Cities Yokohama Yamashita Park
Yamashita Park
- Garden/Green Space/Nature
- Panorama/Viewpoint
The why: A 750-meter waterfront park with the historic Hikawa Maru ocean liner moored alongside and the Yokohama Marine Tower rising just behind it — the promenade connects to Osanbashi Pier and Minato Mirai for one of Japan's best urban waterfront walks.
Gotcha / logistics: The park itself is free and always open, but the Hikawa Maru (300 yen) closes Mondays and the Marine Tower (1000-1400 yen) has separate day/night ticketing with different hours.
Yamashita Park is a public park stretching about 750 meters along Yokohama’s waterfront. About a hundred meters wide, the park consists mostly of open green space and a broad waterside promenade. It was constructed using rubble from the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 — the debris was used as landfill to create the parkland, turning catastrophe into public space.
The most striking feature is the massive ocean liner moored in the water beside the promenade. The Hikawa Maru was first put into service in 1930 along the Yokohama-Vancouver/Seattle line. It had first-class cabins that attracted the likes of the Imperial Family and Charlie Chaplin for the transpacific journey. In 1960, the ship was retired, and it now serves as a museum ship with informative displays and preserved interiors from the 1930s — the Art Deco first-class dining room and cabins are worth seeing for their craftsmanship alone.
Near the Hikawa Maru stands the Yokohama Marine Tower, extending 106 meters into the air. Although not as high as the Landmark Tower Sky Garden in Minato Mirai, the Marine Tower’s observatory at 100 meters offers a 360-degree view with a more intimate vantage point — you are closer to the waterfront and the historical district, which gives the view a different character than the higher but more distant Landmark Tower.
One of the park’s main features is a wide path running along the water, usually quite busy with people enjoying the bay views and watching ships pass. At the park’s southern end, the path leads into the Rinkosen promenade, which passes by Osanbashi Pier and continues to Minato Mirai. This full waterfront walk — from Yamashita Park through Osanbashi to the Red Brick Warehouses and Minato Mirai — is one of the finest urban walks in the Tokyo metropolitan area, about 3 kilometers of uninterrupted harbor-side promenade.
The park contains an eclectic collection of monuments: an Indian memorial, a monument to a Filipino general, a girl scout statue, monuments to particular Japanese children’s songs, and a statue commemorating the introduction of the Western-style haircut to Japan. Fountains and flower beds punctuate the green space.
Hikawa Maru Hours: 10:00-17:00 (entry until 16:30). Closed Mondays. Admission: 300 yen. Marine Tower Hours: Day 10:00-18:00; Night 18:00-22:00 (19:00-22:00 June-August). Admission: 1000-1400 yen depending on time and day. Access: 5-minute walk from Motomachi-Chukagai Station on the Minato Mirai Line (8 min from Yokohama Station, 230 yen). Also accessible by Sea Bass boat from Yokohama Bay Quarter (1000 yen, 20-35 min).
More in Yokohama
Minato Mirai 21
The reclaimed-land waterfront district that defines the modern Yokohama skyline — Landmark Tower, the Cosmo Clock Ferris wheel, wide pedestrian boulevards, and the cleanest bay views in the Kanto region.
Noge & Miyakobashi Harmonica Alley
A dense post-war drinking warren just across the tracks from Sakuragicho — over 600 bars in walking distance, Showa-era atmosphere intact, and the curving two-storey Miyakobashi Shotengai (Harmonica Alley) along the Ooka River. The closest you get in Kanto to a non-touristed Japanese drinking district.
Red Brick Warehouse
The two surviving Meiji/Taisho-era customs warehouses are the visual signature of the port and the cleanest example of adaptive reuse on the bay. Original iron doors and staircases, restored brick, now full of small shops, cafes, and a top-floor hall.
Sankeien Garden
A traditional Japanese landscape garden that doubles as an open-air architectural museum — historic buildings relocated here from Kyoto and Kamakura (a three-storied pagoda among them), set in classic stroll-garden grounds. Often skipped because it isn't on a train line, which is exactly why it's still calm.
Yokohama Chinatown
The largest Chinatown in Japan, with roots back to the 1859 port opening when Chinese traders brokered between Western merchants and Japanese suppliers. Roughly 250 shops and restaurants packed into a 500-metre square, demarcated by four ornate Paifang gates laid out by Feng Shui principles.
CupNoodles Museum
A design-forward museum about Momofuku Ando and the invention of instant ramen, designed by Kashiwa Sato. Pitched around "creative thinking" rather than corporate hagiography, and the My CupNoodles Factory lets you design your own packaging and pick four toppings from a counter — one of the more genuinely fun rainy-day activities in Minato Mirai.