Yokohama

Yokohama is a port town south of Tokyo, about a half an hour on the train. If you’re going on any cruise ships in Japan you will very likely be leaving and returning from Yokohama. Honestly, I wasn’t sure of the attraction to Yokohama so we decided to make a trip to check it out! Wanna know the verdict? Read on to know if its worth the trip and to find out what to do when you are in port.

Yokohama in the main train station, however, some the attractions are a few stops further out so it can be worth planning which attractions you want to see. We continued on to Minatomirai station. You can walk from Yokohama to Minatomirai if you are keen to explore. When we went it was wet and overcast and windy so not as pleasant and we decided the train was the way to go!

Yokohama Cosmo World Amusement Park

As you exit Minatomirai station you are met with the impressive Ferris wheel of Yokohama Cosmo World which sits right on the bay of the Minato Mirai Bayside district of Yokohama. Entrance to the amusement park is free and you pay per ride.

The rollercoaster is known as a diving rollercoatser as it dives underground as the water splashes around it! There is a lot here that could easily fill up a day or an evening with teen kids.

Across the from the amusement park is the Cup Noodle Factory and Yokohama “World Porters”.

Yokohama “World Porters”

This shopping centre has a great food court on the ground floor. There are not a lot of places to eat in this area so this is the place to come for meals or snacks or a coffee at the Starbucks. On the ground floor you will also find a Kit Kat Chocolatory with every flavour of Kit Kat you could ever dream of! Perfect for stocking up to take home, including a number of exclusive items.

The upper floors have clothing stores for those that would prefer to shop than be flung around a roller coaster.

Cup Noodle Factory

The cup noodle factory is an awesome place for kids and adults alike. It’s a lot of fun making your own personal souvenir to take home and learning about the history of the iconic cup noodle.

We did this experience in Osaka quite a few years back, for more information check out our earlier post here.

Museum Entry – ¥500 for adults, high school children and younger are free.

Once you have paid your entry fee there are a number of additional experiences you can do while you are here: My Cup Noodle, Chicken Ramen Factory or the Cup Noodles Park (for younger kids only).

My Cup Noodles experience – ¥500 decorate your own noodle cup and choose ingredients to be added packed and sealed to take home. Pre booking is not required, you can just show up on the day and book for the next available time. Although times do fill up so if you have a specific time in mind, book online the day before. Online bookings can’t be made on the day.

Chicken Ramen Factory experience – Make your own noodles from scratch. ¥600 for primary school (must be over 6 years old) and ¥1000 for high school children. Bookings are required and can be made online.

Cup Noodles Park. ¥500 (no booking required). For children from 3 years of age and primary school age must be over 90cm.

Opening Hours
10am to 6pm
Check online for closing days – often closed on a Tuesday

Red Brick Warehouse

Just a short (6 min) walk from the Cup Noodle factory is the Red Brick Warehouse.

The historic red brick building was the old port customs house and has been converted to house rows and rows of little local stalls, handicrafts and restaurants. Its also a great place to visit if it’s pouring outside!

It reminded us of The Rocks in Sydney. Kids might find it a little boring (although there is a Disney store) but if you love browsing little local shops, this is the place to go!

From here we continued to walk the Yamashita Rinko Line Promenade (see map at the end of this post) around the bay to Chinatown for lunch.

Hikawa Maru

The Hikawa Maru is a luxury passenger ship built in 1929. It is now permanently docked in Yokohama and open as a museum. The rooms are preserved in the style that first class passengers would have experienced on trips between America and Japan. The Hikawa Maru crossed the Pacific 254 times between Seattle and Japan.

The boat is open 9am to 5pm every day except Mondays, it costs ¥500 for adults entry. For more details.

When you reach the boat, turn right. This will take you through a garden and past the statue of the god of the water, and up the street to Chinatown.

Chinatown

Yokohama Chinatown is known as the largest Chinatown of Japan. It can get really busy but the day we went was very quiet, it was mid week, wet and rainy and a little after the lunch rush of the day.

We found an amazing Yum Cha and left not being able to fit anything else in!!

…until we came outside and found massive pork buns that we couldn’t resist.

It was wet and cold and we had had our fill so we decided to head back to Tokyo

Our Itinerary

Our trip started in Tokyo and we caught the train to Yokohama (about half an hour on the rapid train) and then on to Minatomirai station near the Amusement park and roller coaster. We bought tickets for the Cup Noodle Museum and since we had an hour wait grabbed some coffee from Starbucks and some Kit Kats to take home. We took a quick trip over to the Red Brick Warehouse and bought a few treats for family before coming back to the Cup Noodle Museum to make our cup noodles. We then walked along the promenade (more correctly we were blown along by the wind!) until we reached Chinatown where we stopped for lunch. From here we caught the train from Motomachi-Chukagai station back to Yokohama station (Minatomirai Line) and then on to Tokyo.

Check out the map below. I’ve placed images of the sights we saw over the map so you can see how close they are to one another.

The Verdict

It’s important to note we didn’t see all of Yokohama and we went on a day that was wet and windy and rainy. There was more to see than I thought and it was easy to get to see a number of things in the day and lots to explore if you are in the area. However, I wouldn’t make a special trip just to visit Yokohama, unless you really really want to do the cup noodle experience…