Where to Stay in Yokohama, Kanagawa

What is Yokohama known for?

Yokohama is known as Japan's great open port, a harbour city on Tokyo Bay just south of Tokyo. Its waterfront defines it, from the Yokohama Marine Tower and the Cosmo Clock 21 wheel to the redeveloped Minatomirai district and the towers along the bay. The city wears its trading past openly.

The Yokohama Silk Museum, the Yokohama Archives of History, and the NYK Maritime Museum recall the era when silk and shipping passed through the docks, while the Yokohama Museum of Art anchors its cultural life along the coast of the Kantō region on Honshu.

What are the main landmarks in Yokohama?

Yokohama's landmarks gather along the water. The Yokohama Marine Tower rises over the old harbour, the Cosmo Clock 21 wheel turns above Yokohama Cosmo World, and the Yokohama Three Towers stand over the historic port quarter. Museums crowd the shoreline.

The Yokohama Museum of Art, the Yokohama Port Museum, the NYK Maritime Museum, and the CupNoodles Museum Yokohama line the redeveloped bayfront, while the Sacred Heart Cathedral and the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History mark the city's older streets.

What is the history of Yokohama?

Yokohama grew from a modest harbour on Tokyo Bay into one of Japan's principal ports. Commerce is what made Yokohama. Silk carried down from the interior of Honshu, shipping lines, and a foreign merchant community turned a fishing shore into a great port of commerce, a story the Yokohama Silk Museum and the Yokohama Archives of History still keep.

The docks drew the world to the Kantō region, and warehouses and consulates rose along the bay through its early decades. The modern municipality of Yokohama was incorporated in 1889, and the city rose as the maritime and industrial anchor of the Greater Tokyo Area along the Keihin Industrial Zone. Shipping stayed central.

The NYK Maritime Museum and the Yokohama Port Museum trace the lines that tied the harbour to distant coasts, while the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History records the longer past of the prefecture. The waterfront kept changing. From the old factories and docks grew the towers and promenades of the Minatomirai district, and Yokohama settled into its role as the harbour city of Kanagawa Prefecture, the second-largest city in Japan by area and tied closely to nearby Tokyo.

Where is Yokohama?

Yokohama lies on Tokyo Bay in the Kantō region of Honshu, just south of Tokyo, as the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture. The city curves around the western shore of the bay, its old harbour and the towers of the Minatomirai district facing the water. It anchors the Greater Tokyo Area.

The docks and factories of the Keihin Industrial Zone run north toward Tokyo along the bay, so the two cities merge almost seamlessly across the Kantō plain of Honshu.

What is the climate of Yokohama?

Yokohama has a mild, humid temperate climate, tempered by its position on Tokyo Bay. Summers are warm and sticky, with a humid rainy season sweeping in off the sea and heavy downpours along the Kantō coast in the late warm months. Winters stay cool and dry.

Snow is rare by the water, and clear bright days are common in the cold season, while spring and autumn bring the settled weather that suits walking the harbour and the Minatomirai promenades.

How do you get to Yokohama?

Yokohama sits at the heart of the rail network of the Greater Tokyo Area. Frequent trains run north to Tokyo in minutes and out across the Kantō region, and lines converge on the central stations from every direction. The bay adds a sea route.

The port on Tokyo Bay handles shipping and cruise calls, while the wider air links of the region carry travellers in from across Japan and abroad, making Yokohama one of the easiest cities in Kanagawa Prefecture to reach.