Yokohama

Last week, I visited Yokohama, a bustling port city in Japan.

It’s only 20 minutes from my place

Yokohama’s main attractions lie far away from the Yokohama train station hence I had to take the Minatomirai subway to Chugakagai Iriguchi station. First stop, China Town!

Yokohama’s Chinatown is huge. The entire place is filled with restaurants and groceries stores. I notice that many restaurants were selling roasted water chestnuts and dumplings outside their premise. Damn, I hate roasted chestnuts.

Unlike other Chinatowns that I’ve been to, the shops in Yokohama Chinatown were renovated or built with Chinese designs. There were also more than 5 arches! Further, this Chinatown spans more than 2 streets and has numbers of alleys filled with shops. You’ll never leave the place hungry.

Hong Kong Road

Taiwan Road???

Few blocks away from Chinatown is the Yamashita Park. It’s a small park next to the sea. Great place to relax after a long walk around China town.

Next stop, Foreigner’s Cemetery at Yamate. It’s located on top of a hill hence I had to hike up to the Cemetery. But while hiking up, I could peep into the walls of the cemetery to see the old tombstones of foreigners who lived in Japan. Some of them date back in 1900s.

Unfortunately, the cemetery is not accessible to the public. But there’s a small place for us to take pictures of the tombstones together with the skyscrapers of Yokohama.

yamateeeeee

The word ‘Yamate’ has been widely associated to Japanese pornographic movies especially gokan (rape) videos. Many believe that the word ‘Yamate’ means stop in Japanese.

Few years back, a friend brought a Japanese girl from a student exchange program.

Me: What does Yamate means?
Jap girl: Yamate? You mean train station???
Me: ERRRR..

Then years later, I realize that the word ‘Yamate’ is incorrect. The correct word for stop is ‘Yamete’.

Cats are a common sight in the Foreigners Cemetery. I wonder what are they doing there. I hope they’re not feasting on dead bodies.

Mmmm..fat juicy cats…

Habour View Park is another ‘must see’ place after visiting Foreigner’s Cemetery. There, one can have a bird’s eye view of Yokohama Port and its surroundings. Many artistes pot their butts there to draw pictures.

Next stop, Minato Mirai 21, a large urban development built on reclaimed land in Yokohama. Along the stretch of waterfront properties lie a number of sky scrapers and also Landmark Tower, Japan’s tallest building. There’s a lift that takes you to the observatory, but for a fee of 1000yen. No thanks.

The best time to take pictures of Minato Mirai is at night as all the skyscrapers will be lighted together with the Cosmo Clock Ferris Wheel, the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. The Ferris Wheel changes its lights as well 😀

Landmark Tower on the left

World Tallest Ferris Wheel One of the tallest in the world