[Feb. 2023] We spent a whole month in February this year with my elderly mother in Japan.
On this day, the whole family (mum, my sister and her husband and us) was supposed to travel to Yokohama for one night.
However, it happened to be a heavy snowfall on this day only, and traffic regulations were in place, and traffic jams were inevitable.
My mother can’t stand traffic jams anymore.
So we were inclined to give up the excursion itself, but my sister’s husband praiseworthily said, “I will stay at home, so you go.”
He is called “Angel” in our family.
If my mother is with an angel, I feel safe.
That’s why I, my husband and my younger sister, took the train to Yokohama.
For my sister, it was also an escape from the daily life of nursing care.
My sister had reserved a hotel called Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu in Minatomirai.
At the time of check-in, people were lined up like a flight check-in.
Apparently, staying in a hotel itself is a kind of entertainment for many people instead of travelling.
My sister monopolised the room for three, where you can see the Ferris wheel from the bath.
We were next to hers, and although we couldn’t see it from the bath, we could see the Ferris wheel from the veranda.
The forecast called for heavy snow, and it actually did fall in some places, but we didn’t see the snow at all, instead it was raining and very cold.
The scenery of skyscrapers in bad weather was also interesting.
For dinner, we went to a yakitori (grilled chicken skewer) restaurant in the restaurant district, where we could go without getting wet.
An unusual restaurant called “Odori”, which was like an izakaya.
My sister said that she would never go to this kind of restaurant by herself, but sometimes it’s fun.
We also had dessert in a cake shop, with sangria.
Surprisingly, in such an urban restaurant district, and even though it was the weekend, most of the shops closed at 9 o’clock and it was very quiet when we left there.
In Spain, it’s time for restaurants to open.
We felt it was too early to be back to the hotel room, so after returning to the hotel, just two of us went to the hotel bar.
I was surprise to see that it’s a bit of a dubious space.
An old man came in with a young woman and seriously kissed her, and an old man was courting a man who was playing the piano.
It was quite different from the hotel bars we go to when we travel.
Cocktails such as Bellini were delicious though.
During this time, my sister was soaking in the hot tub by herself until the lights of the Ferris wheel went out at 12:00 midnight, and she felt dizzy.
