A bit of a sleep in this morning. Lyn was up early doing a load of washing, so we met about 8.45 and went to breakfast on the 42nd floor of a building which is part of where we were staying (but not the same elevator). It was a cloudy day in Yokohama, but we could still see out over the bay.

After a relaxing breakfast we went back to our rooms to do teeth and then started the day. We made our way through the shopping center to the bus stop, and bought tickets to “Hammerhead” – we didn’t make the bus which actually goes to the island, but we caught one that got us near, and just had a little walk.

We went to the red brick buildings and walked through, looking at the shops. Kaoru bought a new shoulder bag, as she noticed at the start of the holiday that her current one (of 20 years) has a hole in it. We then walked through the food court area and could see through the window how they make “omelette rice”. Kaoru has made it for me plenty of times before, but watching how the “expert chef” mixes the omelette, folds it, and then “flips” it out of the pan onto a layer of rice was awesome. I had to order one! So it became lunch time (it was about 12.15).

We had a long lunch, and then wandered around for a while, before making our way to the cup noodle museum. Kaoru had researched a bit yesterday and found that without booking we would only be able to walk through the museum. However when we turned up there was availability for the chicken ramen making in about 15 minutes. So we signed up to that. And what an awesome experience it was….

I remembered when we were here many years ago, David made “cup noodles” – he got to illustrate the cup, it got filled with noodles, he could add his flavours, and the container was sealed. What we did was actually *made* the noodles. So it started with mixing the flour and some liquid, making and kneading the dough, letting it rest (while we wrote our name on our packaging, and started to illustrate it). Then we had to put the dough through the “flattening” machine several times (which needed hand rolling). The machine was adjusted to cut the noodles into long strings, which needed trimming to the right size. They then got divided and weighed, and taken out the back to be fried. We finally put them in our bags, to take home, along with a “here’s one we prepared earlier” box! All of this for about AU$10!

We then wandered to the port. Along the way we saw a BBQ area, which blew our minds. We could see the weber BBQ’s and chairs. I took the lid off one to have a look inside…

OK, so in Australia we have electric BBQ’s on the beach. Here at the waterfront they had *heaps* of pot belly BBQ’s, each with gloves, charcoal and firelighters! It was awesome.

We then headed to the 7-11. Kenichi had told me about this place so it made our “to do” list. The owner had a craft beer collection, so they sold lots of craft beer. Now I’ve seen beer at a 7-11, but not like this…

After a beer, we caught the ferry back to Yokohama (discounted ticket as we had bought a beer in the terminal!). It was a nice ride, and the weather was cooling down making everything more comfortable. On the walk back to the hotel Kaoru took us to the department store, starting with kitchen stuff, and then going down to the basement (food court). We enjoyed looking at all the food, with discounts as they were closing soon (it was about 6.30). We decided to buy some roast beef sushi to take back to the room for entree, and then go out to dinner.

By the time we were back in the room it was getting towards 7.30 – we stopped by a cake shop and bought some cake in preparation for dessert. The sushi was a great start, but we should have bought more! Paul and Lyn showed us some of the things they had bought, including the kitchen knife Lyn had purchased. We then went looking for some food, and found a perfect little yakitori bar. We had a couple of drinks and Kaoru ordered a range of salad and skewers for us – even chicken liver! We only were allowed to stay for 90 minutes though, so we finished up, and then went wandering to find a convenience store. We went to a different one, but it still didn’t have any chilled sake, so I had to have a warm one.

We wandered back to the hotel and had a drink and cake to finish the day, and then went straight to bed.