Travel in Japan
Discover Japan - Travel in Japan
Yokohama - A City of Firsts
When Yokohama (Kanagawa Prefecture) opened its ports to the world in 1859, it was a quiet fishing village of about 100 houses. Since then it has survived devastation from below with the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, devastation from above during the Great Yokohama Air Raid on 1945, and has blossomed into Japan’s busiest port city and second largest metropolis.
You might begin your Yokohama visit at Sakuragicho Station, Yokohama’s first station and one end of Japan’s first railroad, which linked Yokohama and Shimbashi, Tokyo. From Sakuragicho walk southeast over Oebashi Bridge and past Shiloh Church, which was founded in 1892 by James HEPBURN, the first missionary to arrive in Yokohama and publisher of the first Japanese-English dictionary, to Bashamichi.
Turn right on Bashamichi and you can see monuments commemorating Japan’s first roadside trees (willows and pines planted by Bashamichi merchants in 1867) and honoring British engineer Richard BRUNTON, designer of Japan’s first iron bridge (Yoshidabashi), Japan’s first wide, Western-style avenue (Nihon Odori) and Yokohama Park (home of Japan’s first amphitheater style stadium).
Walk the opposite direction up Bashamichi and discover monuments to Japan’s first ice cream shop, Japan’s first gas street lights and Japan’s first photo studio. You can also enjoy some impressive architecture, most notably the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History, which was completed in 1904 and became a Registered National Historical Site in 1995.
Continue up Bashamichi to Bankokubashi, a favorite spot for photographers snapping shots of the Landmark Tower and Nippon-maru. Since 1993, the Landmark Tower is Japan’s tallest building and boasts the world’s second fastest elevator, whisking visitors to the 69th-floor observation deck in about 40 seconds. Built in Kobe in 1930, Nippon-maru transported supplies during WWII, repatriated 20,000 Japanese after the war, was a training ship from 1952 to 1984, and has been moored here since 1985.
Turning right after crossing Bankokubashi will lead you to Yokohama Aka Renga Soko (Red Brick Warehouse). These impressive brick warehouses were built between 1907 and 1913, but 30% of one was destroyed in the 1923 earthquake. Storing mainly tobacco, wool and Western liquor until WWII, today they hold shops, restaurants and event spaces.
From Aka Renga head south across Shinkobashi and you’ll soon discover another three historically significant architectural beauties: Yokohama Kaikou Memorial Museum, Yokohama Customs and Kanagawa Prefectural Government, known to locals as Jack, Queen and King Towers.
Built as a town hall, Yokohama Kaikou Memorial Museum’s current look was completed in 1917. Its interior was destroyed in the 1923 earthquake but the exterior survived, so it looks today largely like it did 90 years ago.
The small museum inside Yokohama Customs displays examples of contraband confiscated at Yokohama ports. Across Nihon Odori from Kanagawa Prefectural Government is the Yokohama Archives of History, quite possibly the best use of 200 yen on your visit. Until 1899 foreigners in Yokohama were forced to live apart from Japanese in an area called (still today) Kannai, which means ‘inside the barrier.’ Nihon Odori served as a divider between Japanese and foreign settlements so as you cross from Kanagawa Prefectural Government to the Archives of History, you’re entering the former foreigners’ area.
Around the corner from the Archives of History is Japan’s first Protestant church, Yokohama Kaigan Church. In nearby Yamashita Park, a monument that would look at home on Easter Island is dedicated to Japan’s first Western-style barbershops, opened around 1869 in present-day Chinatown. Also in Yamashita Park is the ship Hikawamaru (admission fee 200 yen). Built in 1930, she carried passengers between Yokohama and Seattle and when WWII broke out she was used as a hospital ship. A repatriation ship after the war, she resumed passenger service from 1953 to 1960 and is now a Yokohama Cultural Asset. The self-guided tour is well worth your time.
Exit Yamashita Park and you can see Chinatown’s east gate only a few hundred meters away. Walk past Hotel New Grand (designated a Historical Landmark Building in 1992) and Marine Tower (scheduled for grand re-opening on May 23) on your way to Japan’s largest Chinatown.
At 13.5 meters tall and 12 meters wide, the east gate is the largest of Chinatown’s 10 gates. Other noteworthy attractions include Masobyo and Kanteibyo shrines. Look carefully as you explore and you might also discover monuments dedicated to the first Japanese translation of foreign newspapers and Japan’s first Western-style dentistry. Of course, if food is your thing, you could eat in a different Chinatown restaurant every day for a year!
(From May Issue 2009)
