Continuing my Tokyo Travel 2015 series, I bring you to Yokohama today! It was my first trip to Yokohama, and I absolutely love this place! It’s a mere one hour train ride from Tokyo city, but what welcomes you are the clear blue skies and deep blue seas! If you have only a few days in Tokyo but want to see a different side of Tokyo without wasting too much time on travelling, I strongly recommend Yokohama.
From Tokyo city (Shibuya or Shinjuku), take the Toyoko Line toward Yokohama and alight at Minatomirai station. This is a good place to start your day trip in Yokohama because some of the famous landmarks are all within walking distance.
Apart from the skies and seas, Yokohama has very lovely parks that are quiet, serene and peaceful. I see couples and small families having snacks or bento meals in the park, just enjoying a good time together. It’s the kind of life I love!
You’ll also see tunnels with interesting graffiti artworks everywhere and they are perfect for OOTDs and jump shots, don’t you think? :)
One of the iconic landmarks in Yokohama is the Red Brick Warehouse, which is a heritage building of 100 years old, now converted into a shopping mall. We made a pitstop here at one of the loveliest cafes I’ve ever been to, but that’ll be in another blog post.
Right outside Red Brick Warehouse is a dock where you can catch a ‘seabass’ (Sea Bus) to Yamashita Park, which is yet another iconic landmark in Yokohama.
Seabass tickets go at 350yen and it’s a quick 5-10 minute ride to the park.
The park is lovely but very, very crowded on the day that we were there. Nevertheless, with the cool weather and beautiful leftovers of the autumn season, we enjoyed a leisure walk through the park from one end to the other.
From Yamashita Park, you can take a 5-minute walk to Yokohama Marine Tower and pay 750yen to go up to the observation tower. We didn’t do that, nevertheless, if you want to have a bird’s eye view of Yokohama, this is a good option.
We continued walking to Chinatown from the park, and Yokohama’s Chinatown is a must visit for tourists because it’s one of the biggest Chinatowns in Japan. There are many Chinese restaurants and you can settle your lunch there if you like. We didn’t spend too much time there, but continued walking towards Motomachi Shopping Street. I didn’t have much expectations about the shopping street but to our surprise, there were really good sales happening and we left with a few bags for our aunts and a pair of boots for the husband!
By the time we decided to hunt for our lunch, it was already 3pm and most of the restaurants were closed for their afternoon break. Thank God for this café that was still open and they serve healthy and wholesome dishes!
This is a suggested itinerary you can use if you plan to make a day trip to Yokohama:
Red Brick Warehouse –> Take seabass to Yamashita Park –> Yokohama Marine Tower –> Chinatown –> Motomachi Shopping Street
