When Japan Opened to the World: Walking Through the First Foreign Settlement
Hello everyone, this is Yuriko I’ve come to Minato Mirai right now I’m thinking of taking a walk around the Minato Mirai area today From now on Today’s plan is to walk to Motomachi-Chukagai Station and have lunch in Chinatown And actually, I used to attend a Catholic girls’ school in an area called Motomachi in Yokohama so that area is quite interesting It still retains the most Western-like atmosphere in Japan It’s a really interesting area where they often film dramas and do photo shoots for magazines and models, it’s Japan but there’s an area with an atmosphere that doesn’t feel very Japanese so I’d like to guide everyone there There’s also a foreign cemetery so if there are any foreigners who want to live in Japan you can see your future gravesite Alright, so let’s go check it out Now, Yokohama first appeared in textbooks in 1853 As you all know For about 200 years during the Edo period Japan had a policy of national isolation To be precise, they did conduct trade with the Netherlands and Asian countries but they did not trade with any other nations Then in 1853, American Navy Commodore Perry led four black ships to Yokosuka City and presented a letter to the Edo shogunate demanding the opening of the country The following year, Perry came again, landed in what is now Yokohama, and signed the Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States and Japan with the shogunate And in 1859, the Port of Yokohama was opened Yokohama rapidly developed with foreign settlements and commercial port urbanization And the export of cotton textiles and the development of railways began In fact, in 1872, between Tokyo and Yokohama Japan’s first railway line opened Yokohama became a leading place for Japan’s modernization and westernization and many facilities and cultural developments were born Now I’ve finally walked close to the Red Brick Warehouse I think I’ve been walking for about 20 minutes Today is really sunny It’s a bit windy but it’s a nice day Despite it being a weekday, there are quite a lot of people here, so maybe there’s some kind of event going on I’d like to take a look around together with everyone The Red Brick Warehouse is actually a building that’s been here for quite a long time It’s not something that was built recently I think it was probably built after America opened the port It’s a really old building I think it probably has about 100 years of history or so This area has quite a lot of other old buildings besides the Red Brick Warehouse There are Western-style buildings here and it’s quite interesting, so I’d like to introduce them to you all Yes, this Red Brick Warehouse was completed between 1911 and 1913 It’s a historic brick warehouse building Back then, it mainly functioned as a bonded warehouse for temporary storage of imported goods and unprocessed materials Yokohama still plays a major role as a large port Now, this is a mysterious railway track I found near the Red Brick Warehouse I couldn’t figure out the reason for this railway track But there are tracks like this in several places Perhaps trains or streetcars used to run here in the past I let my thoughts wander Yokohama was really windy Well, we’ve finally arrived at Yokohama Chinatown Chinatown is also an indispensable part of the Yokohama area But why did so many Chinese people come to live in this area? There’s a historical background When the port opened, the current Chinatown area was also called Yokohama Shinden It was reclaimed land of rice fields and inlets The shogunate confiscated the farmland for residential and commercial buildings It is being developed as residential land Initially, Westerners lived in the settlement Their trading houses and banks were established there However, gradually serving as interpreters and mediators for language and business negotiations Chinese merchants and technicians came to live there Near this Chinatown, there is an area called the Yamate area In that area, there are many Western-style buildings The Yamate area is located on high ground among the foreign settlements developed after the port opening With views overlooking the sea It was designated as a Western residential area due to its good ventilation and safety On the other hand, Chinatown was originally low-lying reclaimed land with many wetlands and waterways which was also disadvantageous in terms of sanitation and drainage Therefore, the land prices were cheap and it was treated as an area suitable for commerce In any case, Yokohama’s Chinatown is quite large even by global standards and you can eat authentic and delicious Chinese cuisine there On this day, I went to my favorite congee restaurant and ate lots of dishes There are really so many restaurants so when you visit You might want to go there hungry♪ Now, if you go a little further from the Chinatown area you can see this big river and bridge Beyond this river is an area called Motomachi which is a somewhat upscale and calm area I’ve heard that New York also has a Chinatown and an area called SOHO so it might be a bit similar The atmosphere is really different compared to Chinatown You can see madams and people who seem quite wealthy walking around And now we’ve moved by escalator from Motomachi-Chukagai Station to the Yamate area This is Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery If you want to live in Japan and among you there are those who would ultimately like to be laid to rest in Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery, I recommend you visit once What do you think? It’s quite a pleasant area I’m sure you’ll love it Oh, excuse me But really, personally I love this area, you see During my junior and senior high school years, I attended a girls’ school near this cemetery I know this area better than anyone else As I mentioned earlier, it’s located on high ground This area has many Western-style buildings and facilities There are so many of them I still have so much more I want to talk about But today’s video is coming to an end So I’d like to introduce them to you all on another occasion Thank you for watching the video to the very end today Let’s meet again in the next video See you later!
