. Both cities are sharing the same airport and Yokohama is not very far from Tokyo. Due to this, I couldn't help comparing how similar these cities in Indonesia and Japan are.

This is also the reason why we woke up much later than usual on the day we visited Yokohama. For the first time ever throughout our stay in Japan, we actually had enough sleep! Unlike the previous days, we only reached Ueno Station at 8:37 AM. 

Shanti in Yokohama.
Art by Eday.

Yokohama Station is only about half an hour away from Ueno. When we arrived in Yokohama, the weather was pleasant. It was nice for morning walk, so we headed to Rinko Park, passing by the Anpanman Children's Museum. Rinko Park is on the seaside. It is green and beautiful, so the ladies (and some guys) spent time taking pictures here.

Those who waited got creative with Parno. The man had been carrying popcorn around from Indonesia to Japan on daily basis because a friend asked him to take pictures for promotional purpose. It was quite irritating to have such a task during holiday, hence we decided to have some fun. There was a bench in the park, so we got Parno to pose like a homeless with popcorn on his crotch, haha.

Parno, the homeless in Yokohama.

From there, we walked to the Cupnoodles Museum. We couldn't be loving Indomie so much without getting some knowledge about the humble beginning of instant noodles! After that, we had a brisk walk to Hard Rock Cafe Yokohama for a quick t-shirt shopping.

While we were here, we got a glimpse another Parno's original behavior. We laughed so hard as we listened to Eday recounting the story. What Parno did was, he approached Eday who was in the midst of eating a burger and innocently asked, "is that a burger?" Eday froze, too shocked to continue eating as Parno was pointing at his burger and stating the obvious. He eventually gave one to Parno, haha. 

With Muliady, HRR and Shanti.

Then we resumed the journey and headed to Gundam Factory. Eday and the others walked so fast and they took the route via Cupnoodles Museum. Muliady, Shanti, HRR, Surianto and I took a longer route instead because we snapped a picture or two in front of Nippon Maru, a training vessel that is permanently docked in Yokohama Harbour.

The rendezvous happened around 1:34 PM. I was queueing for the tickets when Eday and friends appeared. It was kind of surprising that they were behind us, considering that they left Hard Rock Cafe first. It was revealed later on that the route they took was quite scenic, hence they stopped more often to take pictures, haha.

With Gundam.

Now, Gundam Factory. I was sitting on a bench, staring at Gundam. Images from anime such as Voltes, Mazinger and Getter Robo (oh yeah, throughout my life, I had never watched Gundam, haha) were playing in my head as I observed the sheer size of the robot in front of me. The anime made it so easy for the robots to move, ignoring all the physics laws. The real deal such as this got me thinking for the first time ever, how complex a robot design actually was. 

Next stop was Chinatown. The Yokohama Chūkagai is a very commercialized area. When we were there, it was swarmed by tourists. We ended up eating our late lunch at Kafuku Hanten (華福飯店), a restaurant that had no queue. Now, in our group chat, we have this rule that you can only comment after experiencing it at least twice. As a person who had eaten twice in this Chinatown (first time was back in 2015), I could safely tell you that the food was never delicious, haha. It's just after too many servings of Japanese cuisines, you tend to crave for something Chinese.

Muliady in Chinatown. Can you spot Parno and HRR?

It was late in the afternoon when we finished our lunch. Still too early to go back, we visited one last stop: Yokohamabashi, a shopping street. It was almost dark when we reached there. Most of the shops had closed, so we didn't spend too much time there and headed back to Yokohama Station. 

The thing with our fast-paced group was, some members were ill-suited for it. When most of us made it to the train platform, we then realized that Parno was missing. He was nowhere to be found. Even Muliady that came last also didn't see Parno, so I exited the ticket gate to look for him. Turned out that he was stuck because he got too many used tickets in his pocket. As a result, he wasn't sure which one to use to get out from the rapid transit line. 

We eventually boarded the train and returned to Tokyo. In Asakusa, Surianto and I decided to try out the KFC in Japan. The portion was generous, but wasn't really special. After dinner, I went back to Sake no Daimasu Kaminarimon, this time with Surianto. Eday, Gunawan and Ardian joined us a moment later and we tried out Instagram Live, haha. Taty, Susan and Cicilia happened to pass by and Eday saw them, so all three came in as well. We hung out till the bar closed. Time really flies when we have good times, because tomorrow's destination was already our last one: Hakone!

KFC in Japan.

Liburan Ke Jepang: Hari Kelima, Di Yokohama

Saya sering menggunakan analogi Jakarta dan Bekasi (meskipun harusnya Tangerang karena lebih akurat) untuk menggambarkan Tokyo dan Yokohama. Bandara Haneda terletak di antara dua kota ini dan Yokohama tidak jauh dari Tokyo. Karena persamaan inilah saya jadi teringat dengan Jakarta dan Bekasi. 

Apa yang saya jabarkan barusan juga menjelaskan kenapa kita bangun lebih siang dari biasanya di hari kita mengunjungi Yokohama. Untuk pertama kalinya sejak liburan ke Jepang dimulai, saya merasa cukup tidur! Berbeda dengan biasanya, di hari ini kita mencapai Stasiun Ueno jam 8:37 pagi. 

Shanti di Yokohama.
Ilustrasi oleh Eday.

Stasiun Yokohama bisa dicapai dalam setengah jam. Ketika kita tiba di Yokohama, cuacanya sangat nyaman. Cocok untuk berjalan pagi, jadi kita pun menuju Rinko Park dan melewati Anpanman Children's Museum. Rinko Park terletak di tepi laut. Kawasannya hijau dan indah sehingga banyak yang berhenti untuk berfoto-foto.

