Shenmue land (Yokosuka)

This morning I had breakfast and finished writing yesterday's blog post. We wanted to go to Yokosuka today, but weren't sure how to get there other than that on our train/subway map there was a train line called 'JR Yokosuka line/JR Shonan-Shinjuku line' running from Shinagawa. According to the map, this line went to Yokohama, as do lots of other lines according to the map.

On the Shenmue dojo website, Kiyuu had posted instructions on how to get to Yokosuka. We don't have internet access at the hotel (I think it costs 100 yen per minute or 1500 yen for a day's access), so we couldn't check the Shenmue dojo website to see what the instructions were. Moccle thought that there was free internet on the subway, so we took the laptop and went down to Onarimon station. There were a few wireless networks down there, one was unsecured, but when connected to would just bring up the connection provider's webpage when you tried to go on the internet (the same as happened at Heathrow airport). Another required a WEP key. And the rest said that the required security certificate wasn't installed when I tried to connect to them.

So we went back to the hotel, then got our stuff and decided to just go to Shinagawa and then we could find out how to get to Yokosuka from the ticket office there.

I thought we could get the Toei subway from Onarimon to Mita, change at Mita to Sengakuji, and then from there get the Metro to Shinagawa, then JR line from there to Yokosuka. But Moccle suggested getting the Toei subway to Meguro, then getting JR line to Yokosuka, so a lot less changing (and less changing of services, which reduces the cost quite a bit).

So we tried Moccle's suggestion, but when we got to Meguro, we couldn't see how to get to get a train to Yokosuka from there, so instead we got the JR line from there to Shinagawa.

At Shinagawa, there were 3 platforms for the Yokosuka line, looking at them we worked out that trains from platform 15 were the ones that actually went to Yokosuka. We found the ticket office and bought the tickets there, which was 3040 yen for return tickets for both of us. We found out when buying the tickets, that Yokosuka is pronounced with the o's like in 'pog' rather than like in 'go', which is how we had always pronounced it.

On the platform for the trains to Yokosuka, looking at the arriving trains, there was one 'rapid' train that was going only a few stops ahead, and another normal train that was going to Zuchi, which wasn't quite to Yokosuka, but nearer. Although the rapid train was scheduled to arrive at something like 10.31, it still hadn't arrived by the time the train to Zuchi arrived at something like 10.34.

So we got the train to Zuchi, then when we were on it, it said that the last 11 cars would terminate at Zuchi, while the rest of the train would carry on to the end of the Yokusuka line (can't remember what station it was). So we walked through the carriages until we got to the first carriage of the carriages that were only going to Zuchi. We couldn't get to the first three carriages that were going to Yokosuka as there was like a drivers or conductors or something bit at the front of the carriage we were in.

So when the train got to Zuchi, we got out of the carriage we were in, and got into the first carriage that was going to Yokosuka. We got to Yokosuka okay, then walked along the wood panelled 'sea' front. We couldn't get into the docks as it was US Navy personnel only, so we went to Dobuita street.

We walked around for quite a while, most of the shops from Shenmue didn't exist, but we did see the car park, Jupiter Jackets, Game Rasu Begasu (Game Las Vegas), and a flower shop. We also saw some stairs, and the way to the stairs, the houses at the top of the stairs, and a small park that was partway up the stairs, all of which were similar, but different to those in Shenmue. Mostly everything was different to how it is in Shenmue, yet you could see where things in Shenmue had got their influence from.

Also in Yokosuka, we saw a totally thin house, a weird plant (we saw it for sale in two places), a totally good tramp bloke sitting next to a statue of a trombonist on a bench, a statue of a trumpeter on a bench, the hand prints of some jazz or blues musician in the road, an exclusive hip-hop shop, an alcoholic shop, a giant inflatable elephant leaning over a balcony, a row of people fishing, some big birds, American ships and submarines, an old Japanese war ship, a skill water fountain place where they play loud music including a skill song about Yokosuka, a Burger King (had seen Wendy's, KFC, and McDonalds before, but this was the first Burger King we'd seen in Japan), a shop selling used gamecubes (with no cables or anything) for 100 yen), and statues of a naked woman, a girl, and a duck.

