Monday, April 5, 2010

Day 15 - Chinatown (Yokohama)

14th February, 2003 - We arrived in Yokohama... which is almost an outer suburb of Tokyo these days. Yokohama is famous for a number of things - not least of which is it's Chinatown. Nothing like coming to Japan to visit a Chinatown. Still, T-chan really liked a particular restaurant here, and we were off to have a Valentine's day lunch. We eventually found it - and T-Chan was well pleased.

Then it was time to go exploring... and one of the highlights that draws the tourists in is the technicolour Kanteibyo temple that sits like a proud (though slightly over-the-top) jewel in the Chinatown crown. The Mazu Miao temple is perhaps even more over the top than this, but we missed that.




The colours don't need an artificial saturation... they are vivid to the point of being almost painful.


The detail work is exquisite... 


And inside the temple there is an equal amount of gold leaf... enough to keep King Solomon in business for a very long time.

The interior domed ceiling is amazing as well...

Overall Chinatown is impressive... but it would have been nice to have come back at night (but we had other things to see and do... and a romantic harbour-side dinner to eat.

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