Tokyo sights: Yokohama

Yokohama, the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture, is for all intents and purposes an integral part of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, even though independently it is also Japan's second-largest city by population.  It was one of the first major ports opened to foreign trade in the late 19th-century, and so played a major role in modern Japanese historical relations with the West.

We had lunch in Yokohama's Chinatown.  My host used to come here a lot as a student.  He spoke nostalgically of how dirty the streets were then; now it seems to have had a sort of touristy upgrade.

We had lunch in a restaurant whose entire kitchen staff was from Dalian.  They all wore shirts with "Dalian Chauzu Base" written on it, a rather bizarre combination of irregular transcriptions and English translations of 大连饺子基地.

From there we walked to the Hotel New Grand, built in 1927.  The old building's interior is still rather magnificent.  It's a bit unusual in that the lobby is on the second floor.  Guests were leaving a wedding at the time we visited.

Next stop was Yamashita Park, on the waterfront, in a light drizzle.  Lots of flowers in bloom.

Most of the flowers were blocked by my head in this photo:

Downtown Yokohama in the background.

The Hikawa Maru, now permanently anchored here, made over 100 round-trip voyages between Yokohama and Seattle after the war.