Question 1

Yokohama on Your Own

Accepted Answer

From Ōsanbashi Pier you can walk the old harbor district, where Yamashita Park, the Hikawa Maru and Chinatown are close together and best explored on foot. For Tokyo, a JR train from Yokohama Station takes about 25 minutes to Tokyo Station, so a visit means a long day with a firm eye on the time. Yamashita Park and the Hikawa Maru: The waterfront park was laid out on rubble from the 1923 earthquake and opened in 1930. The Hikawa Maru, an ocean liner that entered service in 1930 on the route to Seattle and Vancouver, is moored at the park as a museum ship. Check its opening days before you go. Chinatown: About 250 Chinese shops and restaurants crowd the district around Motomachi-Chūkagai Station. Yamate: On the hill known as the Bluff, where foreign merchants once lived, several of their old houses are open to visitors, and the foreigners' cemetery is on the same walk. Red Brick Warehouses: The two brick customs warehouses of 1911 and 1913, near Bashamichi Station, reopened in 2002 as shops, halls and exhibition space. Sankei-en: This garden, created by the silk merchant Hara Sankei and opened in 1906, holds historic buildings moved here from across Japan, including a three-story pagoda first built in Kyoto in 1457. It is about 35 minutes by bus from Yokohama Station. To Shibuya: Trains from Motomachi-Chūkagai run straight through to Shibuya, in Tokyo, in about 35 minutes. Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own. Carry your passport: Japanese law requires visitors to carry their passport at all times, and the police can arrest someone who cannot show it.

Question 2

Getting Around

Accepted Answer

The Minatomirai Line runs underground from Yokohama Station along the waterfront to Motomachi-Chūkagai, with stops at Minatomirai, Bashamichi and Nihon-ōdōri, and it is the rail line for the harbor sights. JR Negishi Line trains also serve the area, at Sakuragichō, Kannai and Ishikawachō. The red Akaikutsu sightseeing bus runs a loop around Minato Mirai, Chinatown and Motomachi. Sea Bass boats link Yokohama Station's east side with Minato Mirai and Yamashita Park. The Yokohama Air Cabin, a gondola lift opened in 2021, crosses from Sakuragichō Station to Unga Park Station in about five minutes. Shinkansen bullet trains stop at Shin-Yokohama, a few stations away from the main Yokohama Station.

Question 3

Food and Drink

Accepted Answer

Chinatown has more than 200 Chinese restaurants, and many of its shops and stalls sell nikuman, steamed buns filled with pork and vegetables. The city also has a museum devoted to ramen. The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, a few minutes on foot from Shin-Yokohama Station, has a basement built to look like a street in 1950s Tokyo, with ramen shops from around Japan. Yokohama was where Japan's first ice cream and beer were made, in 1865.

Question 4

Tipping in Japan

Accepted Answer

Tipping is not part of Japanese custom, and money left on a restaurant table may well be brought back to you as something you forgot. The currency is the Japanese yen. Some hotels and restaurants used to Western guests add a service charge of about 10 percent. Tour guides, interpreters and high-end ryokan inns are the usual exceptions where a tip may be given. If you do give a tip, hand it over in an envelope rather than leaving cash on a table.

Question 5

A Brief History

Accepted Answer

Yokohama was a small fishing village until Commodore Perry's visits of 1853 and 1854 pushed the Tokugawa shogunate to open ports to foreign trade. The port of Yokohama opened on June 2, 1859, and grew quickly on the trade in silk and tea. Foreign merchants first settled in the low-lying Kannai district, behind a moat, and later spread up onto the hill of Yamate, the Bluff. Chinese traders arrived with them and founded what became Chinatown. The Japan Herald, the first English-language newspaper in Japan, appeared here in 1861. In 1872 Japan's first railway linked Yokohama with Shinbashi in Tokyo. Ōsanbashi Pier began as an iron pier completed in 1894, designed by the British engineer Henry Spencer Palmer. The Great Kantō earthquake of September 1, 1923 destroyed much of the city, and rubble from the ruins was used to build Yamashita Park. An air raid on May 29, 1945 destroyed about 42 percent of the city. On August 30, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur spent his first night in Japan at the Hotel New Grand, across the street from Yamashita Park. Work on Minato Mirai 21, a new district on reclaimed land, began in 1983. The Yokohama Bay Bridge opened in 1989 and the Landmark Tower in 1993. The present Ōsanbashi terminal opened in 2002, after a design competition that drew more than 660 entries. To learn more ashore: the Yokohama Archives of History, 3 Nihon-ōdōri, in an annex of the former British Consulate, next to the square where Perry came ashore to sign the Convention of Kanagawa.

Question 6

Yokohama with Children

Accepted Answer

Yokohama has a free zoo, a museum about a popular cartoon character and a tall ship you can visit, all within reach of the harbor by train. Summers in Japan are very hot and humid, with July and August temperatures often above 35°C, so plan indoor stops if you visit then. Younger children: Nogeyama Zoo, about 15 minutes' walk from Sakuragichō Station, is free and has a children's zoo with rabbits, guinea pigs and other small animals. It is closed on Mondays. Younger children: The Anpanman Children's Museum, near Shin-Takashimachō Station, is built around the hero of a popular children's TV and book series. School age: At the Cup Noodles Museum in Minato Mirai children can design their own cup of noodles. Take a numbered ticket as soon as you arrive, because places are limited each day. School age: The Nippon Maru, a four-masted training ship of 1930 with 32 sails, is kept in Nippon Maru Memorial Park. Teenagers: The observation deck of the Yokohama Marine Tower is 100 meters up, and on clear days you can see Mount Fuji. Check opening hours before you go.

Question 7

Accessibility

Accepted Answer

The Ōsanbashi terminal was built without stairs inside: you move between levels on ramps and in elevators. It has four step-free boarding bridges, but ships that are only calling, rather than starting or ending a cruise, usually use a gangway down to the quay instead, so ask your ship how you will get ashore. At Yokohama Hammerhead, a pedestrian deck opened in 2024 links the building with the Shinko Circle Walk footbridge, where escalators were added in 2021.

Question 8

Shopping

Accepted Answer

For browsing near the harbor, Motomachi is a small, fashionable shopping street beside Chinatown, and Minato Mirai 21 has plenty of places to shop. Chinatown itself sells Chinese groceries, cheongsam dresses and jade trinkets. The second of the Red Brick Warehouses is given over to shops. Yokohama Hammerhead, at the Shinko Pier terminal, has food shops and restaurants on its first two floors.

Yokohama, Tokyo

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Arriving in Yokohama