Kanagawa Travel Guide

The Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse is a brick complex from the late Meiji era, once a customs and freight storehouse, now reborn as a shopping, dining and culture hub. Two buildings keep their heavy red brick and arched windows, evoking the port's past, Building 1 hosts exhibitions and events, Building 2 gathers restaurants and select shops. The seafront plaza meets the harbour nightscape, and winter illumination with a Christmas market draws huge crowds. It is the most nostalgic stroll in the Minato Mirai waterfront.

Yokohama Chinatown is Japan's largest and oldest Chinese enclave, taking shape after the port of Yokohama opened in the 19th century and now home to hundreds of restaurants and shops. Four vivid gates, Zenneimon, Choyomon, Enpeimon and Choanmon, mark the district, with the Kanteibyo (Kwan Tai Temple) and Mazu shrine tucked among the lanes. You can taste regional cuisines from Peking duck and Shanghai xiaolongbao to Cantonese dim sum, while festivals bring dragon and lion dances and the Lantern Festival to life. It is Yokohama's liveliest food and culture landmark.

At 296 metres, Yokohama Landmark Tower anchors the Minato Mirai skyline; its top-floor Sky Garden observation deck offers 360-degree views of Yokohama port, the Red Brick Warehouse and even Tokyo Skytree in the distance. The podium, Landmark Plaza, gathers shopping, dining and a hotel; at dusk the harbour lights and city skyline blend into one of Yokohama's favourite night views. A high-speed elevator reaches the top in about 40 seconds, the best window onto this port city.

Yamashita Park stretches along the waterfront in Naka Ward, Yokohama, and is one of the city's most iconic green spaces. Built in the 1930s on reclaimed land made from rubble after the Great Kanto Earthquake, it offers lawns, flower beds and fountains, with views over Yokohama Bay Bridge and passing ships. The museum ship Hikawa Maru, moored at the quay, is a landmark of the park. Close to Yokohama Chinatown and the Osanbashi pier, it is an excellent place to take in the port city's atmosphere while out for a stroll.

Sankeien is a large Japanese garden in Yokohama created by the merchant Hara Tomitaro (known as 'Sankei') from the late Meiji into the Taisho era. It gathers relocated historic buildings from across Japan — the old Sanmon gate and the Muromachi-era 'Mutei' tower from Kyoto's Tofuku-ji among them. Divided into inner and outer gardens, it flowers through the seasons, famed for plum, cherry and autumn leaves — a classic garden close to the city.

The Hakone Museum of Photography is a small private museum opened on April 7, 2002 by Kei Endo, a photographer born in Hakone. It permanently shows his Mount Fuji series and hosts planned exhibitions by emerging photographers from Japan and abroad. A café overlooks the garden, and the museum opens early at 8:00 on Sundays.