strolling around yokohama chinatown : February 16 2025

no one can deny how widespread chinese culture is. in asia at least, i think all countries have had some chinese culture influence in one way or another. with such a long and well documented history, and china being expert traders, it is no wonder how chinese culture gets shared in many countries. when chinese people and culture get big and get concentrated in one place, that is when chinatowns are built. japan is no exception, and here we are in one.

yokohama chinatown (横浜中華街)

this is japan's largest chinatown! located in the heart of yokohama, just a few minutes walk from the harbor where the port is located. established in 1859, the town quickly developed after the yokohama port was opened to international trade. by the size of that gate with its elaborate design, this chinatown surely made a mark. this is not the only gate in the area though, but i think this is the most photographed as this one is the closest to the port. this was the last i photographed in chinatown. allow me to recall how the day went.

my housemate and i originally arrived at the southern gate. yokohama is actually quite far from home, we arrived here by train travelling for around 2 hours. 4 train rides actually, supposed to be 3 but got on a wrong train at one point. Hive account@wittyzell was craving for some chinese food, and 2 friends from the philippines were still here, so why not eat at a legit chinatown. food and travel, two birds in one.

at first we were actually weirded out. this was supposed to be a chinatown but how come there were so many hawaiian shops as well? we passed by so many hawaiian shops, these were still on the outskirts but already inside the gate.

i really had no clue how that came to be, the odd ones really do stand out. these shops are very pretty though. but this chinatown had around 250 chinese shops sprawled in a 300 sq m area. not really an expert on sizes but that is impressive i think.

we finally arrived at the chinese shops, and the chaos has started. of course, people who came here came here for some chinese stuff, naturally they will all be around these shops. and what chaos it really was, crowded as ever! and another gate over there! so far, there has been so much reds and yellows, and people. all of these before lunch, this made me hungry.

red lanterns were everywhere, it was chinatown after all. and here came a dragon! yellow lanterns lined side by side preceded by a dragon head, that looked great from a far. chinese dragons are serpent like, quite different from western dinosaur like dragons. not saying that any of these were real, but they were depicted that way in writing and art. or were they real? who knows?

and here is a detailed look at one of the restaurants. as mentioned, reds and yellows! or golds! that facade was really something, i do get it that they need to be extra to get attention and customer. and being in a chinatown is really an eye experience as well.

here was the lunch dishes we had. we also had 2 pots of tea. one was pretty strongly flavored which i loved, the other was a bit bland but well loved by Hive account@wittyzell. although we had different tastes in drinks, we all agreed how tasty the food was. from the top left to right, a platter of cold cuts for appetizer which we loved. a platter of fried rice which we loved. a serving of spicy shrimp, delicious. roasted duck, yummy! a serving of beef stew, loved that. half a serving of spicy tofu, that went well with the fried rice. shao long pao dumplings, yum yum. and mango pudding for dessert, i was full at this point. these were eaten by a group of 6.

we decided to stroll around some more after that heavy but sumptuous lunch. here to more gates! aside from all the food around, there were also many palm readers. is palm reading really heavy in chinese culture? in this one street, palm reader shops lined up. but a friend warned, they will read one palm for a fee. but if you want more, they will read the other palm for another fee, that is a tricky way to get two in one.

reached a pagoda at one point and poeple were enjoying their street food over there. we dare not sit, everyone was eating. kaihoutei, the pagoda, was another one designed with paper lanterns and these light up at night.

just beside the pagoda were these array of mythical creatures. these also light up for sure. i would have loved to know more of these mythical creatures but i am just not well versed. i am quite sure that the top 3 and lower left are the four creatures of the cardinal directions. the last two i am not quite sure, another dragon like and another phoenix like creature. if anyone knows out there, please comment down below what these mythical creatures are called. i'm sure all of these will look good at night though.

we ended the chinatown experience at a coffee shop. these differently colored lanterns adorn the ceiling. and that made us smile. this experience was just a tip of the iceberg of what china has to offer, that i am sure. but for now, i will be content with this little china in yokohama.

as always, AMPING KANUNAY!
stay safe!