Do you see what I see?

Even though we used to live in northern Virginia, it was and remains easiest to say we lived in DC or the DC area. Northern Virginia is culturally more like DC than the rest of Virginia anyway, plus it's more likely people have heard of DC than the specific town(s) we lived in, unless they had also lived or traveled there. I still give directions to my hometowns of Orem as being about an hour south of Salt Lake City or Beaumont as being about 80 miles east of Houston. Generalize and then specify.

So, we share that we live in Yokosuka, but when people don't know where that is, we explain it's on the mouth of Tokyo Bay, about an hour south of Tokyo. More technically, we don't even live in Yokosuka itself. We're just stationed there and live in a housing detachment within the city limits of Zushi.

Even more technically, Tokyo isn't even the biggest city near us. It's actually not even a city! As of 1943, it's a metropolis made of 23 municipalities. The biggest city we live near is actually Yokohama, the most populous city in Japan, and even I hadn't really heard of it before this particular adventure came into our lives.

Now, we've already been there a few times, like our trip to the CupNoodles Museum, and I love walking by the laughing god in Hinodecho, especially on my way to my favorite Daiso (a 100 yen shop).

Because of its proximity to us, we can easily get there for date nights and other adventures, including one pre-Christmas date that Blake planned for us!

Our first stop was Marine Tower, which offers wonderful views of the entire city. The glass elevator makes for a little vertigo on the way up, but the views were worth it.

We strolled along the bay, on our way to a German Christmas Market at the Red Brick Warehouse.

Japanese ocean liner from the 1920s

Guardian of Water

The Drinking Fountain presented to Yokohama by the Indian Community in memory of those lost in the Great Kanto Earthquake

Downtown Yokohama

The only Nativity we saw not at a church the entire season

This ocean liner embarked on their voyage as we passed by

For dinner, we went to Eggs N' Things, a Hawaiian chain that has made its way to Japan.

And then we capped off our evening with another walk-by of the Marine Tower to see their winter illumination.

So much to explore here! So glad we've got some time!