Walking Yokohama

← For Visitors to Yokohama

Walking Yokohama

From the wharf where the port first opened to the top of the old post-town slope.
Yokohama’s neighborhoods are joined to one another on foot.
We have taken the places we have introduced so far and strung them together into a few routes.
For those visiting Yokohama for the first time, for those who have come to play in a tournament, and for those who call this city home.
There is a saying here: “Live in Yokohama for three days, and you are a Hamakko,” a true child of the port. True to those words, this city has always taken in the people who come to it.
Walk the glittering avenues and the neighborhoods that came through harder times alike, just as they are. Knowing their history, you should find that the air of the city feels a little different.
Take the long way round now and then, and trace the time that has settled, layer upon layer, into these streets.

Walking the Port TownCourse 1 · Where the Port Opened

• 1 Zou-no-hana Park: Yokohama’s first true wharf, born with the opening of the port. In 1867 its breakwater was bent into a bow, and because the curve resembled an elephant’s trunk (zou no hana), the name stuck. The breakwater has been restored to its Meiji-era shape, and you can walk out to its tip.
• 2 Nihon-odori Avenue: A broad avenue laid out after a great fire to stop flames from spreading. It runs straight from Zou-no-hana to Yokohama Park. Stand on the sidewalk on the side of the prefectural government’s East Building, and the three towers known as the King, the Queen and the Jack all come into view at once. Look at your feet for the marker of the Legend of the Three Towers.
• 3 Bashamichi: In 1867 the shops along this street vied with one another to plant willows and pines, making it the birthplace of modern street trees in Japan. In 1872, Japan’s first gas lamps were lit here. In front of Kannai Hall stand a monument to them and a gas lamp restored to its original form. The former Yokohama Specie Bank head office on the corner (now the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History) is closed until October 16, 2026.
• 4 Yoshida Bridge: In 1869, Japan’s first iron bridge, the “Kane no Hashi,” was built here. The Yoshida Bridge Checkpoint Site at its foot marked the boundary between Kannai, inside the checkpoints, and Kangai, outside them. Cross the bridge and you are in Isezakicho.

A Night of Small BarsCourse 2 · A Night of Small Bars

• 1 Yoshidamachi: A town born just outside the old checkpoint. Along a street of about 250 meters stand “fireproof belt buildings” put up in the years of postwar reconstruction, and at night more than forty bars and cafés open their doors. Take a moment to look up at the second- and third-floor windows.
• 2 Noraneko-dori: A little alley one street behind Yoshidamachi’s main street, with its entrance beside Fukutomicho Nishi Park. In 2018 the shopkeepers of the neighborhood voted to give it this name, “Stray Cat Street.”
• 3 Miyakobashi: From the bridge, look out at Miyakobashi Shopping Street as it curves like a bow along the Ooka River. Built in 1964 as the last home for Noge’s street-stall keepers, it is a two-story building about 90 meters long. After dark, the light of its signs trembles on the water.
• 4 Noge: A town that calls itself a town of nonbe, cheerful drinkers, with some 600 places to eat and drink. Many let you start with just one drink and one dish, so you go a little at a time, from place to place. At the end, a final bowl, the shime, brings the night to a close.

Up the Ooka RiverCourse 3 · Up the Ooka River

• 1 The Banks of the Ooka River: From Hinodecho to Koganecho, cherry trees line both banks of the river. They were first planted in the Meiji era, lost in the earthquake, and planted again after the war. In spring, walk beneath the blossoms; in other seasons, in the breeze off the river.
• 2 Studios Under the Tracks: Beneath the elevated Keikyu tracks, studios where people paint and make things stand side by side. During the Koganecho Bazaar, which began in 2008 and is usually held in autumn, the whole town becomes a venue for art.
• 3 Two Mini Theaters: In Koganecho, Cinema Jack & Betty carries on the tradition of the Yokohama Meigaza revival house. Across the street once stood the Yokohama Nichigeki, the cinema where, in the story, the office of Private Detective Mike Hama was located. In Chojamachi, about a 5-minute walk from Hinodecho Station, is Yokohama Cinemarine, which reopened after renovation in 2014. See a film at either one, then head for the riverbank.
• 4 Down the River to Miyakobashi: In the dusk, walk back along the Ooka River toward Hinodecho. When the lights of Miyakobashi Shopping Street, curving with the river, come into view, what lies beyond is the Noge night.

Memories of the Port and the ShipyardCourse 4 · Rails & Docks

• 1 Sakuragicho Station and the Old Yokohama Station Gallery: Here stood the first Yokohama Station, terminus of Japan’s first railway, which opened in 1872. On the ground floor of CIAL Sakuragicho ANNEX, next to the station, you can see a Class 110 steam locomotive from the line’s early days and a diorama of the first Yokohama Station.
• 2 Dockyard Garden: At the foot of Yokohama Landmark Tower, about 5 minutes from Sakuragicho Station by moving walkway. This is Dock No. 2, completed in 1896: the oldest surviving stone dry dock built by a private company in Japan, and a national Important Cultural Property. Walk down the stone steps and look up at the sky from the bottom.
• 3 Sail Training Ship NIPPON MARU and Dock No. 1: Completed in 1898, this dock repaired thousands of ships over 83 years, until 1982. Now the sail training ship once called the “Swan of the Pacific” floats in it. Ship and dock alike are national Important Cultural Properties. The Yokohama Port Museum stands next door.
• 4 Kishamichi Promenade: A promenade made from about 500 meters of the harbor railway that opened in 1911. Meiji-era iron bridges span the canal, and rails remain underfoot. Overhead, the gondolas of the ropeway glide quietly back and forth.
• 5 Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse: National bonded warehouses built where the tracks came to an end: Building No. 2 in 1911, Building No. 1 in 1913. In 2002 they were reborn in their present form. Out on the pier stands a British-made hammerhead crane, installed in 1914.

