Yokohama: Another port city beauty

The typhoon had safely passed Tokyo, so the next day, all the JR lines in Tokyo were back up and running (except for some delays on just a few lines because of ongoing repairs), so I was again able to leave Tokyo to explore the nearby areas. I decided to cut my losses with Hakone and head to the adjacent city of Yokohama, which I wanted to visit more than Hakone anyway. But to be honest, I had no idea what to see in Yokohama, and made up a route after getting the tourist map at Yokohama. And I enjoyed Yokohama, it was another nice port city, and a very nice change from Tokyo. I spent the entire day just walking around the city, and I managed to cover most of it and more importantly, everything I wanted to see. The biggest attraction for most people is its Chinatown, which is the biggest one in Japan, but Yokohama has a lot more to offer. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

At Yokohama.


A wall leading to the connected Porta Underground Shopping Mall.


At the Nissan global headquarters! I didn't even know it was in Yokohama, I just so happened to pass it and once I saw it, I knew I had to take a look inside. The 5th photo is of the Nissan Cube, which has an interestingly designed rear. The 3rd and 4th photos are of the new Nissan Skyline GT, and of course, I had to try sitting inside it...it was awesome just to sit inside; the interior was stylish, classy, and matched everything the Skyline name is known for.


At the Yokohama F-Marinos (Yokohama's soccer club in Japan's pro league) soccer club facilities, where they just happened to be practising when I passed by. There was an older Japanese lady watching the practice with binoculars(!); quite amusing haha.


Taking a coffee break at the Lawson outside the soccer facilities. Cold coffee in cans and aluminum bottles are quite popular in Japan. I saw the "Silky" name and had to give it a try - it was just regular black coffee, but pretty smooth - but I like why they decided to name it Silky (read the side of the bottle).


Walking through Rinko Park (Seaside Park), taking in the great views of: the Exhibition Hall, the National Convention Hall, and the Intercontinental The Grand Yokohama (the hotel shaped like a sail) (1st photo), the park (2nd photo), Pacifico Yokohama (3rd photo; there was a constant stream of Japanese men and women in business suits passing by at regular intervals, coming from the Exhibition Hall - it looked like an assembly line of Japanese business people haha), the Intercontinental The Grand with the National Convention Hall reflecting off its glass (4th photo), overlooking the Yokohama CosmowWorld (Amusement Park) (5th photo), and finally arriving at The Landmark Tower Yokohama (6th photo), with a look inside the mall area of the Tower (last photo; there was a lady performing on the piano and a surprisingly large crowd...don't people have to work?).


Looking for a place to eat lunch inside the mall on the bottom floors of the Tower. There was a Sizzler (1st photo; I don't even remember the last time I saw one in Canada)! But I eventually settled on eating at The Kirin Beer Hall (2nd photo; Kirin is another one of Japan's big beer breweries). I had the Kirin Black (I like dark beers, but it was even lighter than the Asahi Black!) and fried dough with curry chicken and cheese spinach dip, and it was actually pretty good!


About to go on the Moving Walkway, a long stretch of moving walkways.


At Nippon-Maru Memorial Park, with a look at the Nippon Maru (now used as a sail training ship), inside the Yokohama Maritime Museum (2nd photo; I didn't pay to go all the way inside to the exhibits, it didn't interest me), the adjoining children's amusement park (3rd photo), and overlooking Yokohama CosmoWorld (last photo).


Walking along the aptly named Shinko Circle Walk, a circular elevated walkway above an intersection, after having briefly walked through the Yokohama World Porters shopping mall (nothing special, just another giant mall).


At Aka Renga Park (Red Brick Warehouse Park), with a look at the Aka Renga Soko (the Red Brick Warehouse).


Osambashi-futo, the long wooden boardwalk which holds the Yokohama International Passenger Terminal (for the ferries) and the Osambashi Hall at the very end (4th photo). The most interesting part was obviously the design of the floor and stairs. But the best part was the scene of Yokohama from the boardwalk. The Yokohama Bay Bridge is in the 5th photo (it lights up at night and is supposed to be quite a scene). There were 2 guys doing cardio training, running up and down the slope in front of the Osambashi Hall (8th photo). See if you can spot the towers in the last photo that are indicated in giant markings in the 8th photo. I really liked how the subtle shades of the dark rain clouds came out.


