Yokohama hosts some of the world’s best exhibitions, and our enduring favorite is the annual Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show. This year marks the 34th iteration of this family-friendly event featuring the beauty and engineering genius of custom cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles. It’s also a celebration of the industry’s unique culture, with live music, art, apparel vendors, and much more. The roots of this festival go back to Dean Moon (1927-1987). Moon was a legendary American automobile designer who took hot rods and custom cars to great heights. He was the founder of the company MOONEYES which still operates…
Author: Seasider
Every year, October 1st marks the start of the sake brewing season in Japan (officially called “Sake Day”). Yokohama is home to many places where you can enjoy delicious, high-end sake, but we have an unusual one to recommend: Sankeien, the beautiful historical gardens in the Honmoku neighborhood. More specifically, you can sip away at Taishunken, a very special cafe located within the gardens (which we reported on early this year, in YSM189). To recap, the cafe is housed within one of Sankeien’s traditional structures featuring aged wooden architecture and views of the surrounding greenery. Taishunken is known for its…
With the typhoon season coming to an end, we can hopefully look forward to long stretches of beautiful autumn weather. This time of year, strolling the streets of Yokohama is a special pleasure. Why not visit a neighborhood you◇ve never passed through? Shop discoveries and encounters with interesting people always bring a smile to our faces.
With summer vacation over and students back in school, think of this as a kind of educational issue, especially given our main feature. Of course, we hope you always find our magazine educational. It’s also our mission to inspire, entertain, and build stronger community ties. To accomplish the latter, we need you to visit the places and meet the people we introduce. Don’t forget our sponsors, either! They make this magazine possible. Thank you.
We recently featured the founder, principal, and head teacher of Yokohama Sai International School, Ms. Bharti Chandiramani, in Yokohama Seasider no.191 (August-September 2026). Here, she explains more about the school’s approach, illustrating why it has become such a success. At Yokohama Sai International School, our greatest hope is simple: that every child who walks through our doors will love learning and love coming to school. Located in Kominatocho, Yokohama, our school has been part of the community since 2016. Over the years, we have had the joy of watching many children grow, develop their confidence, discover their strengths, and graduate…
SAKE’n’ROLL is a great name for this cheerful, cozy new bar near Kannai station that offers a splendid range of sake, wine, and other alcoholic beverages along with tasty small dishes for pairing. The owner, Satoshi Kimijima, is a rock and roll guitarist who regularly plays live in Yokohama, but also an established alcohol retailer and distributor known throughout Japan–hence the name of the place. His family-owned company, Yokohama Kimijimaya, was established in 1892. Beyond an older liquor store in Yokohama, there are two Tokyo retail locations in Ebisu and Ginza that offer bottles and tastings. This new Kannai location…
In Yokohama Seasider no.173, we featured Bashamichi HariA, a wonderful acupuncture salon for women run by Ms. Ayako Fujita. Here, we interview her husband, Mr. Takeru Hamanaka, who now runs a recently opened second branch called T by HariA. The original Acupuncture & Beauty Salon Bashamichi HariA was for women, but the new one is for men. Please share the thinking behind this. The first location–run by my wife (the owner)–has provided health and beauty services for many women as a women-only salon. However, partly due to the lease agreement, we couldn’t easily welcome men into the same space. We…
Mayuko Shinmura is the current representative director of MCY, and a long-time contributor to Yokohama culture and community. She was born and raised in Tokyo, and attended Musashino Art University, but eventually settled in Yokohama––to our city’s good fortune! For a time she worked in Yokohama’s Noge district at the community center Noge Hana Hana. Her responsibilities included facility management and working as an assistant director for local art event planning. Officially, she was employed by a community development organization called the Noge District Machizukuri (“community-building”) Association. She shares, “I originally became interested in the organization’s mission to promote the…
To memory, in the 17-year history of the Yokohama Seasider–that’s 190 issues!–we’ve never featured somebody on the cover twice. But for this issue, we decided it was worth it, as local business-owner and acupuncturist Ayako Fujita (on YSM173) recently opened a second Bashamichi location run by… somebody special. Read the story in this edition! We’re always happy to celebrate the success of local businesses! -Ry Beville & My Huynh (founders)
Japan is home to a plethora of ingredients and dishes rooted in local history and culture. Today, thanks to advances in logistics and technology, we can enjoy them far from where they were sourced. Still, there is something special about savoring them exactly where their stories began–an experience that can’t be replicated. At Taishunken in Yokohama’s famous Sankeien Garden, that experience comes to life through Sankei Soba, a dish with over a century of history. Its origins trace back to when savvy businessman Sankei Hara (born Tomitaro Hara) created it for his own family table. Hara was a food lover…