A Fantastic Garden Unheard of
Reasons to visit Yokohama
Happy New Year! It hasn’t been that long since my last post on Kamakura but it feels like it’s been ages. A lot has happened in a short time with very little rest. Since I’m now in the stage of the trip that was the extension from the original 2 months I thought this part of my trip would be slower but so far it hasn’t. There’s just so much to see and do.
Kamakura wasn’t much rest because I was constantly going out sightseeing and capturing images of Mount Fuji. Yokohama was something similar.
My primary reason for revisiting Yokohama was to see the International Passenger Terminal by Foreign Office Architects. Originally designed in 1995 and constructed in 2022, it was shown to me in school and I thought it was pretty cool. I didn’t know about it on my first trip to Yokohama despite being within view of it, one pier over. This might be because it’s a pretty low profile building. It’s not that tall, only three levels but the roof is where all the action happens.
It is a large open space with gentle curves and complex angles that allows for fantastic undulations along pathways and through open areas. Walking over the wooden planks, the pathway runs in several loops that offer views of the harbour, cityscape, and building itself. Because of this, it connects quite well to the surrounding urban waterfront and becomes a public plaza where people walk and gather. It was cool to see all sorts of people from travels to school children to couples and people exercising.
Two other architectural projects I checked out while in Yokohama were the Yokosuka Museum of Art desigend by Riken Yamamoto and the Heiwa Central Park peace monument by Hakuten. The first was a decent museum but I wasn’t able to take photos on the interior while the second was an interesting play of light with thousands of tiny holes cut into a disk.
I also happened to visit Mikasa Historic Memorial Warship which is a late 1890s dreadnought battleship of the Japanese Navy that fought in the Japanese-Russo War. After WW2 it’s guns were removed but later on it was restored in appearance to become a museum. It’s kind of cool to walk on an old battleship and the museum is quite informative with lots of information, animated displays, minature models, and even some VR.
The most exciting part of Yokohama was visiting Sankeien garden. The garden began as a private residence of a wealthy buisness man and over time was gradually opened to the public.
Even though it was winter and there weren’t many flowers in bloom or leaves on the trees, this was a fantastic garden and one of the best I’ve visited in Japan. It’s a fairly large garden but what makes it special are the number of tea houses and other buildings that have been preserved from other parts of Japan. The buildings weren’t open on the interior which was a shame but from the outside they were still wonderful to see. As well, each had a sign post with a plan diagram.
My favourite was the Choshukaku, believed to have been constructed on the premises of Nijojo Castle in Kyoto in 1623 by Tokugawa Iemitsu and later relocated to the garden in 1922.
According to the garden, the building is architecturally unique in that there are three different roof styles. It is placed at the end of a little valley with a small platform overhanging the adjacent stream. It’s beautiful.
There were several other beautiful teahouses in the garden
Then I came upon a thatched roof building from Shiwakawa-go. This is a famous village in Nagano for seeing thatched roof buildings but unlike those that are mostly residences, this one is a museum that can be entered. The garden keeps a fire going which creates a smokey atmosphere that’s good for photos. This building happens to be of a wealthy farm residence so it is quite large and well preserved.
Lastly, I can’t visit Yokohama in the winter without seeing some of the christmas lights. Some of the lights were the same as the previous year but this year there was also a large geodesic dome in the park synced to music. It’s not nearly as much fun alone but it’s still fun.
