Yokohama, Japan
Minato Mirai 21 Train Station
Yokohama, Japan
Hmmmm...the best way to describe Yokohama... Yokohama is to Tokyo as Chicago is to New York. Sorta. Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan (38th largest in the world), is Japan's most important port city, is arguably THE commercial hub of Japan, has the tallest building in Japan, the largest Chinatown in Asia (outside of, um, China, dur), and the list goes on...but does anyone really take note of this? Not really, no. How often do you hear about Yokohama? The city definitely has a bit of the "Over here! Look at me! I'm as good as that other city, dammit! Oh darn...no one's looking. Sad face" vibe (ergo Chicago : New York). Maybe it's Yokohama's proximity to Tokyo (the cities are only a half hour train ride apart...if I were traveling to the area and had to pick, I'd chose Tokyo every time) or maybe everyone's trying to forget that pesky Convention of Kanagawa. Who knows. Bottom line is Yokohama is perfectly delightful, if not more livable and navigable than big brother Tokyo (always the way), yet somehow doesn't seem fully realized -- the clues as to why are abundant. For example, the 88-acre Minato Mirai 21 urban development project, which began in 1983, hasn't been completed. It's currently anchored by the underwhelming Landmark Tower and the Cosmo Clock 21 ferris wheel (which was largest in the world when it was constructed in 1999, only to be dethroned a few months later by the Palette Town wheel in Odaiba, which itself was swiftly dethroned by the London Eye), which means the area hasn't seen much action since the late-90's. MM21, which many felt would revitalize Yokohama, is still largely unoccupied.
At any rate, we daytripped to Yokohama from Tokyo, arriving at the gorgeous new MM21 train station and spent some time exploring the 'hood before taxiing over to Chinatown where we stayed until nighttime (very interesting experience since very few Chinese still live there.) Overall, we had a really, really pleasant time.
More photos from Yokohama to come...