Garden and BluffCourse 5 · Garden & Bluff

• 1 Sankeien: Arrive at 9:00, when the gates open. This is the garden that Hara Sankei, who made his fortune in the raw silk trade, opened to the public in 1906. Look up at the three-story pagoda of the former Tomyoji temple, from the Muromachi period, then go on to Rinshunkaku and Choshukaku in the Inner Garden. Every one of these buildings left the land where it was born to stand here in this valley.
• 2 Hasseiden Local History Museum (a detour): An octagonal building modeled on the Hall of Dreams at Horyuji temple, where you can see tools once used for fishing and nori-making in the sea off Honmoku. Admission is free.
• 3 By Bus, Toward Chinatown: On weekends and holidays, the Burari Sankeien Bus stops at Chukagai-Iriguchi. On weekdays, take a city bus back to Sakuragicho Station, then the JR Negishi Line to Ishikawacho Station.
• 4 Motomachi: The town of the people of Yokohama village, who were moved to make way for the new port. As the road linking the homes on the Yamate hill with the trading houses of Kannai, it grew into a shopping street with a scent of distant lands.
• 5 The Yamate Bluff: The hill the foreign residents called “the Bluff.” All seven Western-style residences opened to the public by the City of Yokohama are free to enter. In the Foreign General Cemetery, begun in 1854, more than 5,000 people rest.
• 6 Harbor View Park: From the top of the hill you can look out over the Port of Yokohama and the Bay Bridge. A 5-minute walk from Motomachi-Chukagai Station.
• 7 Yamashita Park and Chinatown: Down the slope to the waterfront. Yamashita Park was built on land reclaimed with rubble from the Great Kanto Earthquake and opened in 1930. Across the street stands the Hotel New Grand, opened in 1927, the hotel where doria and spaghetti Napolitan were born. Last of all, into Chinatown as its lights begin to glow.

From Yokohama Station to the Post-Town SlopeCourse 6 · The Old Tokaido

• 1 Yokohama Station: Today’s station is the third, built on this site in 1928. That same year, Kiyoken, which began by selling inside the station, created its shiumai, the dumplings that taste good even cold.
• 2 Aokibashi Bridge: A bridge carrying the old Tokaido over the tracks that were laid in 1872 through a cutting in the hill of Hongakuji. When the railway opened, the stop called “Kanagawa” stood just south of this bridge.
• 3 Hongakuji: When the port opened, this temple was assigned to serve as the American consulate. It is said that Consul Dorr had the branches of a pine in the garden cut back, and raised the Stars and Stripes at the top of the tree.
• 4 The Daimachi Slope: Once a famous scenic spot looking down over Kanagawa harbor, this slope was lined with teahouses, and even Yaji and Kita of Tokaidochu Hizakurige stopped here for a drink. Partway up, the ryotei Tanakaya was founded in 1863; before that, it was Sakuraya, an inn painted by Utagawa Hiroshige. At the top of the slope is the site of the Kanagawa-dai checkpoint.
• 5 The Yokohama-michi and Aratama Bridge: Go down the slope to Sengen-shita. Look for the sign marking the start of the Yokohama-michi, the road built in haste in 1859 to reach the newly opened port. Cross Aratama Bridge, and you are at the West Exit.

Yokohama on Match DayCourse 7 · Match Day

Kannai and Isezakicho are home to a cluster of pool halls. South of Kannai Station is Kotobukicho, the town of the people who carried the port, and postwar Japan, on their shoulders. Cross the Ooka River and you are in Koganecho and Hinodecho. Each of these neighboring towns has its own story. Tournament venues change from event to event; please check each tournament’s announcement for the venue and times.

• 1 Before the Match, in Kannai: On the block of the former City Hall, BASEGATE Yokohama Kannai opened in March 2026. The old City Hall building designed by Togo Murano was not torn down but has become a hotel. Chinatown is also about a 7-minute walk from Kannai Station.
• 2 Isezaki Mall: The shopping street of Isezakicho, a district established in 1874. Its karakuri mechanical doll clock comes to life on the hour and the half hour, from 10:00 to 21:00.
• 3 To the Pool Hall: Arrive at the venue a little early. Wash your hands, take one deep breath, and step up to the table.
• 4 After the Match: Cross Yoshida Bridge to the bars of Yoshidamachi, or cross Miyakobashi to the drinking places of Noge. Either way, you join the route of A Night of Small Bars.

PlayPlay

From any of these routes, the pool halls of Kannai and Isezakicho are just a short train ride or walk away. There are pool halls at the West Exit of Yokohama Station, too.To the Kannai & Isezakicho page →

Eat & DrinkEat & Drink

The stories of the flavors born in Yokohama are told in Yokohama’s Food Stories.

Neighborhood PagesAreas