Yokohama for first-time visitors
Here's Yokohama through the lens of first-timers: the canonical questions worth asking before you book a flight, the curated lists worth opening when you want a shortcut to local expertise, and the live right-now data below ready to inform your next decision about when, where, and how to spend your time on the ground.
Yokohama for first-timers, in numbers
- Picks on this page
- 24 places across 2 lists, led by Kamakura, Yokohama Marine Tower, Ōfuna Kannon Temple
- Posted hours
- 5 picks post hours earliest 11:00, latest 02:00; 0 open by 09:00, 3 past 21:00
Questions first-timers ask about Yokohama
-
Must-see
Sankei-en, the 1906 garden in Honmoku, is the one Yokohama sight you should not skip. A Kyoto pagoda, moved here in 1914, stands above a carp pond, and adult entry is 900 yen (about US$5.70). From there, walk the harbour from Osanbashi Pier to Yamashita Park and eat dinner in Chinatown.
Read the full answer → -
Best time to visit
Come between mid-October and late November. In Yokohama, daytime highs settle between 17 and 22°C, the typhoon risk fades after early October, and the city's ginkgo avenues turn gold by the last week of November. May is the runner-up. Avoid July through September, when heavy humidity and typhoons can empty the Minato Mirai waterfront.
Read the full answer → -
Airport to city
From Haneda (HND), the Keikyu Airport Line gets you to Yokohama Station in 25 to 30 minutes for about ¥370 ($2.35), or if you have heavy bags, the Airport Limousine bus to YCAT at Yokohama Station costs about ¥750 and takes 30 to 40 minutes. From Narita (NRT), the direct Narita Express takes about 90 minutes and costs ¥4,370 for a reserved seat.
Read the full answer → -
How to get there
Fly into Tokyo Haneda (HND), 28 km north of Yokohama Station, rather than Narita. The red Keikyu Airport Line runs from Haneda's arrival halls to Yokohama in about 30 minutes for under ¥400, while Narita (NRT) sits roughly 100 km away and the transfer from there adds more than an hour and several thousand yen. Book Haneda whenever its fare is within $150 of Narita's.
Read the full answer → -
Getting around
Walk the waterfront and ride the Minatomirai Line for everything between Yokohama Station and Chinatown, and a 460-yen one-day pass covers the whole stretch. For Sakuragicho, Kannai and Ishikawacho take the JR Negishi Line, the Blue Line subway for Shin-Yokohama, and city bus 8 or 148 for Sankei-en. One Suica or Pasmo card taps on all of them.
Read the full answer →
Curated for first-timers
-
Must-see attractions
Yokohama's must-see list is a portrait of a port that has always looked outward: its harbour landmark is catalogued as a lighthouse, two of its most moving grounds are a cemetery for non-Japanese citizens and a Korean War cemetery of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and its churches complete that record. This twelve refuses to stop at the city line. Kamakura is a separate city in Kanagawa prefecture, home to Ōfuna Kannon Temple and the Great Buddha, while the Enoshima Sea Candle sits in Fujisawa and the Yokosuka Arts Theatre is an opera house worth building an evening around. We've put this together for travellers who want the harbour's history and are happy to ride a train for the rest, not for anyone hunting malls or theme parks. Where our sources are thin, the paragraphs say so rather than pad.
See the picks → -
Best restaurants
Yokohama eats late, eats across borders, and rewards anyone willing to walk a few blocks past the obvious. This list leans toward kitchens that have a clear point of view. There is Chinese cooking in 山下町, where one dining room serves noodles until 02:00 at weekends, and Italian cooking takes two forms: a two-service dining room in 太田町 and a cluster of tables in 石川町. Japanese cooking ranges from fine dining to tempura counters, and there is a beef bowl that earns a fine-dining listing too. Some of these are for a long, deliberate dinner; others are for the moment when the bars close and you need something hot. None are here because a tour bus stops outside. We checked every address, hour, and phone number against the public record so you can plan a day around them rather than hope. Read the hours closely: several of these kitchens close between lunch and dinner, and a few shut on Mondays.
See the picks →