In this video, I explore Japan’s oldest foreign settlement in Yokohama, where East first met West. 🌏
We’ll walk through the beautiful historic areas of Minato Mirai, Red Brick Warehouse, Motomachi-Chukagai (Chinatown), Motomachi Street, the Foreign Cemetery, and the Yamate Hills — tracing the footsteps of the people who helped shape modern Japan.
You’ll see how Western and Japanese cultures blended through architecture, food, and everyday life — a side of Japan that many travelers never experience.
📍 Filmed in Yokohama, Japan 🇯🇵
📩 For private tour inquiries, please contact me by email: i.am.yuriuchan1998@gmail.com
#JapanTravel #Yokohama #HiddenJapan #HistoryJapan #ForeignSettlement #Yamate #RedBrickWarehouse #Motomachi #Chinatown #TravelJapan #CulturalHeritage
35 Comments
The most romantic place to visit.. my future grave site 😂😂😂
Good work 😁
I miss Yokohama! and thank you for showing the Red Brick and Chinatown🥰 Brings back memories
I want a big bowl of congee, then I could die happy. You know what to do with the body.
You put out the BEST content. I love how much variety you bring to YouTube about japan and now even the US
Thank you for the brief Yokohama tour on a beautiful day. I did not expect to see a giant Santa Claus in Chinatown. You must take us to the Cup Noodle Museum! Thank you for your hard work, your enthusiasm, and wonderful smiles. ♥
Love this video great history ! If I ever come to Japan would love to have you for a tour guide . like the sound of your voice
PS NEW YORK CITY CHINATOWN IS NOT IN SOHO.
NOT A TREATY OF PEACE HE SIGNED JAPAN SURRENDERED TO THE USA AFTER WE DROPED 2 BOMBS. IF HE DID NOT SIGN THE NEXT 3RD BOMB WAS TO BE DROPPED ON TOKYO SO HE SIGNED.
Japan surrendered in World War II with the announcement of Emperor Hirohito on August 15, 1945, and the formal signing of the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri
Recently I watched the show "Shogun", it's very dramatic set in around 1600 Japan, very interesting to see how the catholic Portuguese were the first to make contact and how it changed the realm
7:50 I think this came up in a video where you ended up having breakfast with three other ladies and "madams" was the English word you used.
My Google AI gives this:
"Ladies" is a general, often polite, way to address [or refer to 😊] a group of women, while "madams" is grammatically incorrect and typically avoided, as the correct plural of "madam" is either the French "mesdames" (formal) or the informal "madams" (used in a negative or informal context, particularly related to running a brothel).
(PS Yurichan is always a lady.😊🌹)
I think that the largest Chinatown in the US is in San Francisco. Many Chinese people emigrated to the US in the 1800's, largely to help expand the US railroad tracks across the west. Most of them settled in San Francisco. Los Angeles and Chicago also have fairly large Chinatowns.
I visited Japan 10 years ago. We wanted to spend a day in Yokohama, unfortunately there were heavy, dark clouds so it was almost as dark as night, and it was raining very hard. I couldn't get any good photos, but we did eat a late lunch in Chinatown.
Wow I would love to be in Japan. Yokohama !!.
I actually spent one week in Yokohama earlier in October, but I somehow never went into the red brick department store 😂
As for the railroad tracks, I wondered what they were for too, particularly since they seemed to be doing some construction work on the Kishamichi Promenade, but I think they were just changing the flooring.
