Another city too large to conquer in one day, we picked out three attractions in Yokohama that we hoped would provide a good cultural cross-section of Japan.
We decided to start out at Sankeien Garden, where many buildings of historic importance from around Japan have been relocated and preserved, including a pagoda, which was on Jenny’s list of things-to-see-while-in-Japan. I thought we could easily find this garden—after all, it is 175000 square meters (that’s a lot of surface area in Japan), and you can see for yourself how clearly it stands out on the brochure map. Plus we had directions, and I was eager to show off my new bus-riding skills. Things fell apart when we got off the bus, though. When the directions said, “walk to the Garden (7 minutes),” I assumed there would be signs pointing the way. Well, if there were, they weren’t in English. After walking 30 minutes in the wrong direction, we finally found a gas company employee with a street map, who spent another 10 minutes trying to pinpoint our present location in the well-worn atlas before plotting our course to the Garden. Turns out it is cleverly hidden in a maze of residential streets, which are not indicated on the brochure map. When we finally arrived, we were just in time for a guided tour of the former residence of Sankei Hara, the Garden’s founder. Not surprisingly, the tour was conducted entirely in Japanese, and though we were given fact sheet about the history of the house in English, we missed a lot of the interesting details the guide provided about the unique construction of the house. (We could tell they were interesting because of the oohs and aahs and vigorous nodding of the Japanese tourists.) After escaping from the house, we wandered the rest of the grounds admiring the other buildings. We finally got to see the pagoda, a three-storied specimen relocated from a temple in Kyoto, which was originally built in 1457 (that makes it 552 years old, in case you were wondering). Unfortunately, at this time of year, the only notable flora were the manicured evergreen trees and shrubs. I would really like to return when the gardens are in bloom, but I don’t have a lot of faith that I’d be any more successful finding the Garden a second time.
Next stop, Landmark Plaza, a five-story shopping mall, which is connected to Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. The Sky Garden, the highest observatory in Japan, is on the 69th floor of the tower, at a height of 273 m. We got up there by taking the fastest elevator in Japan, arriving in only 40 seconds. The 360-degree view from the observatory was pretty amazing. We could look out over all of Yokohama, and well beyond the city. Although the day was sunny, it was somewhat hazy, so we could not see all the way to Mt. Fuji. Looking down on the city, trying to pick out interesting features (like a rooftop Putt-Putt course) reminded me of The Amazing Race when contestants in a sky-scraper were tasked with searching out Travelocity gnomes hidden on nearby buildings. The zoom on my camera gave me a pretty good view of a several block radius, but I would have loved to have had binoculars. Next time we go to the Sky Garden, we will go after dark and enjoy a cocktail while admiring the city lights.
We intentionally hit our last destination at dinner time so we could sample the exhibits of the Ramen Museum. The museum itself was pretty small. The first floor had displays of instant ramen from around the world, ramen shop accessories, and a timeline of ramen history. All of the explanations were in Japanese, so this floor was of limited interest. The bottom floor, however, made the price of admission worthwhile. The entire basement was constructed to look like the streets of 1950s Tokyo. While it was fun to look at the old apartments (with aerial antennae on the roofs and laundry on the balconies), the bars (with neon signs above the doors), and the advertising billboards, the main attractions were the ramen shops. Nine shops offer different ramen recipes from nine regions of Japan. One drawback to the set-up is that you must eat your ramen in the shop where you ordered it—there is no central food-court-type seating area. So unless you want to eat alone, all members of your party need to agree on a single ramen shop. Honestly, I think it’s just a clever ploy to get you to return at a later date to try a different shop! I’ll definitely return, but the ramen at shop number 4 was so amazing, I’m not sure I could be convinced to try another.
We decided to start out at Sankeien Garden, where many buildings of historic importance from around Japan have been relocated and preserved, including a pagoda, which was on Jenny’s list of things-to-see-while-in-Japan. I thought we could easily find this garden—after all, it is 175000 square meters (that’s a lot of surface area in Japan), and you can see for yourself how clearly it stands out on the brochure map. Plus we had directions, and I was eager to show off my new bus-riding skills. Things fell apart when we got off the bus, though. When the directions said, “walk to the Garden (7 minutes),” I assumed there would be signs pointing the way. Well, if there were, they weren’t in English. After walking 30 minutes in the wrong direction, we finally found a gas company employee with a street map, who spent another 10 minutes trying to pinpoint our present location in the well-worn atlas before plotting our course to the Garden. Turns out it is cleverly hidden in a maze of residential streets, which are not indicated on the brochure map. When we finally arrived, we were just in time for a guided tour of the former residence of Sankei Hara, the Garden’s founder. Not surprisingly, the tour was conducted entirely in Japanese, and though we were given fact sheet about the history of the house in English, we missed a lot of the interesting details the guide provided about the unique construction of the house. (We could tell they were interesting because of the oohs and aahs and vigorous nodding of the Japanese tourists.) After escaping from the house, we wandered the rest of the grounds admiring the other buildings. We finally got to see the pagoda, a three-storied specimen relocated from a temple in Kyoto, which was originally built in 1457 (that makes it 552 years old, in case you were wondering). Unfortunately, at this time of year, the only notable flora were the manicured evergreen trees and shrubs. I would really like to return when the gardens are in bloom, but I don’t have a lot of faith that I’d be any more successful finding the Garden a second time.Next stop, Landmark Plaza, a five-story shopping mall, which is connected to Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. The Sky Garden, the highest observatory in Japan, is on the 69th floor of the tower, at a height of 273 m. We got up there by taking the fastest elevator in Japan, arriving in only 40 seconds. The 360-degree view from the observatory was pretty amazing. We could look out over all of Yokohama, and well beyond the city. Although the day was sunny, it was somewhat hazy, so we could not see all the way to Mt. Fuji. Looking down on the city, trying to pick out interesting features (like a rooftop Putt-Putt course) reminded me of The Amazing Race when contestants in a sky-scraper were tasked with searching out Travelocity gnomes hidden on nearby buildings. The zoom on my camera gave me a pretty good view of a several block radius, but I would have loved to have had binoculars. Next time we go to the Sky Garden, we will go after dark and enjoy a cocktail while admiring the city lights.
We intentionally hit our last destination at dinner time so we could sample the exhibits of the Ramen Museum. The museum itself was pretty small. The first floor had displays of instant ramen from around the world, ramen shop accessories, and a timeline of ramen history. All of the explanations were in Japanese, so this floor was of limited interest. The bottom floor, however, made the price of admission worthwhile. The entire basement was constructed to look like the streets of 1950s Tokyo. While it was fun to look at the old apartments (with aerial antennae on the roofs and laundry on the balconies), the bars (with neon signs above the doors), and the advertising billboards, the main attractions were the ramen shops. Nine shops offer different ramen recipes from nine regions of Japan. One drawback to the set-up is that you must eat your ramen in the shop where you ordered it—there is no central food-court-type seating area. So unless you want to eat alone, all members of your party need to agree on a single ramen shop. Honestly, I think it’s just a clever ploy to get you to return at a later date to try a different shop! I’ll definitely return, but the ramen at shop number 4 was so amazing, I’m not sure I could be convinced to try another.
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