Yamashita Park

Yamashita Park is Yokohama's most beloved waterfront park, stretching 700 metres along the shore of Yokohama Bay in Kanagawa Prefecture. Created in 1930 on land reclaimed from debris of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, the park has served as a gathering place for Yokohama residents and visitors for nearly a century. Rose gardens, sculptural fountains, and broad lawn areas border the harbour walkway, with open views to the Bay Bridge, moored vessels, and the Cosmo World ferris wheel glowing in the distance at night.

The park's most distinctive feature is the Hikawa Maru — a 1929-built Japanese ocean liner preserved in place along the park's western edge as a floating museum. The ship served as a passenger and refrigerated cargo vessel on the Seattle-Yokohama route for 30 years and is designated a National Important Cultural Property. Interior tours (¥300) allow visitors to explore the original first-class passenger cabins, dining salon, and engine room — a rare surviving example of 1930s luxury maritime design. The ship's dark-hulled exterior profile against the bay is immediately recognisable and widely photographed from the promenade.

The park is bounded by Yokohama Chinatown (7 minutes north on foot) and the Yokohama Museum (a short walk west), making it a natural transition point on a waterfront walking route. The Marine Tower lighthouse, a 106-metre structure opposite the park entrance, offers harbour views from its observation deck. The Indian Water Fountain memorial at the park's eastern end commemorates the Indian community's historical contribution to the port.

The park is open 24 hours and free to enter, most appealing in early morning for a quiet harbour walk and in the evening when the bay views include illuminated structures across the water. Cherry blossom season (late March–early April) brings heavy visitor numbers to the tree-lined paths.