The Thunderbird from Kyoto to Osaka we had only taken 25 minutes and seemed to get there before we had settled. On the Shinkansen it took 15 minutes. As expected the train pulled in punctually to the Shin-Yokohama station. From there we took a JR train to Yokohama central.
From the hotel where we were staying we went out and into the shopping centre opposite the hotel and found a Hawaiian lunch! Then we walked a bit in the other direction to the ‘red brick warehouses’. That seems to be on outing place for Yokohama on a Sunday and Mercedes had a big exhibition of cars there. I was in Yokohama for a conference, to could only explore the city as the conference schedule allowed.
A few days later, we decided to go back over to the red brick warehouses and find something to eat and then visit the silk museum and then go for a boat ride and finally a walk through Chinatown and a meal there. We had a bit of trouble finding the silk museum and walked round the wrong block – that way we did see a rather dull grey house which was the former British consulate.
We did find the museum and it was very interesting showing how the silkworms are produced on an industrial scale and a little of how it is processed and dyed.
It seems that silk was the main product exported through Yokohama when the port was opened up and developed for foreign trade as from 1856.
This post is an extract of my mother’s travel journal written during a tour of Japan in 2014.
travel tales 