Japan · Kanagawa
Where to Stay in Yokosuka, Kanagawa
Yokosuka is a city of Kanagawa in Japan, a historic naval port at the mouth of Tokyo Bay, where Commodore Perry's black ships first opened the country to the world.
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Where to stay in Yokosuka
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Yokosuka turns on the port town or the coast. The streets around the naval port keep the Mikasa, the shops, and the museums within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the navy town. Grey warships fill the harbour.
Hills climb steep behind. Out toward the peninsula and the sea, the town gives way to the fishing coves, the fortress islands, and the beaches of the Miura shore. A room by the sea trades the port for the rocky coast, the quiet coves, and the wide blue bay.
The Pacific opens beyond the cape. Stay downtown for the navy town, or out for the coast. From the coast, the centre is a short ride.
About Yokosuka
Yokosuka is the navy town of Tokyo Bay.
What is Yokosuka known for?
On the Miura Peninsula at the bay's mouth in Kanagawa, it grew from a fishing coast into Japan's great naval port, and it keeps the shore where Perry's black ships landed, the old battleship Mikasa held as a museum by the sea, the French-built dockyards and their memory in Verny Park, and the forts and islands that guard the bay. The warm bay opens wide. Grey ships lie at the quays.
What are the main landmarks in Yokosuka?
The battleship Mikasa is the pride of Yokosuka. The old steel warship, the flagship of a famous sea battle, sits in a park by the shore as a museum of the navy, the emblem of the city, downtown. A monument marks Perry's landing.
The stone monument to the black ships stands on the Kurihama shore nearby, while the Verny Park dockyards, the fortress islands, and the naval quays mark the country around Yokosuka.
What is the history of Yokosuka?
Yokosuka opened Japan to the world. In eighteen fifty-three the black ships of Commodore Perry sailed into the bay off Uraga, and their guns forced the closed country to open its doors to foreign trade. A great dockyard rose on the shore.
Soon after, with the help of French engineers, Japan built a modern naval arsenal at Yokosuka, the first of its kind in the land, and the fishing coast became the cradle of the imperial navy. The navy made the city. From the yards of Yokosuka came the great warships of Japan, and the port grew crowded with sailors, docks, and forts guarding the mouth of Tokyo Bay.
War left its relics here. After the wars the old battleship Mikasa was kept as a museum on the shore, the naval port lived on, and Yokosuka grew into a busy harbour city of steep hills, holding its dockyards, its history, and its bay. The grey ships still fill the port.
Yokosuka keeps its naval shore at the mouth of Tokyo Bay.
Where is Yokosuka?
Yokosuka lies in the south of Kanagawa, on the Miura Peninsula between Tokyo Bay and the open Pacific. The city sits on steep green hills and deep inlets around a fine natural harbour, wedged between the two seas, with wooded ridges rising behind and the bay's mouth opening to the north. Green hills drop to the sea.
Ships pass in the wide bay.
What is the climate of Yokosuka?
Yokosuka has a mild, humid maritime climate. Warm wet summers and cool dry winters hold on the bay, with a rainy season in early summer and the chance of a typhoon off the Pacific. Sea air softens the heat.
Winter stays clear and mild.
How do you get to Yokosuka?
Yokosuka lies on the Miura Peninsula, on the rail and road south of Yokohama. Trains and the highway run to it down the bay shore from Yokohama and Tokyo, and ferries cross the mouth of the bay. Boats work the harbour.
Yokohama lies north up the coast.
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Updated August 2026