A day in the harbor town Yokohama

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The nearest city close to Tokyo is the harbor town Yokohama. It is just 20 minutes by train and actually there is no real border or less populated area. It is a constant sea of houses, apartment blocks and shops. Yokohama is often controversy discussed as second living place to Tokyo with more open space and a long water front with a pleasant promenade walk. But it is less trendy and sleepier than Tokyo and there are many pros and cons to live here. We got of at Yokohama train station and wandered along the harbor line passing through shops and admiring the skyline view against the blue bright sky. This weekend an international art festival was on with several spots offering public art. One was a pavilion made out of flexible white plastic rings offering special new views out of the inner side. Another event was a fountain of soap bubbles from an array of tubes. At full hours the tubes would emit hundreds and thousands of soap bubbles in a short time converting the whole area in a sea of soap. The children played with the bubbles and the adults enjoyed the unusual scenery too. It was right in front of some old storage halls of red bricks now converted into a restaurant and shopping place. There are a lot of such old buildings converted to modern use. Another example is a former brick stone dock converted to an open air stage with musicians and jugglers taking turns to perform. While walking around with saw a sign to the immigration museum and followed it. Yokohama was one of the immigration ports from Japan and the museum displayed the history of Japanese leaving for overseas and the new life in California or later in South America. We learned that there was in the 19th century a fashion that young Japanese students would leave for California to learn the newest technologies and getting an intercultural background. They stayed usually for a few years and returned afterwards to apply some of it at home. During the great depression the US was closed for immigrants from Japan and as alternative Argentina or Brazil was selected. This explains why there until today some Japanese communities in South America. Luckily most if the explanation was bilingual Japanese/English and some even in Portuguese. We spent one hour and continued or walk along the promenade to the International Ferry terminal. It is a design award winning building with a walkable wooden deck as roof. It stretches far into the harbor and has splendid views towards the city. It is a meeting point for old and young people relaxing in the sun or strolling along. We finished our day in quarter with a maze of narrow lanes and coffee houses. It was already getting dark and we had to do the hillside walks with old colonial houses and last century seamen and settlers cemeteries another day.

Practicalities:
Museum of Immigration free
Outdoor art events free
International ferry terminal deck free
Coffee and Cake set around 600-800 Yen

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