Yamagata City - my first trip in Japan!

The second weekend I was in Japan I had a whole day to myself! I decided to explore beyond the boundaries of my small city and take the train to the biggest city in the prefecture - Yamagata city. When I say biggest, it is probably the size of Leeds I reckon, maybe smaller. It took about 30 minutes to get there. First of all I had to deal with the train station and ticket system - not that these would be hard thing to deal with, only that most of the instructions, signs, train times - you name it - are all in ridiculously impossible to learn/understand Chinese characters (Kanji), resulting in a rather challenging experience. Nevertheless, I successfully remembered the Kanji for Yamagata (山形 if you ever need to know) and was on my way (only a slight panic that I was on a train heading the opposite direction, but I should have been more confident in my Japanese deciphering skills).So I made it to Yamagata city - I saw my first westerners in the train station since I first got to Nanyo - Americans I think - they looked lost and confused! Unfortunately I walked out the wrong exit from the station - walking away from the main area of the city. I wandered around a rather uninteresting park for a bit and then got frustrated that, to say it was the biggest city in the prefecture - it was rubbish!I began to make my way to the train station and get out of this place, but thought I would have a wander to the other exit - lo and behold I found bigger buildings, neon lights and more people! From that point onwards it was a very enjoyable time - I found a classical music store that sold loads of Classical music (only all the composers are in Japanese so when you’re looking for ‘Beethoven’, you have to look for something like ベートフェン　and ‘Mozart’ would be モーザルト. It was nice to see some familiar music though. Pianos were selling for about £3000 upwards so I can’t really buy one for my little Japanese house anytime soon! I bought a really cool Union Jack tie too which I will wear when the weather starts getting colder (the summer is so hot that short sleeved shirts with the top button undone is acceptable). I also bought some CDs I’d wanted - Japanese artists are so much easier to find in Japan! The other highlight was finding my first MUJI in Japan! Muji, for those who don’t know is a beautiful looking shop in the UK, imported from Japan. It is SOOOO much bigger in Japan! They sell loads more stuff! From clothes, to stationary, to food and even bicycles! Crazy! Generally this is what tends to happen in Japan, you have to work a great deal harder to get anywhere in Japan when you don’t know the language. If you persevere you typically achieve some success and great satisfaction as a result!


The remains of an old castle in the park by Yamagata station


The park had a really cool Samurai statue - one of the most interesting parts of it.