To commemorate the reopening of the Yokohama Museum of Art, the exhibition Masahiko Sato: New × (How to Make + How to Understand) will be held from June 28 to November 3, 2025. Masahiko Sato is a creator and educator who has had a profound impact on Japanese visual expression and educational culture through a wide range of works, including NHK’s PythagoraSwitch, the hit song Dango 3 Kyodai, and NEC’s Bazaar de Gozaru. This exhibition, which looks back on nearly 40 years of Sato’s career, brings together a diverse array of works from video pieces and media art to publications,…
Author: Seasider
When you discover a new cafe during a walk, do you ever feel the impulse to stop in? Coffee and Baked Ura, tucked away in a back alley near Hakuraku Shopping Street, is a coffee and baked goods shop with an impressive coffee roaster displayed near the entrance. The name “Ura” comes from its backstreet (Uramichi) location; from the last name of the husband-and-wife owners, Tetsuya and Rie Fukaura; and the word ura, a type of bay that evokes a calm, wave-sheltered place. The couple, hoping to eventually open their own shop, worked as baristas at various coffee shops before…
Motomu Shiiya, also known by his stage name Siiya Brown, is one of our favorite local musicians. He’s been delighting audiences in Yokohama (and beyond) for over a decade with his jazz-infused guitar sounds. If you haven’t heard him yet, there’s a wonderful opportunity to see him on an almost weekly basis in central Yokohama. But before we get to that, let us tell you a little more about him. While Shiiya specializes in guitar, he plays multiple instruments, including mandolin, pedal steel guitar, and banjo. He attended the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan for two years before…
Founded in 1999, Yokohama Beer is the oldest brewery in the city. For over 25 years, its seasoned brewers have crafted clean, easy-to-drink beers appreciated by locals and far-flung fans alike. The brewery actively collaborates with the community to connect people and expand cultural ties through beer. Notable initiatives include the beer bike that cruises through Minato Mirai, a running club, and joint activities with local universities. Any time there’s something fun going on in the city, you’re likely to find Yokohama Beer there. One such initiative is the “Brewers One Series”, a special project where each Yokohama Beer brewer…
Welcome to the June-July edition of the Yokohama Seasider. Wait! What happened to May?! In short, we had to delay the release due to a complete office move. We left our old home of 15+ years in Noge for a new one in Negishi that we share with our old friends and office mates, Dark Room International. Yes, we still have a photo lab, studio, gallery… and our own magazine production space. A new era begins. We hope it will be a good one. Thank you for your support.
Izumibashi Sake Brewery is one of the Kanto region’s best, and it’s located right in Yokohama’s backyard, just a 20 to 30-minute walk from Ebina Station. If you haven’t been before, there’s even more reason to pay a visit now. They’ve just added a beautiful new tasting room to their attractive facilities. The family-owned brewery was founded in 1857. It’s currently run by sixth-generation president Yuichi Hashiba, though his daughter Haruna is quite active in the business as well. The brewery’s sake is easy to recognize on shelves of local retailers, as it features an iconic dragonfly logo. This fascinating…
The Yokohama Museum of Art announced that it resumed all operations on February 8, 2025. After previously undergoing large-scale renovation work for about three years (beginning in 2021), the museum reopened in March 2024 for the Yokohama Triennale but closed again after the event. While some facilities have been open since November of that year, this year will be the first in four years that the entire museum will open as usual. As a part of its full restoration, the Yokohama Museum of Art returned approximately 14,000 pieces of its collection from offsite storage. It also transformed the Grand Gallery…
There’s a classy eatery in Izumi-cho (Kanagawa Ward) called Izumi Tea & Bar that may stop you in your tracks as you pass. It’s located in a building designed by architect Riken Yamamoto, who just last year won the Pritzker Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. The building stands on the site of his family home. During weekdays, the restaurant serves lunch, and at night, it transforms into a bar. The bar is managed by Zenichi Kamiya and Nozomi Yamazaki. Kamiya has a long history in the area, having run the jazz bar Liberte since 1979.…
An old university classmate who’s been a professional musician in a popular rock-improv band in America for twenty-eight years recently convinced me to get a record player. As a teen, I had a hand-me-down from my parents. That was before the age of digital streaming, of Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. These services are convenient and the internet has exposed us to a dazzling array of the world’s music, but have we lost anything in the process? It’s too easy to click away mid-song. We get bored or distracted quickly. Music that’s complex or highly creative challenges us at first…
Imagine a library out there where the carefully planned architecture of the interior features bookshelves with elliptical curves that gently slope and connect each floor. Books of various genres are easily displayed. Simply walking around and gazing at the books adorning the walls exposes one to new knowledge and surprising encounters. This is true for radio, too. When you focus on the information entering your ears, perhaps during household chores or commuting, you may have moments of realization or empathy, resulting in new perspectives. Mitsukuni Miyazawa (known as Mitsukuni-san) is an active radio DJ on FM Yokohama (84.7MHz). He’s been…