So I did some research and the track are just a vestige of a freight line that used to connect the harbour to the rest of the rail network.
It has now been transformed into the Yamashita Rinko Line Promenade (山下臨港線プロムナード)
Thanks for the video, it made me discover a few places where I haven't been yet in Yokohama that I might check out next time I go. 😊
i have mixed feelings…
why would I as a foreigner come to a city in japan that looks like it's not in japan…
a foreign settlement is like an oxymoron… why?
when I go to japan, i want to see those beautiful old buildings, some with thatched roofs and beautiful stone gardens and those terraces where you can sit on and enjoy the view and those breathtaking temples…
but more and more of them are getting closed and start becoming ruins… seeing japan becoming more foreign makes me incredibly sad… i need to visit japan as much as possible before it's gone 😥
I hear the melody of "Va pensiero". 🌸
Thank you for inviting us to visit the foreign cemetery, but you know, maybe next time 😅 😉
✨👏👏👏🌺💖
thank you for sharing this. Yokohama looks beautiful.
This video was a walk down memory lane for me. I've been to every place in this video except for the restaurant, though I did walk past it. Yuri do you speak English since you attended a Catholic school?
IRAN JAPAN TEHRAN TOKYO ❤❤
🇮🇷🇮🇷🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵🇮🇷🇮🇷
"You can see your future gravesite"—yes, let's get our priorities in order…lol
I'm beginning to see that so much of Japan's history was closed. This is really only recently that the country invited foreigners. I am amazed at how fast the world in our time has modernized so much.
This is a really interesting video. I didn't know much about Japan opening up to the west. There's far more to Yokohama than giving its name to a brand of motorcycle tyres! It a great place to visit.
I plan to retire to Osaka soon and buy a house. I can watch the sun rise everyday. When it ends ill be cremated an put in the sea so i can be part of the circle of life. Not in that cemetery lol
Looking pretty walking and smiling in the wind. There's a China town in a lot of cities in the US. There's three that i know of in California and I'm sure there might be more.
Thank you for the tour. I was reading about this place. It's very interesting to see a tour of it.
Do young Japanese women share a morbid sense of humour or is it only a select few? I'm thinking about your comments regarding the cemetery for foreigners (as well as the video where you brought up the story about bodies under the sakura)… I watched an Aina the End concert video recently with subtitles to understand the lyrics. A lot of her songs seem morbid and creepy. Again, is this a young Japanese woman thing or is it shared among a few of you only?
I LOVE your videos, BTW.
ありがとございます。
横浜は綺麗な都市です
Since the English subtitles said you know the Yamate area better than anybody else and with your topic of foreign settlement, I'm surprised you don't know (or didn't mention) that the high ground was once US Navy property called Bayview which was the housing area for officers with a spectacular night view of beautiful Yokohama Bay and crowned with a castle called the Admiral's House. Down below and across Route 16 to the ocean's edge were 2 housing areas for enlisted families on flat land called Area 1 and Area 2, both of which would have been wiped out completely by a Tohoku-type tsunami while we watched from the safety of the higher ground with the cliffs acting like the walls of a bathtub. Up until the mid-1970s, Yokosuka Naval Base was more of a shipyard with the large majority of Naval families living in several housing areas spread out in Yokohama. And the word on the streets was that the Yokohama police and police chief reported to the Yokohama mayor who reported to an enlisted Master Chief at the Shore Patrol who called the shots.
It’s been almost 10 years since I been to Yokohama. Back in January I went to Yokosuka to see the IJN Mikasa. Only ship of its type left in the world.
I have Tires from Yokohama on my Toyota Truck in the USA ! I trust them both. Good Stuff!
i thought it was about free loaders (invaders seeking asylum) these days LOL
so glad PM TAKAICHI will keep japan the way it is for generations, i visit japan for weeks every year, japan is my vacation place and i want japan to be japan as beautiful as usual
Very nice and interesting history you talked about here I enjoy learning very much from you about things like this there!! 🫶🫶🫶