Minatomirai Line
Yokohama’s most famous attractions—the Motomachi
shopping area, Chinatown, and Yamashita Park—are
now easily accessible from Tokyo’s Shibuya Station
thanks to the opening on February 1st 2004 of the Minatomirai
Line, which connects directly with the Tokyu Toyoko Line.
From Shibuya, it is now possible to ride directly to Chinatown
(Motomachi-Chugakai Station), which is the final stop.
The ride takes 35 minutes on the Toyoko’s Limited
Express, costs 460 yen for adults, and it is not necessary
to change trains. Below is a short guide to attractions
along the line.
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Sapporo
Sapporo, with a population approaching nearly 2 million
inhabitants, is by far Hokkaido's largest city and main
commercial and business center. The city hosted the 1972
Winter Olympics and is famous for it's Snow Festival,
Sapporo beer and ramen noodles and of course, ‘Genghis
Khan’ - a barbecued mutton dish. The city's main
historic sites date from the late nineteenth century and
include the Old Hokkaido Government Building and the campus
of Hokkaido University. There are some worthwhile museums
in the city including the Ainu Museum, Hokkaido Museum
of Modern Art and a natural history museum in Miyabe Hall.
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Nagasaki
Though Nagasaki had already been around for some 1000
years, the city’s first real claim to fame dates
to the 1550s (and then, of course, to the end of the war
in August of 1945). In 1550 the first Portuguese ship
arrived in Nagasaki Harbor. In 1571, the Japanese government
opened up the port of Nagasaki to foreign trade to the
Dutch and, to a lesser degree, Chinese. The foreign traders
were confined to tiny Dejima Island. For more than 200
years this was Japan’s only contact with the outside
world. What remains of the city’s experience with
outsiders can be found in Chinatown, a reconstructed Dejima,
castella (pound cake), the longer noses Nagasaki residents
have supposedly been saddled with thanks to their Dutch
genes, and more. |
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