Just a 15-20min ride away from Tokyo, is Yokohama. Although we spent 3 nights there, most of our time was spent attending an event at the Pacifico Yokohama, and we only had half a day free. So I would say it's pretty doable as a day trip from Tokyo, and honestly spending any longer there might get a little boring.
First we headed to Chinatown. Yes, Chinatown. Why go to visit a Chinatown in Japan....? That was pretty much my reaction too, but *Shinta pointed out that it was one of the world's largest ones and pretty much *the* thing to see there. I think for us, the temples and colorful gates were pretty but not too interesting.
Being a freezing cold morning, we instead happily joined the queues for the steaming hot manju, aka the Japanese version of our "da pao".
Was supposed to head over to the Yamate area which was historically the residential district of Westerners, but we got detoured instead to the Harbor View Park which as the name describes, provides stunning views of the harbour and port area.
From there, we followed the walk down to the Yamashita Park (literally "under the hill") which stretches along the waterfront.
Street performers entertain the crowds along the stretch with their juggling antics.
The area is still a functioning pier with vessels docked along it. This one had obviously been here for sometime, and the seabirds with typical Japan manners, had lined up neatly along the chains.
At the other end of the park is Minato Mirai area, where the hotels, convention center, amusement park and shopping centers are. The Red Brick Warehouses as the name suggests, have been converted from warehouses into a unique shopping area with interesting shops and products.
It took us about 5 hours to eat and navigate from Chinatown all the way down to this area, stopping along the way to shop, eat, take photos at an easy strolling pace. After that I headed to the Yokohama Pacifico Arena there to attend an event, while *Shinta spent a good 4 hours shopping in the area after that. So that's about it for our time actually spent in Yokohama itself.
