Yokohama Japan

The new Yokohama Cruise Terminal is not to everyone's taste. Wood, glass, steel, and grass

The four Island nation of Japan, a little larger than Italy or Great Britain, has over 124 million citizens with the second highest people density per square kilometre in the world. Only 20 % of their land is flat enough for habitation and cultivation. Japan’s only abundant natural resource is water and it’s consequent natural beauty.

Yokohama is the capital city of the Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population of 3.6 million after Tokyo. It lies in Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo on the main island of Honshu.

Interestingly, for more than 200 years Japan had a policy of national seclusion and did not promote contact or trade with foreigners. In 1853, US Commodore Perry, who was just passing with his Armada of American warships, popped in for a look-see and was unable to buy supplies or tourist key rings so negotiated the Treaty of Peace and Amity that would open up the port to foreign ships for trading. The sleepy fishing village of Yokohama was not the first choice but, a bit like Vladivostok in Russia, it was the furthest away place they could find at the time.

Yokohama quickly became the centre of foreign trade in Japan. In 1865, the first ice cream and beer in Japan were manufactured here. In 1872, Jules Verne put Yokohama on the international tourist map when he used it as one of the locations in his widely read “Around the World in Eighty Days”.

Yokohama grew into a major international trading port and was prosperous as an international city. In May 1945, courtesy of the Japanese being naughty with their world domination plan, the Americans carried out the “Great Yokohama Air Raid” reducing 42% of the city to rubble in one hour, killing over 9000 people.

The United States later used Yokohama as a staging point when they volunteered to help the South Koreans fight the Communist North in the Korean War. Yokohama rebuilt and hosted the 2002 World FIFA Cup and the APEC meeting in 2010.

What we did

Japan offers so much cultural and architectural history to visit and absorb but as we entered at Yokohama we chose to visit MT Fuji, the Owakudani, sulphur springs and the then come back to town and wander around.

The electronic in-train station guides are very helpful!

We voted out visiting the Imperial Palace in Tokyo as it can take several hours of queuing to get into after the time taken to get there, a bit like the Vatican and the Forbidden City of China (lots of time needs to be allocated for visiting these). It takes a week to go through the Louvre in Paris but I digress.

The Japanese trains are efficient, cheap and very modern so take the time to understand how to use them and Japan is your oyster. White gloved people really do stand on the platform and push you into the train, politely.

going, going, going.............

The Mount Fuji (Fujisan) is Japan’s highest mountain at 3776 metres. It is not surprising that the nearly perfectly shaped volcano has been worshipped as a sacred site for so long. Mount Fuji is a dormant volcano, which last erupted in 1708. It stands on the border between Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures and can be seen from Tokyo and Yokohama on clear days.
It is not easy to capture Mt Fuji by camera because of its size and the weather. You also don’t get snow and cherry blossoms year round for those special shots either. The mist and low forming clouds move up in minutes and often block the view, and you have to consider yourself lucky if you get a clear picture from any angle. Many people don’t take the several hours to travel to the mountain, as it is almost a 50/50 bet whether it will be visible. Visibility tends to be better during the colder seasons of the year than in summer, and in the early morning and late evening. You can see a rising cloudbank that is obscuring the mountain in my photo.

In the same area is the Hakone National park and Owakudani sulphur springs. The sulphur springs are located at Owakudani. It is quite interesting to see the sulphuric water spring from the mountains, and the white fumes continually rising from the rocks. People who are allergic to sulphur may not want to go here, are the air is full of it.

OK, back to town and lots to see; First we visited the Hikawa Maru, a 1930’s cruise liner that was a favourite of Charlie Chaplain's. His bowler hat is still in the first class cabin he preferred to travel in. This 20,000 tonne ship was a flagship for Japan showcasing its ability to manufacture to high standards, a precursor to what was to come. It was blown up, a hospital ship, a cruise liner and now a floating testimony to its construction standards.

Next, we sweated our way through the obligatory Chinatown, and then some local shopping in an architecturally modern Sydneyesque streetscape. Much fun was had but be warned, along with the Sydney streetscape comes Sydney prices, nothing is cheap!

Now on to Alaska for a complete change of pace and temperature………