View Yokohama from Nogeyama

Yokohama City Mount Fuji Photo Print

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The best point of vantage to view Yokohama from is Nogeyama, just behind Sakuragichō Station. It affords a fine view of the city and the harbor, and in itself is a charming little park, one of the city's favorite haunts. Hard by is Kamonyama, a hill adorned with cherry trees, on which stands the somewhat uncouth statue of Lord Ii, the courageous Prime Minister of the Shōgunate who opened the port to foreign intercourse in spite of the fiery opposition of the reactionary party. Below, in the busy, commercial and shopping district run the famous streets of Honchō, Motomachi, Benten-dōri and Isezakichō, which by day and night attract great throngs of shoppers, saunterers and amusement seekers, not only from the rest of the city but from districts far away, as far in fact as Tokyo on the one side and on the other, Kamakura, or even Hakone. They abound in department stores, theaters and amusement houses of all sorts dear to the hearts of youths and flappers. Yokohama's dance-halls are by no means the least of its attractions.

As Yokohama is an irresistible magnet to the numerous smaller towns lying around, the latter in their turn exercise the same magnetic power over Yokohama. It is the dream of all Yokohama boys and girls to spend their week-end at some spot among the rural scenery, away from the port's bustle, say, at Kamakura or Hakone. But Yokohama itself abounds in beautiful places, of which Negishi, with its famous race-course and golf links (near the Bluff), and Sugita plum garden (at the tramcar terminus of Sugita), Tsurumi (4.7 miles from Yokohama Station) with its Sojiji Temple and Kagetsuen Garden, are most frequently mentioned. In fact, one is advised to make a temporary home at Yokohama, from which to visit the cardinal centers of business and pleasure, for here there are complete facilities of communications over land and water, and the accommodation afforded by Japanese and foreign-style hotels of various grades is as good as the best anywhere. Yokohama has many sides, its serious dignified side, as in the upper walks of the Bluff, commanding a grand view of the land and seascape, and its hectic side as din the gaiety of Isezakichō and vicinity.