Long Living Tortoise's Walk in Tokyo
Strolling through lit-up Yokohama
Yoshie Iimori
April 2, 2001
This rough summary of today's walking course: Yamate Italy Montain Garden— Motomachi Park—Minato no Mieru Oka Park— Yamashita Park—Square "Kaikou Hiroba"—Nihon Boulevard—Street "Kisha michi"—Shinko area—Nippon maru Memorial ParkArt Square "Bijutu no Hiroba"—Pacifico Yokohama—Rinko Park
Walking day: Saturday the 24th February 2001
Many young couples enjoy viewing lit-up bridges and buildings in Yokohama, which is one of their favourite destinations. Frankly to say, they do not exactly see the lit-up structures. They gaze at each other indulging in their love with their partner and they just glance at lit-up monuments which make their theatre for their drama vivid and more romantic.
Yokohama city, where there are many historical buildings and fascinating areas, has a project of conservation of them and lights up some of the famous ones, co-operating with other public and private sectors to attract tourists. In fact it works very well. One can see many people walking in the evening in the park or avenues and the city looks outstandingly unique, thanks to the mixture of modern European style of buildings and contemporary fashionable designed skyscrapers. One can also read articles which praise these sites on various magazines.
Tetsuro Odashima, a Yokohama city official has organised a tour for students who major in gardening, landscape and city planning, since 1999. I joined the tour this year and walked around the city with students listening to his lecture. The number of participants was quite big and the students were very enthusiastic to know the geography of Yokohama. Of course, city planning needs complicated knowledge including the history, geography, climate, economy, and residents' interests. A city has layers of history and people change it as society changes, that aspect should not be ignored. I believe that walking is the one of the best ways to know the whole of the city, so this project to encourage students to walk around with a lecture of the present project is wonderful.
I showed my Yokohama friend the plan of the tour, which would start at four o'clock and would be scheduled to end at nine. She said that the plan looked very tough to walk. Yokohama local people would not join such a long walking tour partly because they know that the city is hilly and partly because they prefer to drive. As a city wanderer, the plan was not hard and I knew the course covered only a distant of about five kilometres. However the students walked far behind from the organiser Odashima who was also accustomed to walk and me, and they seemed very tired at the end of the tour.
The tour members met at the Ishikawa-cho station and headed to the first destination Yamate Italy Garden where Italian consulate stood between 1880 to 1886 before they moved out, and there are two modern buildings which are open to public: Bluff no.18 and the Home of a Diplomat.
Walking along the Yamate-Hon-dori Street, we saw the Erismann Residence which was designed by Czech architect Antonin Raymond, renovated. It was built in 1926 and it was rebuilt in 1990 inside Motomachi Park. The park was opened in 1870 and tennis was played for the first time in Japan. At the corner of the park we saw the base of a brick building lit up. It looked a ruin which made me feel ancient world although it was built in modern period.
We dropped into Bluff no.234. It used to be an apartment which has had four residences for foreigners. Now Yokohama volunteers organise several events there. Then an exhibition of artworks of students from Yokohama schools was held.
The rain had almost stopped when we went out. We headed toward next place, Minato no Mieru Oka Park where there used to be British navy camp when Japan opened the Yokohama port. The British council whose building is now registered as cultural asset of Yokohama was here, too. One can open a concert or an event in this British House Yokohama.
From the park, we enjoyed the view of lit-up bridges. Odashima explained that one express way route was changed not to destroy the good view. Everyone was astonished by the fact that Yokohama city was keen as mustard to keep good sight.
Yamashita Park is very famous for a statue of a girl who wears red shoes and everyone might know the famous song of the girl. A numbers of couples flocked to the park and saw the port arm in arm. Our party walked through them and we saw the Hikawa-maru ship which was called "Queen of Pacific" due to the beautiful figure. When we looked Bay bridge and Tsurumi Tsubasa bridge, the colours of the light changed.
Yokohama's three famous nicknames of buildings are Jack, Queen and King. From Nihon Boulevard one can see all of them. Jack is a memorial hall, Yokohama Kaikou Kinen Kaikan, Queen is Yokohama Customs and King is Kanagawa Prefectural hall. I was fond of Queen the best among them. The tower is the highest and nearest to the port. One first sees the back of the building from the way, but one should go around it to find the front because the tower was designed as it should be looked at from the sea.
The street called Kisha-michi was opened in 1911 as a railway to carry goods from customs to Yokohama station. Two bridges which were originally built when the railway was opened was set up in this pedestrian promenade. A hotel is designed as a gate and it looked as if it invited casual strollers to take a walk in the street.
Students showed their interests in the choice of light. Some was lit with orange light and others were with white light. Famous light designer paved with lights in the street along the Yokohama museum, the area is called the Art Square "Bijutu no Hiroba", however several of them were out of work. It was said that they could not be repaired easily. Design sounded supreme. Yet city planning needs not only good design but efficiency.
The last place we visited was Pacifico Yokohama and Seaside park. Those were opend in 1991 in Minato Mirai area which was developed recently.
At the end of the tour, participants got tired after four hour walk but we enjoyed the tour very much. We learned how Yokohama city has devoted the power to preserve old buildings and develop new area with great care for good design to encourage more people to visit the city.
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