Daytrip to Yokohama

Yokohama is one heck of a big city (in fact, the second biggest in Japan, which makes it very big indeed), located just next to Tokyo. So we figured the evening visit we paid it on our first trip to Japan wasn't quite enough to do it justice. So we decided to jump on the train today and check it out again.

After arriving at the huge (as expected) train station, we made our way to one of the main draws of Yokohama, the futuristic business district known as Minato Mirai 21 (at least the name sounds like something out of a Science Fiction movie!). Well, at least it was futuristic when they laid out the initial plans in the 1980 - but it does look pretty impressive to this day. I think places like Singapore must have taken some inspiration from this place. 

We started off by checking out the Nissan headquarters building, which is just across a canal from the train station (very handy, I'm sure, for all those salarymen and customers who must frequently visit). There's a big showroom to visit, which I found pretty cool (I'm less sure about Mathilde...) - I particularly liked the Nissan Skyline from 1985 (I used to "drive" a Nissan Skyline a lot on Grand Turismo 3, on my dusty old Playstation 2...). I learnt a lot about the history of the automobile in Japan as well - one very interesting fact was that the first cars manufactured in Japan after World War 2 were electric! (apparently this was due to the fact that the American occupation force heavily rationed petrol, so it wasn't available for private drivers). What goes around comes around, it would seem, with Nissan being at the forefront of electric vehicle development (with their Nissan Leaf).

We then continued to explore Minato Mirai 21, heading towards the museum district, where we decided to visit the Yokohama museum of Art - there was an exhibition about Mary Cassatt on (one of the few female impressionists - quite appropriately I suppose, I particularly liked her works inspired by Japanese art). We then wandered onwards, stopping to gape in amazement at the Landmark tower (when it was built in 1993, it was the highest skyscraper in Japan, today it ranks as the 3rd highest one). 

We then split up, Mathilde heading off for a bit of shopping, while I headed over to explore the Nippon Maru, a historic sail ship, moored just next to the Landmark Tower. It's a beautiful sailing ship, built back in 1930 as a training ship for cadets for the Japanese merchant marine. It remained in service all the way until 1984, when it became a museum. A very interesting one, at that, with rather good explanations in English (not a given in Japan...). The ticket also allowed me to visit the Yokohama port museum, which was very interesting indeed. Yokohama's growth to the 2nd biggest city in Japan is mostly down to its port. This museum traces the history of the port (starting with when Yokohama was the 3rd port to be opened to foreigners after the arrival of Perry and his "black ships"), throughout the devastation first by the great Kanto earthquake in 1923 and then of course World War 2°.

We then continued our exploration of Yokohama by checking out some historic red brick warehouse buildings, located at the Yokohama port also. These buildings, which used to be custom buildings, are some of few buildings in downtown Yokohama that predate WW2. These days they contain trendy shops (as red-brick buildings seem to do all over the world these days?).

After checking out the views across Tokyo Bay, checking out the impressive 860 meters log Yokohama Bay Bridge, we carried on our exploration by following the edge of Tokyo Bay towards Yamashita park, a nice bit of greenery stretching along the bayside. There is another impressive historic ship to check out there, the Hikawa Maru, as well as the statue of a water goddess (which seems to be a rather popular selfie subject). We were also treated to the nice spectacle of a double rainbow whilst we were there!

We then made our way to another major draw of Yokohama, Chinatown. Yokohama has Japan's biggest Chinese population - this is due to the fact that Yokohama, as a major port city, attracted a lot of foreigners after Yokohama was opened up to the outside world in 1859. Yokohama's Chinatown isn't actually all that big, but it does have a definitely Chinese feel to it. We started our exploration by checking out the somewhat surprising Artrick museum, located in a 8-story souvenir shop. Basically the place is dedicated to trick photography and optical illusions. The picture I put here gives you the basic idea, I guess ;) All good fun!

Unfortunately, it started raining, so we didn't really have the time to properly explore Chinatown. I did quickly check out one of the two temples located in Chinatown (rather atmospheric after it gets dark as all the lanterns in the temple get lit up). We naturally had Chinese food for dinner - I have to admit our meal was a bit disappointing (and quite expensive as well). Next time, we must consult our authority on restaurants in Japan, Matsuoka-san.

We then jumped on an underground train, which actually took us back all the way to Shibuya station in Tokyo. I'll never seize to be amazed by the impressive public transport network Japan boasts.