Yokohama for solo travelers

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.

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.

Is it safe?

Where locals go

Locals drink in Noge's standing bars beside Sakuragicho Station from 5pm, shop Yokohama-bashi Shotengai for cheap produce before 11am, and eat Okinawan food in Tsurumi's Nakadori. Rokkakubashi's covered arcade by Hakuraku Station and the Ooka River studios of Koganecho draw residents, not the Minato Mirai weekend crowds.

Cost per day

Budget travellers can get through a day in Yokohama on about ¥6,500 ($41), which covers a Kotobuki-cho dorm, konbini breakfasts, iekei ramen, and one rail day pass. Midrange runs about ¥17,000 ($108) with a business hotel near Kannai Station, and luxury starts at about ¥60,000 ($381) for a Minato Mirai harbour-view room. Chinatown buffets are the fastest way to blow a budget day here.