Game Las Vegas had skill UFO catcher machines outside it, where you had to try and catch a key, then this would open a box with something in it. One of them was pink with flowers on it, and had stuff like a Wii inside it, and had Sonic the hedgehog printed on the 'prize out' doors.

We walked all the way to the other end of the docks away from the station, but it was all US miltary controlled, so we couldn't get into the docks at all. Obviously, there weren't loads of people walking around the docks like there are in Shenmue either. There were some warehouses on the docks though. Maybe the bus that Ryo takes in Shenmue actually takes him to some docks that are a few miles away? Down Dobuita street the shops seem to be mainly aimed at the US Navy personnel, and there was a sign saying 'cowboy parking only', along with a couple of American country bars. There were also quite a few estate agent style places offering places to live for US contractors, and a few currency exchange shops. The jacket shops had quite skill jackets in them, but they were really expensive, like 15,000-25,000 yen.

There was also a Dobuita information shop selling the Dobuita burger gunship or whatever it is T-shirt for about 2,000 yen, and one of the jacket shops also sold Studio Ghibli badges.

We went back to the station, and bought an icecream to eat while we were waiting for the train. Weirdly, Yokosuka station has 2 platforms, but they are numbered 2 and 3. Also, platform 3 didn't seem to be in use at all, and platform 2 received trains going in both directions. We missed the first train that we could have caught, which was going to Zuchi, as I thought the announcer person said the train was going somewhere else (actually I think they were just saying something like 'attention please'), and Moccle didn't realise that the train was there.

So we got the one after that that was going in the right direction. It said it was going to Narita Airport, but Moccle checked, and it did stop at Shinagawa (as well as all the other stations on the Yokosuka line) on the way to Narita airport.

When we got to Shinagawa we spent quite a while trying to find a ticket machine. There didn't seem to be any inside the main part of the station where you can access all the different platforms, so we had to go out through the ticket gates, buy a ticket from the ticket machines, then go back through the ticket gates to get to the platforms.

When we got on the train it was totally packed, there weren't people pushing everyone in, but it was a tight squeeze, and when the train stopped at the next stop I had to get out so that people could get off. This was at about 6.30pm as well, so it had probably been even busier earlier. We got off at Meguro without too much trouble, and then got the train back to Onarimon.

When we got back to the hotel we had some Sake and Coffee (not mixed together), and Moccle wanted some food to go with them. I was getting quite hungry as well. I wrote quite a bit of this blog post, and we finished our coffees, then we went out to the nearest convenience store, which was an am pm, and bought some food.

We came back to the hotel and both me and Moccle managed to make our pot noodles perfectly so there wasn't any soup left over when we'd finished eating them (which is in contrast to normal when we do have quite a bit of soup left over after eating all the noodles). The Sake was quite nice and sweet, it tasted best if you swished it around your mouth a bit, otherwise it just tasted of alcoholic water if you swallowed it down quickly.

Moccle had wanted to go to the rainbow bridge this evening, but it was obvious that it would be difficult for us to do when we were on the train at 6.30pm, since the bridge closes at 8.00pm, and it would take quite a while for us to get to from the hotel (there aren't any subway/metro/train stations particularly near to it I think). So instead we were going to go to a cinema that played old films that Moccle also wanted to go to, however, by the time we'd finished our meal it was probably about 9pm, and we were still quite tired from walking about all afternoon, so we just stayed in the hotel. I wrote this blog post, sorted the photos I'd taken today, and then moved them across to the hard drives, and then went to bed about 22.45pm.

Food
Breakfast: ½ Pumpkin Baumkuchen; ½ Tea with Milk Baumkuchen; coffee.
All morning and afternoon snack: Chocochip Cookie Salty Caramel biscuits; marshmallows with chocolate stuff inside them.
Waiting for train snack: Crunky ice cream.
Tea: Chilli Tomato Big Cup Noodle; bits of breaded chicken. Pudding was a couple of apple yoghurt Pocky sticks and a chocochip snack (small bread/cake thing with chocolate chips in it). Coffee; Sake.