Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

Sunday, 13 April 2005, 09:30 AM we started our 3-hour-train-ride trip to
Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise. It's a trip that started from the mountain to the seaside! Jauh memang but it's worth the effort. The Sea Paradise is a kind of amusement park combined with a sea-world park. Marina, DUFAN and Jakarta Sea World in one biggggg area.

Kita emang niat banget pergi karena dipaksain subuh2 udah bangun (read: morning time = 10 AM). Ternyata, these Japanese people had already been up and around the train station. It turned out we chose the wrong Sunday to travel. For some reason (I couldn't figure out till now), everyone in Japan was traveling somewhere so the train was incredibly full. At the first 2-hour-train ride, we had no seat. Except for Hikari who sat comfortably in his stroller.

After changing 3 trains -including the one with automatic operation (read: NO MASINIS)- Yokohama sea shore was insight. The Sea Paradise was located at the beach. After we got off the train, we walked about 500 meters or so (I didn't count. You know why)along the beach to reach the gate. You could see the photo. The beach is below us. Then there were roller coaster that was so high I didn't even feel to ride it, a falling tower (I don't know the name, but it's tower where you are supposed to fall from it on your seat... understand?) which is a lot taller than Monas, merry-go-round, the niagara-fall thing, the kora-kora thing, and stuff like that. Next to it, there is the Aqua musium consisting of the Aqua theater -it's a giant aquarium where you walk in it, and the Aqua stadium -you know, where you pay for the dolphins and whales to dance and splash water on you.

There was one moment when I actually felt pretty and flattered: in the Aquarium I was standing against the wall waiting for Hikari and Eja watching the fish, and people who passed me always stopped and glanced at me. Children, young, old. I thought "wow, it must be my new hair"...... Hmm, well, later I realized I was standing in front of the SITE MAP with my back covering it......

It was great actually except that we couldn't watch the splashing dolphins and whales because the weather turned out bad at 3 PM. We even couldn't go up to the Sea Paradise tower where we can see the whole compound because suddenly the snow fell down. No, the snow didn't fall down; it stormed down. Well, actually, the Saturday night news had already informed us that the weather would be nice only until 3, but after that snow would come. But as Indonesians, we were not taught to really believe those weather guys:( Besides, those guys on TV spoke Japanese so fast that we didn't quite sure what they were talking about. Oo.. ternyata maksudnya begitu......

Anyway, it's really a nice trip. It's worth all the effort... and money, of course. I also found out that one station hires this very cute train conductor:)) So, the moral of the story here is Obey your mother. Obey your weatherman!