Date & Time: Sunday, September 1, 9:00a.m. −3:30 p.m.
Spots: Osanbashi International Passengers Terminal, Sankeien Garden, China Town, Harbor View Park, Yamashita Park, Hikawamaru
Visitors: 2 Australian Women
Attendant: 1 KSGG Member
Language: English
It was a half-day guiding around Yokohama for two Australian women who have been friends over 30 years, traveling many places together such as China and India. One of them, Lalla, is in her eighties, while the other, Manuela, is in her fifties, and they dropped in at Yokohama in the course of their cruise around Japan. As Lalla had some problem with her knee, I decided to make a tour plan with minimal walking, fully utilizing the city loop bus by using the one-day-free-ride-ticket. Manuela said she enjoys gardening at home, so she raised a lot of questions about the name of the flowers and trees at Sankeien Garden. Having pointed out a rose of Sharon (mukuge) she exclaimed, “This flower looks like Hibiscus!”. It was a bit surprising that the picture book of flowers in which I looked it up later explained that it is classified in a group of Hibiscus which I had regarded as a tropical flower. We had lunch in China Town, and then enjoyed a wonderful view of Yokohama Harbor from Harbor View Park, where we took commemorative photos with the Bay Bridge in the back. The tour ended with Osanbashi Terminal, to which I took them by city loop bus that provides services around Minato-Mirai area. Although the lingering summer heat remained during the day, the two Australian women kept on walking around livelily without showing any fatigue that they may have had from the cruise. It was a bit overwhelming and a good surprise to me.