Stopped for a green grape flavoured popsicle from the vending machine at the entrance to Osambashi-futo.


Yamashita Park, along the port, with several statues, including the India Water Tower (1st photo), Statue of a Little Girl with Red Shoes On (2nd photo), Statue of Guardian God of Water (4th photo), and finally arriving at a strangely named bridge at the far east end of the park (last photo) - it was called Porin Bridge on the tourist map (but it actually looked like Porn Bridge because of the fold in the map), but when I got there, it was actually labelled as Pauline Bridge on the tourist sign (the name of my mom).


At Minato-no-Mieru Oka Koen (Harbour View Park in English). The first part is called France-yama (1st photo), and the rest of the photos are from the top of the viewing area of the park. I really liked how the Bay Bridge came out in the photo; the clouds over Yokohama that day were doing great things (and it surprisingly didn't rain even though it looked like it would). The viewing area (last photo) is a popular date night spot (see if you can read some of the engravings on the pillar in the 3rd photo; they're all over all the pillars).


At the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery, where foreigners in Yokohama were buried back in the day. The last photo is of the area where the Catholics were buried. Unfortunately, entrance into the actual graveyard was closed because they were doing some maintenance...there were supposed to be some tombstones with interesting epitaphs.


Christ Church of The Bluff (The Bluff is the name for the area north and east of the Foreign Cemetery, and is a very rich area - I saw some very nice houses while walking along).


Catholic Yamate Church.


In the garden of the Gaikokanno-ie (or Diplomat's House in English), with a view of the house. I just looked around the small garden since it cost money to enter the house. There were some decent views of the city though (since The Bluff is elevated compared to the rest of the city). Then I spent the next 5 minutes trying to find my way back down west towards the city centre because the map wasn't too clear for that area.


In Yokohama's famous Chinatown. There were many gates at the entrances to Chinatown (like I said, it was huge). Some of the more notable sites in Chinatown included the Seiyo-mon gate (1st photo), Enpei-mon (2nd photo), Zenrin-mon (4th photo), Chikyu-mon (5th photo), Kantei-byo (6th photo), one of 2 Ichiba dori-mon (8th photo), Yokohama Masobyo as seen from Yamashita-cho koen (9th photo), The Yokohama Daisekai with Tercho-mon in front (10th photo; it looked like some giant Chinese temple on the map but it was actually just a big building full of Chinese restaurants and food shops), Choyo-mon (112h photo), Hong Kong Road (14th photo), Shanghai Road (15th photo), an interestingly designed Western restaurant (with the front of a trolley on the front wall) in Chinatown (strange?) (17th photo), and Genbu-mon (last photo). I visited every one of the 10 gates in Chinatown except the Suzaku-mon.


At the back of Yokohama Stadium, home of the Yokohama BayStars, inside Yokohama Park. There were a lot of old Japanese tourists (in the yellow hats) haha.


Jack's Tower up close (actually the Port Memorial Opening Hall).


Queen's Tower up close (actually the Yokohama Custom House).


King's Tower, as close as I could get while getting a decent shot of the tower (actually the Kanagawa Prefectual Government building).


The hand prints of the Yokohama BayStars team that won the division championship several years ago. I accidentally stumbled upon it while walking back to the JR Kannai station (I figured after walking all day, I'd catch the local train back across Yokohama to the JR Yokohama station to head back to Tokyo).


A little snack when I got back to Tokyo, from another French pastry shop in the basement of the Daimaru mall next to Tokyo station. The bun on the left was a deep-fried hot dog bun (very good!) and the one on the right was green tea bread (the dough was actually green!). I should have remembered to take a photo of the inside of the bread after I took a bite. It was sweet (mainly because of the green tea flavoured icing) and very tasty, and the dough actually had green tea flavour.


Back at the Yodobashi Camera store in Akihabara, having dinner at Chabuton, a supposedly famous ramen restaurant (that has recently become a small chain) in Japan. I actually ate dinner at the same place the night before, but forgot to take a picture there. But the ramen was so good I felt it was worth going back for dinner, and so I could take a photo too. The ramen was different in taste and texture from the ramen in Hokkaido and in Kyushu, but still very tasty (including the broth)!


Trying a bottle of Kirin The Premium Muroka, the really premium line of Kirin. It was quite a flavourful brew.