Yamashita Park, located right by the ocean, is one of the most well-known parks in Yokohama. It is a popular park because of its excellent location allowing many people to visit both during the day and the night. During the day at this time of the year, the park is filled with colorful flowers including cherry blossoms, which attract many families to spend fun and relaxing time on the grass enjoying picnic. At night, the park is a well-known dating spot for many Japanese, as the night view with millions of city lights with Yokohama Bay creates a romantic feeling for couples. Let’s explore Yamashita Park to find spring this April!
Let’s visit Yamashita Park
Yamashita Park is located in an ideal place by the ocean near major railways, which makes visiting the park both easy and accessible when you wish to visit a couple of popular tourist locations in Yokohama. It is near the famous and popular tourist destinations such as Chinatown, the Red Brick Warehouse, and the Cup Noodle Museum. Depending on what you are in the mood for, you can have the park as the center and visit various locations before and after. You may like to have lunch in Chinatown, and if the weather is nice, you can walk just a couple of minutes to the ocean and there you’ll find Yamashita Park. If you are coming from Yokohama, you can use the Minatomirai Line and get off at Motomachi-Chukagai or Nihon-Odori. Using JR, you can either get off at Kannai or Ishikawacho to walk to the park.
Colorful flowers around the park
Besides the great view of the Port of Yokohama, Yamashita Park is known for its flower beds around the park. At this time of the year (spring), there are many colorful flowers that welcome visitors all around the park. These flowers include tulips, pansies, water lilies and, of course, cherry blossoms to just name a few. Yamashita Park also has a beautiful rose garden, but unfortunately it is under construction at the moment (end of March 2016). On a sunny day, you’ll see many families, couples and people with dogs walking around the park and also sitting on glass to enjoy picnic among the colorful flowers.
Visit the ship museum, Hikawa Maru
Another thing you can explore at Yamashita Park is the ship museum. In the center of the park, you will see a cargo passenger ship called Hikama Maru, which started operating in 1930. It is no longer operating as a cargo passenger ship, but people can go inside of the ship to learn its history. It is now a museum and is open to public daily, except for Mondays, from 10 am to 5 pm for 300 JPY (2.70 USD) for adults and 100 JPY (0.9 USD) for children. Upon entrance, you can to walk the ship from head to toe and can even enter the operator’s cab. If you enjoy adventure, you will enjoy being able to see how the ship operated from 1930 to 1960 over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the US.
You might be interested in these Airbnbs!
Take a break at a nearby café
If the weather is not the best on the day of your visit, you do not need to sit on the glass to have a picnic, try one of the nice cafes or restaurants nearby. Besides Chinatown, Yamashita Park has a lot of cafes and restaurants that are within walking distance. You can get a cup of hot chocolate if it is still cold in early spring, or you can find a bar to grab yourself a beer. Yamashita Park is surrounded by many businesses and the Kanagawa Prefectural Government office, so after 5 pm this area gets very busy and exciting. If you are keen, walk around, café or bar hop and make new Japanese friends.
Cherry blossom spotting around Yamashita Park
During spring, cherry blossoms are everywhere. As well as big cherry blossoms in Yamashita Park near the fountain, you are likely to see other beautiful cherry blossoms in the neighborhood. One that I spotted on the way back from Yamashita Park to JR Kannai Station was found right by Yokohama Baseball Stadium, where just a few trees had big pink flowers. They were so incredibly beautiful! There are many different kinds of cherry blossoms that bloom at different times, so you still have plenty of time to witness cherry blossoms around Japan as long as rain does not knock all the flowers off the trees.
Take a little break at Yamashita Park
Yokohama is a big city in Kanagawa Prefecture that is generally pretty crowded during both the weekends and weekdays. There are a lot of fun and exciting tourist destinations for both Japanese and international guests and because of its close proximity from Tokyo, many people enjoy taking a day trip out to Yokohama. If you get little too tired of dining and shopping near Yokohama Station or the always crowded Chinatown, come out to the seaside park, Yamashita Park. It is also a popular park, so usually attracts a lot of people, but being able to see and smell the ocean with colorful flowers around the park is sure calm you down a bit. Let’s get out and see what kind of flowers you can during your visit!
History
Get Trip101 in your inbox
Unsubscribe in one click. See our Privacy Policy for more information on how we use your data
-
-
11 Best Love Hotels In Yokohama, Japan - Updated 2024Maria Cristina -
-
-
-
Create an account to