Just a 30-minute train ride away from downtown Tokyo, Yokohama is the less frenzied, breezier sibling – figuratively and literally since it is by the sea. The first port city to open up to foreign trade in 1859, it pioneered a unique food culture that marries foreign influences with Japanese tastes.
There’s yoshoku, their unique Japanese take on western food now popular around the world. Think Ma Maison, Mos Burger and Saizeriya.
But perhaps the most iconic is chuka (meaning “Chinese food”), which originated in Yokohama’s Chukagai (Chinatown), the biggest in Japan. It is Yokohama’s most popular attraction with its distinctive Chinese gates and Kanteibyo, a temple dedicated to the warrior deity Guan Yu.
