Yokohama is Japan’s second largest city after Tokyo and has a population of over three million. It is located less than half an hour’s travel from the south of Tokyo by train, and is the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture. Last week, Yokohama hosted the 50th Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting under the theme ‘Building Together the Prosperity of Asia.”
ADB is a financial institution that would be Asian in character and foster economic growth and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. During the sessions, ADB gave the opportunity for 37 journalists from 16 countries of the Asia Pacific to educate themselves on some economic achievements and also to enjoy some of the city’s key tourism attractions.
Yokohama is a port city. Obviously, Yokohama is full of cultures and traditions that are associated with any global port city. The weather around this time of the year is one of the best, say Yokohama residents. It is also the season of flowers and fashionable clothes. Throughout the day, the city centre offers the traveller some of the most romantic and infinite experiences.
They say, every port has its own beginning, history, and roles. In that sense the Port of Yokohama is no exception. History says, towards the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867), during which Japan maintained a policy of self-isolation, Yokohama’s port was one of the first to be opened to foreign trade in 1859. Consequently, the city grew from a small fishing village into one of Japan’s major cities. According to Japan’s tourism leaflet, “in the feudal Edo Period, Japan, had very little contact with foreign countries and foreigners.
However, Tokugawa Shogunate agreed to the demand of open-country by Commodore Matthew Perry, who headed a fleet of U.S. warships (so-called “Black Ships”) and arrived at just south of Yokohama in 1853-1854, and Yokohama, which had been a small fishing village until then, opened its port in 1859 with new facilities and equipment to meet its use as an international commercial port nearest to Edo (Tokyo), along with the other four Japanese ports.
Then, the Port of Yokohama started to work as a gateway to the world/ entrance to Japan to become the birthplace of Japan’s modern civilization; a wide range of first-time-ever things such as, daily newspaper, railway, water supply, ice cream and beer were introduced from Yokohama to other areas of Japan. At the same time, it was the start of the tradition of “Hamakko (People of/ from Yokohama, like “Paulista”)”, who loved any new things, and were very cheerful, enjoying life by adopting whatever was good.
Even though the City and the Port of Yokohama suffered from severe blows such as, the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923), the aerial attacks in World War 2 (1945), Yokohama intensified its efforts every time, to reconstruct the port, led by the enterprising spirit to save its fashionable and sophisticated culture and streetscape.”
Since then it has become a popular city among expats, and foreign tourists. Its Chinatown is one of the largest few in the world. The beauty is that the city’s management authorities have taken every initiative to keep the city clean while preserving its old traditions and cultural aspects, uniquely blended with modern trends and technology.
Tourism today is one of the key areas of Yokohama, full of fascination as a port-city, successful in many big projects to combine the establishment of a trade centre and tourist attractions, in the tangible or abstract side of things, since the beginning of this century, for example. Many appealing tourist attractions include, the landmark tower in Minato-Mirai 21 District, Chinatown, and Yamashita. Yokohama will also work as the port of people, articles, culture, and any other values hereafter to continue to record its history of prosperity.
Yokohama landmark tower
However, the Landmark Tower is the centre-piece of attraction in Yokohama. Standing 296m with a total floor area of 392,885m2, the Landmark Tower is a marvellous cityscape featuring offices, a hotel, and a shopping mall in the central tower, as well as a variety of facilities, such as, an observatory, a multipurpose hall, and an outside area accentuated by a restored stone dock called the Dockyard Garden. - CJ
