Yokohama pubs

The Narita Express to Yokohama is fast and quiet and gently rocked our jetlagged and tired minds and bodies to an intoxicating sleep. Remarkably we woke up a few minutes before our stop and met Andrew and Joe who amazingly found us on the crowded platform in Yokohama. It was brilliant seeing them since it had been years since we had seen either. The platform was packed with people and it was a big challenging lugging our backpacks through the crowd, sometimes inches from the edge of the platform. Many locals on the other hand, walked inches from the moving train without really batting an eyelid.

We ended up at a local pub, on the sixth floor and I loved having to take my shoes off. It was incredibly comfortable, not to mention civilized. But that was not it. They had really nice lockers with little keys for the shoes ! Did I say civilized yet ? There was 2 cm gap under the door so you could visually identify your locker without knowing the exact number. We got massive beers, dai joki I believe they are called. I think that is a reference to the size. Shane met us at the pub. After the massive beer, it was time to hit the loo. The germ freak in me was alarmed at the thought of going to the toilet in my socks. Did I mention civilized yet ? They had shared slippers that were lined up nicely for you to wear in the toilet. The toilet was insanely clean, it is a pub mind you. I then left the slippers where I had taken them from, neatly lined up , thrilled to participate in such orderly functioning of society.

Off we went to the next pub where Chris joined us. It was really cool because all of them were speaking japanese reasonably well and everywhere the staff were really nice and helpful. We tried some interesting drinks and generally chatted, laughed and were rude. It was brilliant. Off we went to Andrew's place and it was Andrew and Shane had promised, tiny. About the size that they had set our expectations. It is comfortable and that is what matters.