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Yokohama (pop. 3,433,000) is Japan's second largest city, and notwithstanding it was no more than a small fishing village 150 years ago. It grew into an international port during the Meiji period.
Yokohama, like the other ports Kobe and Osaka, has always been more cosmopolitan than other Japanese cities. Its China Town is the largest in Japan. The Western settlement neighbourhood and its cemetery is another interest for tourist visiting Yokohama.
Furthermore, Yokohama prides itself on having the tallest building in Japan, the adequately named "Landmark Tower" (276m). Admission to observatory at the 69th floor is ￥1000. Mount Fuji is clearly visible on clear days (usually not in summer).
The Landmark Tower is part of the "Minato Mirai 21" - or "future port". Others buildings include the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center, Grand InterContinental Hotel and the Yokohama Cosmo World Amusement Park (including one of Japan's biggest Ferris Wheel).
Walking along the harbour promenade from Minato Mirai, you'll get to the pleasant Yamashita Park and its 106m Marine Tower.
A bit inland from Yamashita Park is China Town ("chukagai" 中華街), the largest of its kind in Japan. It usually squirms with tourists who have come to taste the Chinese delicacies, buy traditional Chinese art or gape at the colourful and intricately decorated Chinese temples and gates.
Right South of China Town is the classy Motomachi shopping districts. In the hills behind, the quiet residential area of Yamate was were most Westerners settled after Yokohama port opened to foreign business people in 1859. It keeps a few European-style houses, an Italian park and a Foreigner's Cemetry in Motomachi Park.
How to get there
There are frequent trains between Tokyo and Yokohama on the JR Keihin-Tohoku or Tokaido lines (from Ueno, Tokyo, Shimbashi or Shinagawa), Toyoko line (from Shibuya) and Toei Asakusa/Keikyu line. The cheapest way is with the Toyoko line from Shibuya (￥260, 27min) or the Keikyu line from Shinagawa (￥300, 21min), depending on which part of Tokyo you are coming from.
Coming on the JR or Toyoko lines, you should alight at Sakuragicho for Minato Mirai 21, and at Ishikawa-cho for China Town, Motomachi and Yamashita Park.
Yokohama is on the main shinkansen line linking Hakata, Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Tokyo and Sendai.
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