beachside

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, the town next to my hometown of Andover, there is a fantastic restaurant called Yokohama. It’s a teppanyaki restaurant, meaning that the cook grills up all your food in front of you on a large flat metal cooking surface and does all sorts of theatrics involving flaming onions and such. Up until recently, my entire knowledge of what the term “Yokohama” connotes was based on this restaurant. Thankfully, however, I recently traveled to the real Yokohama, an absolutely massive city south of here.

One of the nation’s most important ports, Yokohama is located on the south side of Tokyo Bay, and is about an hour away by train (we’re actually on the Yokohama line in Machida). Historically, Yokohama was vital to the economy of Japan, as, after the country was first opened to foreign trade in the 1800s, it was one of the first places that international commerce was allowed to take place. As part of this, the city has a long-standing tradition of inclusion and integration of foreign cultures, and is home to not only one of the largest Chinatowns in the world, but a number of Dutch and German-style homes. Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan, is the city’s centerpiece, and in addition a large percentage of the waterfront seems to have recently undergone a lot of redevelopment. The net effect of all of this is that Yokohama seems very much unlike most other Japanese cities, and certainly stands apart from Machida and Tokyo. The city has wide streets, large plazas, tree-lined boulevards, and a prevailing nautical theme that reminds me very much of what South Boston aspires to be.

My time in Yokohama was spent strolling around the city and searching desperately to find a few of my friends whose cell phone numbers I unfortunately did not have. You see, it was Karie, my fellow Northeastern student’s, birthday, and a bunch of people had set off to Yokohama’s Chinatown to celebrate, as Karie is from Hong Kong. I missed the train that they all boarded, so I took what I assumed was the next one, all by myself and having never made this journey before. I also neglected to bring my MP3 player, something I rarely, if ever, do. And so it was that I spent the entire day roaming around Yokohama by myself, with no comforting, familiar music to accompany me. It was fantastic. Far too often, I think, we find refuge in the familiar when we should be daring ourselves to delve into the strange and exotic. I did exactly that in Yokohama, and was thrilled. I was engaged, aware, and fascinated every second of the day, and though I did not find my friends until I was back home in Machida, I had a wonderful day.