Places in the Tokyo/Kanto: Yokohama
[Chiba] [Inage] [Kichijoji] [Shinjuku] [Shibuya] [Harajuku] [Yokohama] [Asakusa/Ueno][Ikebukuro] [Other places]
- View photos -
In terms of atmosphere and lifestyle, Yokohama is my favourite place in Kanto if not all of Japan. It is the second biggest city in Japan, having surpassed Osaka a few years ago and yet it displays none of the hustle and bustle that characterise Tokyo. That's not to say Yokohama never has the crowds (unfortunately) but on most days you can walk in the street and still breathe easily. The waterside aspect of this port city also adds to its attraction. Yokohama is the capital of Kanagawa prefecture (which also includes Kamakura, Yokosuka, Hakone and Yugawara among many other interesting places) and there is a fair opposition to Tokyoites as the city is proud of its separate heritage. The city has a long history, but particularly expanded in the late 19th Century as it became a focus for foreign trade with its status as one of the few ports open to the outside world.
As with every other place in Japan, Yokohama station marks the centre of town and the shopping district full of department stores and also restaurants and bars for some night-time action. Usually a day spent in Yokohama ends up in a night spent around this area and even better, Yokohama and Inage/Chiba stations are linked by a direct train link which means you can get home relatively easily despite the problems of the last train which plague those of us living in the areas outside central Tokyo. The station itself is huge and with so many train lines very convenient. In addition to the aforementioned Sobu/Yokosuka line from Chiba to Yokosuka via Tokyo, JR has the Keihin-Tohoku/Negishi line which runs from Omiya in Saitama in the north to Ofuna in the south of Kanagawa, the Tokaido line which runs from Tokyo station south and west to Hamamatsu, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka and the Yokohama line which runs to Hachioji in the west of Tokyo. In addition there are three private lines, Tokyu's Toyoko line which runs to Shibuya, the Keikyu line which runs along the coast, north and south, and the Sagami (Sotetsu) line which runs to the southern parts of Kanagawa. There is also a relatively new subway network, expansion of which is underway.
Just south of Yokohama station is Sakuragi-cho which is the gateway to the main sights of the city. The newest addition to Yokohama which is positioning itself as a city of the future, is Minato Mirai 21 (21st Century Port of the Future) which is built on 200 hectares of reclaimed land and unused dockspace and still not fully completed. The 296m high Landmark Tower, tallest in Japan, dominates the skyline along with a few other highrise buildings. In front of the tower is the Nippon-maru, a boat which is part of the maritime museum. Also in the area is the Cosmoworld Amusement Park which I haven't yet had a chance to visit. while it is quite small it has some interesting rides including a rollercoaster which dives into a tunnel underwater. The centrepiece of the park, however, is the Cosmo-clock 21 which doubles as a ferris wheel. It was the world's largest until last year when a wheel in Paris surpassed it just in time for the Y2K celebrations (so they are building an even bigger one at a park near Tokyo Disneyland). Also in the area is the Yokohama Museum of Art where I went to see an exhibition on the Chinese Civilisation in early November, 2000. There are some new shopping areas plus some restaurants, including the Italian restaurant where Akane and Toru's wedding was held . A more recent addition is the Rinko park which provided a good vantage point from which to view the annual fireworks display in July. The place was the most crowded I've ever seen though, more crowded even than Shinjuku at least for that day. With all this and more, when it is finished Minato Mirai will be the place to go in the Kanto region.
South of Sakuragi-cho is the area known as Kannai which was the location of the international settlement when Japan was still closed off and long remained the centre of town. Two interesting places to visit there are the Silk Museum (about the product with which Yokohama and Japan first became prosperous) and the Yokohama Archives of History which has exhibits that particularly focus on the opening up of the country in the 1850s.
Below Kannai is Yamashita park, a large park which runs along the coast of the original port. From here it is possible to view the entire bay area and the Yokohama Bay Bridge as well. Moored at the park is an old liner which now serves as an 'entertainment ship.' Two years ago we saw the fireworks display from Yamashita Park (since Rinko Park didn't yet exist). At the far end of the park, further inland on top of a hill, is Gaijin no bochi (the foreigners' cemetery) which apart from being interesting for those who are not superstitious and don't mind peering at the stories gravestones have to offer, provides great views of the Yokohama area and particularly Minato Mirai. The cemetery is on the edge of the Yamate area which, like its counterpart in Tokyo, was the home of Yokohama's rich and some of this divide can still be seen today. Walking down away from there one reaches Moto-machi street, the old main street of Yokohama, and not far along, a gate leads from Moto-machi street to Yokohama's famous Chinatown, which is also serviced by Ishikawa-cho station. Very few ethnic Chinese still live here and the food, while better than the rest of Japan's Chinese food places (with the exception of Kobe and possibly Nagasaki although I haven't yet tried the latter), is not really that good (turned down by all the Chinese exchange students). Still the place is colourful with its entrance gate and also its shrine, the ostentation of which contrasts strongly with the Shinto shrines usually seen in this country.
These places cover the sights of central Yokohama but the city is quite vast and so there are many other areas. For example my friend Yoichiro works in the Kanazawa/Hakkei area teaching English at a high school and I visited there for its festival. After the festival was over, while Yoichiro was still cleaning up, my friend Tomomi and I went to the nearby Hakkeijima Sea Paradise. It is a seaworld type place with aquariums etc built on an artificial island and accessed by monorail but we didn't have much time or money so we only went on one ride. That was the rollercoaster and it was a really good one - well worth the trip just for that. We also saw a bizarre boat ride which is run by a poleman. He poles the boat from a pier (where passengers get off) to a slope (which forms the ride). the poling must take a lot of strength. He then rides the boat as it is pulled automatically up the slope and the passengers get on at the top. The boat then rides down the slope with him still standing on its front. When it is about to reach the bottom, he jumps up in the air and lands again back on the boat and then begins to pole it back for another circuit. It seemed a pretty amazing way to earn a living. After that Tomomi & I went back and met up with the others and proceeded to the Yokohama station area for dinner at a really nice restaurant.
Another often visited place is Hakuraku, situated between Yokohama and Shibuya on the Toyoko line. This is the site of Kanagawa University (Jindai) and mention of this is made in the friends section.
Finally the north-western part of Yokohama around Aoba-ku is a place where many of my Todai friends and teachers live since it is on the Den-en Toshi line to Shibuya. For this reason, the people of the area are looked down upon by those from southern Yokohama as something like pseudo-Tokyoites which is kind of cruel but I never said Yokohama was perfect. The people have a lot of pride in their city (including those who live in Aoba-ku) and this is an unfortunate side effect of that.
The thing about Yokohama is that while it is on the list of cities that I think are a must on any trip to Japan, along with Tokyo and Kyoto, unlike those latter cities, it also seems like a really nice place to live - without the crowding and pollution of Tokyo or the excessive quietness of Kyoto (which is great to visit but must wear you down after a while). Yokohama is simply Japan's most livable city. Maybe that's why I feel more at home there than anywhere else.
- View photos -
[Chiba] [Inage] [Kichijoji] [Shinjuku] [Shibuya] [Harajuku] [Yokohama] [Asakusa/Ueno][Ikebukuro] [Other places]