How do I get around Yokohama?

Yokohama's visitor core runs about 4 km south from Yokohama Station to Yamashita Park and Motomachi, and the Minatomirai Line runs underground along that whole stretch. Past Yokohama Station it has five stops: Shin-Takashima, Minatomirai, Bashamichi, Nihon-odori and Motomachi-Chukagai. Single fares are currently around 200 to 220 yen, so if you plan three or more rides, buy the 460-yen one-day pass, which works out to about US$2.90 at 157.59 yen to the dollar. Minatomirai Station sits several levels down, and the escalator ride into its cool, echoing atrium takes close to a minute. Above ground, the JR Negishi Line runs parallel, with Sakuragicho, Kannai and Ishikawacho stations dropping you at Landmark Tower, Yokohama Stadium (opened 1977) and the foot of Motomachi shopping street. Load a Suica or Pasmo at any JR machine and it scans on both lines, on city buses and on the municipal subway.

Your feet will do most of the work. The Kishamichi Promenade runs from JR Sakuragicho to the Aka Renga red-brick warehouses over old rail bridges, taking about 15 minutes, and when the wind comes off Tokyo Bay you'll smell brine and diesel. From Aka Renga it is another 15 minutes along the seawall to Yamashita Park and the moored Hikawa Maru, with Yokohama Marine Tower (1961) across the road. Chinatown's gates are 5 minutes inland. On 27 September it was 22°C and overcast with 86% humidity, conditions that leave a shirt damp by Osanbashi Pier, so pack a light rain jacket for the September and October showers. The downside is the hills. The Yamate Bluff above Motomachi holds the Foreigners' Cemetery and Sacred Heart Cathedral (1933), and the stairs up to Minato-no-Mieru-Oka Park are steep. If jet lag has taken your legs, the Akai Kutsu (Red Shoe) loop bus climbs the Bluff for 220 yen.

Two places sit off the rail spine. Sankei-en, the garden that opened in 1906, has no station nearby, so take city bus 8 or 148 from the East Exit terminal at Yokohama Station to Honmoku Sankeien-mae, a journey of roughly 35 minutes. Shin-Yokohama, where the Tokaido Shinkansen stops, is about 11 minutes from Yokohama Station on the Blue Line. The Sea Bass water bus links the east side of Yokohama Station with Minato Mirai, Aka Renga and Yamashita Park in about 30 minutes, its hull slapping loudly on the swell, and it costs several times the train fare. We think it is the one tourist transport worth that premium, because Cosmo Clock 21 looks better from the water than from any road. Skip the Yokohama Air Cabin gondola between Sakuragicho and Unga Park: it covers about 630 metres for roughly 1,000 yen one way, and you can walk that in 8 minutes.

The mistake that costs first-timers the most time is Yokohama Station itself. JR, Tokyu, Keikyu, Sotetsu, the Minatomirai Line and the Blue Line all share one warren of basements, and the East and West exits surface on opposite sides of a wide rail yard, so follow the colour-coded signs rather than your map app and allow 10 minutes for any transfer there. The second trap is a naming clash: Minato Mirai is the district, and Minatomirai Station is one stop on one line, while the Landmark Tower end of the district is closer to JR Sakuragicho. Taxis start at around 500 yen, and GO or Uber will send a licensed cab, but save them for after the last trains, around midnight, or for a family of four with suitcases. For day trips, the JR Yokosuka Line reaches Kamakura in about 25 minutes, and Kanazawa Bunko, a library founded in 1275, sits beside Keikyu's Kanazawa-bunko Station.