Yang menunggu pun kreatif menghabiskan waktu bersama Parno. Teman kita ini sudah menenteng popcorn dari Indonesia sampai Jepang setiap hari karena seorang teman di Pontianak minta agar produknya difotokan di Jepang untuk tujuan promosi. Agak menjengkelkan sebenarnya, jadi kita pun iseng berkarya. Melihat bangku taman, kita meminta Parno berbaring seperti tuna wisma dan menaruh popcorn di selangkangannya, haha. 

Parno, tunawisma di Yokohama.

Dari taman, kita berjalan menuju Cupnoodles Museum. Oh, kita tidak mungkin mencintai Indomie tanpa mengerti asal-usul mie instan, jadi kita masuk dan menambah wawasan. Sesudah itu, kita mampir ke Hard Rock Cafe Yokohama untuk berburu kaos.

Selagi berada di sana, sekali lagi kita dibikin tergelak oleh tingkah Parno yang spontan tapi jenaka. Kisah kali ini dialami Eday dan diceritakan ulang kepada kita. Sambil menunggu di depan Hard Rock, Eday menikmati burger yang dibelinya. Siapa sangka Parno malah mendekat dan bertanya dengan polos, "ini burger?" Eday tertegun saat burgernya ditunjuk dan ditanyai, padahal itu sudah jelas-jelas burger. Akhirnya dia merelakan satu burger untuk Parno, haha. 

Bersama Muliady, HRR dan Shanti di depan Nippon Maru.

Dari Hard Rock kita lantas bertolak ke Gundam Factory.  Eday dan yang lain berjalan kembali ke arah Cupnoodles Museum sementara Muliady, Shanti, HRR, Landak dan saya mengambil jalur memutar karena kita berfoto sejenak di depan Nippon Maru, kapal yang kini berlabuh permanen di Pelabuhan Yokohama. 

Kita semua bertemu kembali sekitar jam 1:34 siang. Saya sedang antri tiket ketika Eday dan kawan-kawan muncul dari belakang. Saya sempat heran kenapa mereka lebih lambat, padahal mereka lebih dulu bergegas ke Gundam Factory. Setelah ditanyakan lebih lanjut, ternyata rute yang mereka ambil banyak pemandangan indah, jadi mereka sering berhenti untuk berfoto, haha. 

Bersama Gundam.

Di Gundam Factory, saya duduk di bangku dan menatap Gundam yang tinggi menjulang. Saat itu adegan-adegan dari Voltes, Mazinger dan Getter Robo (oh ya, sampai hari ini, saya tidak pernah menonton Gundam, haha) berputar kembali di benak saya. Robot-robot di kartun yang saya tonton di masa kecil terlihat lincah gerakannya. Gundam di depan saya ini, yang dirancang sesuai dengan hukum fisika, memberikan gambaran betapa kompleks robot itu sesungguhnya. 

Pemberhentian berikutnya adalah Chinatown. Yokohama Chūkagai ini adalah tempat yang sangat komersil dan dipadati oleh turis. Kita akhirnya makan siang di Kafuku Hanten (華福飯店) yang kebetulan tidak ada antrian. Nah, di grup kita ini ada aturan bahwa yang boleh komentar cuma mereka yang telah berpengalaman minimal dua kali. Sebagai orang yang sudah dua kali bersantap di Chinatown (kali pertama terjadi di tahun 2015), saya bisa berkata bahwa makanan di sini tidak enak, haha. Hanya saja karena kita sudah terlalu sering menyantap makanan Jepang, maka masakan Cina terasa cocok di lidah.

Muliady di Chinatown. Bisakah anda menemukan Parno dan HRR?

Hari sudah sore ketika kita selesai makan siang. Karena matahari masih belum terbenam, kita mengunjungi satu tempat terakhir: Yokohamabashi, jalan yang dipenuhi toko di kiri-kanannya. Sewaktu kita tiba, banyak toko sudah tutup, jadi kita tidak lama di sana dan meneruskan perjalanan ke Stasiun Yokohama. 

Yang masalah dengan grup kita yang cepat langkahnya adalah, tidak semua anggotanya bisa segesit itu. Ketika kita sudah sampai di tempat menaiki kereta, baru kita sadari bahwa Parno telah hilang. Entah di mana dia sekarang. Bahkan Muliady yang muncul paling akhir pun tidak melihatnya, jadi saya keluar lagi untuk mencarinya. Ternyata Parno tertinggal karena dia menyimpan banyak karcis yang sudah terpakai, jadi dia sempat kebingungan mencari karcis untuk keluar dari kereta jalur biru di Yokohama. 

KFC in Japan.

Setelah Parno ditemukan, kita akhirnya kembali ke Tokyo. Di Asakusa, saya dan Landak memutuskan untuk mencoba KFC di Jepang. Besar porsinya, tapi tidak terlalu istimewa. Setelah makan malam, saya singgah lagi di Sake no Daimasu Kaminarimon, kali ini bersama Landak. Eday, Gunawan dan Ardian datang tidak lama kemudian dan kita pun mencoba iseng fitur Instagram Live, haha. Taty, Susan dan Cicilia kebetulan lewat di depan dan Eday melihat mereka, jadi mereka pun bergabung pula. Kita nongkrong sampai bar tutup, berbincang tentang berbagai cerita. Waktu cepat berlalu ketika kita bersenang-senang. Tidak terasa besok sudah hari terakhir liburan. Tujuan selanjutnya: Hakone!