by Jen Ruhl, Shirelle White, and Kathleen Yan
Shin-Yokohama. It's easy to find - just open your English Kanagawa Railway Guide, and it's right in the middle! If you find yourself with some free time on the weekend, Shin-Yokohama is worth checking out. Here are some things to do and see (and eat!).
Eating and Drinking. Of course, there is the Ramen Museum! You have to pay 300 yen admission to get in. They have 8 shops inside, and the ramen is darn good! Apparently there was a nation-wide competition to be declared "worthy" of serving ramen in the museum. The easiest restaurants to find are in the Asty building, which is attached to the JR station. Most of them serve Japanese food. I had really good oysters at a pub-type restaurant called Waitaria Kakazan on the 4th floor of the building with the McDonald's on the corner. It's a bit pricy outside of the lunch menu, though. My husband once went to a restaurant called Toriden ("Chicken Heaven"), which he said had amazing yakitori. The drinks were apparently good too, because he can't remember how to get there.
If you're interested in drinks, give Hokkaido a try (not the prefecture). Hokkaido is the name of a restaurant on the 6th floor of a narrow brown building next to the shinkansen tracks (north side). As far as bars go, there is an OK shot bar about 3 blocks ahead of the North Exit if you walk straight across the street from the overhead walkway.
For a classier experience, try the Prince Hotel - one of the most recognizable landmarks of Shin-Yokohama. In May, some Kanagawa JETs had all-you-can-eat sandwiches and cakes at the top of the Prince Hotel ("Top of Yokohama"). In winter, I'm sure the view will be amazing! Go during lunch hours for about 1600 yen/person.
"Sleeping." An anonymous source tells me that Shin-Yokohama has quite the selection of love hotels. If you're into that sort of thing but don't want to make your way up to Ginza, take a stroll a few blocks from the station area at night and see what you can find.
Shopping. The easiest place to find for shopping is attached to the aforementioned Prince Hotel. It is called Prince Pepe. There are a few floors of designer goods stores. You can find a good stationery shop on the 4th floor, just next to the DVD shop where my husband was able to find flicks not available at Tower Records (as the AJET council members can attest, we now have ALL the James Bonds movies ...) Shirelle also points out that this building has a beauty shop which does manicures. The basement has a huge supermarket with a wide selection of imported foods and wine, plus good, fresh seafood. (Shirelle would like to say, though, that they do NOT have marshmallow fluff or Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.) If you cross the street from the Prince Pepe and walk around that area, you will find many other shops that might be of interest.
Other. Interested in manga? There is a manga library across from the North Exit (on the 4th floor, above the convenience store across from the JTB). It also has the only Internet Cafe (3 computers - 400 yen/hour) I've found in Shin-Yokohama. Nihongo only!
After you've taken a roll of photos of the amazing Shin-Yokohama, you can stop in at the BIC Camera to have it developed! Shirelle reports that it is the cheapest place she has found to develop film (24 pictures/912 yen; 36 pictures/1012 yen). Of course, you can also do your electronics shopping here. Just walk out the North Exit and pass the Asty building, and you'll see it hiding under the shinkansen tracks! Last, but certainly not least, is the International Stadium. This is the reason Shin-Yokohama is in the center of your Railway Guide. Some of the World Cup games were held here in 2002, and now you can see a J-League game there.
Access. You want to visit Shin-Yokohama now, right?! Ok! You can get to Shin-Yokohama via the Yokohama line or Yokohama subway line - and for you Odawara folks, it's only 15 minutes by shinkansen!