Alvinology goes to Japan – Day 6 of 14

On the sixth day, we took an ANA flight out of Hokkaido and headed to Yokohama (横浜市). We woke up really early at around 6am. Rachel and I were feeling a little down on leaving Hokkaido as we had grown fond of the place. Nonetheless, we are moving on to the second leg of our Japan tour.

At the airport, Rachel was persistent on trying out a caramel soft-serve ice cream she saw, but did not get to try when we first arrived at Hokkaido. As the restaurant serving the caramel soft-serve only opens at the same time as our boarding time, Rachel sneakily made a dash for it while we were not watching and almost made us missed our flight. Here’s a picture of the naughty little brat enjoying her victory prize.

Upon landing, we rented a car and headed to Shōnan (湘南), a resort-oriented region along the coast of Sagami Bay in central Japan. We were going there to stay the night at Mark’s Japanese friend, Masako Asai‘s house.

The Asai household consists of working dad, Katsuya; housewife mom, Masako; their two sons, Toshiki and Motoki. Masako used to work as an English translator, and speaks very fluent English. She also passed this on to her two sons. Her elder son, Toshiki has also taken Chinese lessons.

Once we reached the Asai’s house, Masako, our friendly host whipped up a sumptuous Korean-styled lunch for us. After unpacking, Motoki, Mark and I cycled to the nearby train station to purchase our Shinkansen (新幹線) tickets for the later part of our tour. We also stopped by the local supermarket to pick up some groceries for our dinner which Masako will be cooking for us. Meanwhile, Rachel and Meiyen stayed home to play with the Asai’s pet hamster and their neighbour’s fat cat.

Toshiki then brought us to a nearby shrine, located on a mountain-top with nice scenery for a short tour. On our way there, Mark stopped at a Nissan shop to pick up a badge for his Nissan Skyline which he ordered when he was in Singapore. We managed to catch the sunset from the peak and the view was breathtakingly beautiful.

Thereafter, we headed home for dinner. Masako cooked a lot of food! The meal was healthy and delicious. Masako really filled our tummies to the brim.

At night, we had a chit-chat session with Masako and Katsuya, who arrived home from work quite late. We then tucked in for the night, overwhelmed by our host’s kind care and attention. To be honest, Rachel and I felt bad to be imposing on the Asai for the night. Hopefully, they might pop by for a visit to Singapore some time and we can then have our turn to play host. 🙂

Links to my previous blog entries on my Japan  trip:

Day 1 – Kansai Airport, Hokkaido

Day 2 – Skiing, Otaru

Day 3 – Asahikawa, Asahiyama Zoo

Day 4 – Sledding, Shiroi Koibito, Crab Buffet

Day 5 – The 60th Sapporo Snow Festival

Day 6 – Staying with the Asai, Shōnan

Day 7 – Ueno, Tokyo

Day 8 – Shibuya and Akihabara, Tokyo

Day 9 – Ikeda, Osaka

Day 10 – Kobe

Day 11 – Kyoto

Day 12 – Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan and Dotonbori

Day 13 – Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge and Mt. Rokko

Day 14 – Return to Singapore

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