Asia Again in 2024 Part I: First Class to Yokohama for Baseball 🇯🇵

2024 was the year of solo trips for me (well, 2 of them).  My wife loves to travel but I had a unique employment situation this year (well, being both unemployed and starting remote contract work at different points starting in the Spring), so I decided to take advantage and go on some fun aspirational trips (some of which focused on flying particular aircraft in first and business class – thank you, points!).

This trip to Asia in late September was wholeheartedly one of those.  I had points to burn and used them on 2 first class flights (ANA A380 and Cathay Pacific 777), 5 business class flights (Cathay Pacific A330 HKG->KUL, Singapore Airlines A350 KUL->SIN, China Airline A350 SIN->TPE, STARLUX A350 TPE->HND, Japan Airlines 787 HND-SFO and a few stays at some amazing Hyatt properties like the Hyatt Regency Yokohama, Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, and Andaz Singapore.  I'll get to a lot of that sans the Japan-related stuff in other posts, but for now, Yokohama...

Yokohama

After a semi-drunken 8-hour flight from HNL, I landed in NRT ready to get the hell to Yokohama and check into my hotel.  I know Yokohama isn't particularly exciting by some people's standards, but I've been fortunate enough to have been to Japan 4 times at this point and feel like I've done everything in Tokyo twice over.  I wanted to spend a few days somewhere semi-close (had a flight to Hong Kong in a few days so didn't want to stray too far) as well as catch an NPB baseball game somewhere.  I found award availability at the new Hyatt Regency Yokohama and that was that – the start of my Asia trip was set.

There was really only one thing I came to Yokohama for, and that was to see an NPB game.  Sure, I was excited to explore a new Japanese city (and heard they had a great Chinatown), but the Baystars game was the real focus of this short stint in Japan.

First impressions where: I really couldn't believe how lit it was.  The game was on a Monday at 2:00 PM, so I kind of expected it to be maybe 70% full like it would be here in the States.  But no, it looked (and sounded) like every single seat in the stadium was full.

Yokohama Stadium was super nice.  And I'm glad it's outdoors as watching baseball in a dome or indoors just isn't the same.  Unsurprisingly, all the staff were warm and welcoming, and the beer was cheap and plentiful thanks to the girls selling it with kegs strapped to their backs.

I love that Japan lets you take "professional" grade cameras like mirrorlesses and DSLRs inside large stadiums.

I spent the morning before the game walking up and down Yokohama's coastal promenade, which was very nice and shockingly calm for a suburb of the largest metro area in the world.  Yokohama is still a large city in itself by population (I think technically the second biggest in Japan?), but other than Chinatown it never felt too busy or crowded.  It is nice to still have the niceties of a large Japanese city without the swarms of people.

One of the things Yokohama is known most for it its Chinatown, supposedly the biggest and best in Asia outside of China.  While I didn't stay here super long after dinner (the hotel bed was calling) it was a lot larger and legit than I thought.  

Dinner was some very good (and spicy) mapo tofu at a place I don't remember the name of.

Super glad I chose to spend my few days in Japan in Yokohama.  I'd felt a little played out on Tokyo and didn't want to travel too far west and have to be back at HND 72 hours after landing, so Yokohama felt like the logical choice.  If I didn't spend a day at the Baystars game I would have gone down to Enoshima and Kamakura which are still high up on my metro-Tokyo list.  Having said that, Yokohama was awesome – if you're feeling a little tired of Tokyo, give it a shot.

After Yokohama I was on a flight for a quick overnight in Hong Kong before heading to Kuala Lumpur.  This was a unique opportunity for me to fly Cathay Pacific's first class on their 777 (again, shout out to credit card points, I'm not paying for this shit).

I'm always thankful for time spent in Japan, but I was ready to head off to the real reasons behind the trip, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.