Cafe/Bar Navy 045 covers everything you could probably want in a hybrid bar-cafe: a range of dishes from vegetarian to meat-based standards, affordable set lunches, a surprising selection of tea, alcoholic beverages and a friendly, intimate atmosphere. After several visits, it keeps growing on me. Most surprising is the selection of healthy and/or vegan dishes. There isn’t just one token item. Master Tatsunori Tamura says he offers more than the typical cafe because there are many yoga studios in the area and these dishes appealed to the yoga devotees. The four lunch sets (all for just ¥1000) include chili with…
Author: Seasider
Akatsuki no Kura is a sake-focused bar that is sure to be a big hit with fans of Japan’s national beverage. Brewing paraphernalia and detailed production illustrations line the hallway that leads into the spacious bar. You immediately sense you are in for a treat. The beautifully designed interior seamlessly blends the traditional with the modern. Classic American rock and pop is delivered from the sound system adding beautifully to the mood without ever feeling intrusive. The bar has a novel concept in service. Sake bottles line one wall in two rows; the top showcasing the regular selections while the…
Welcome to the 9th anniversary edition of the Yokohama Seasider! I can still remember where I was when I first wrote this greeting many years ago (it was a coffee shop in the Sakuragicho area). In fact, many of my memories of Yokohama are connected with stories I wrote and pictures I took for this magazine. Nine years is a long time and I think I’m most proud of the team I assembled to help me keep this going. This magazine is theirs as much as it is mine. We’ve been thinking recently that we should open up the magazine…
On February 16 we welcome in the year of the dog. According to the Chinese zodiac, the toshi-otoko and toshi-onna (men and women born under the current sign) of the year are said to be loyal, friendly and honest. These sound like just the type of people you’d like to spend a day or night out on the town with. All these lucky “dogs” will get their chance to celebrate with friends during the Chinese New Year festivities. Yokohama has the fortune of being one of only three cities in Japan that has a Chinatown, and as the locals know,…
Every year in January a new group of youth move into adulthood in the Coming of Age ceremonies that take place across the country. On January 8th young adults in their 20th year will celebrate with their classmates in their hometowns, some reuniting after many years apart. May they enjoy the moment. As the new year dawns most of us find ourselves putting the problems of the past year in the rearview mirror and plotting a bright, new course for 2018. Seeing the smiles on the faces of those young men and women following in our footsteps allows us to…
When you do a search for the word “creator” you find the following: God; founder; people involved in general production; ad designers. That is to say, photographers, designers, stylists and makeup artists are all creators. Musicians undoubtedly qualify. Recently, my team shot a video of the 4-member band “Nakamura Parking”. Making music videos is the collaborative effort of a variety of “creators”. Striking a delicate balance between everyone’s creative input is a challenge. This can be a blast if everyone is on the same page, but if not, it can be a grueling process. I produced another video a few…
Every year Yokohama hosts one of the biggest and best craft beer festivals in the country, called Japan Brewers Cup. Yokohama seems like an appropriate host city, as it was home to Japan’s first beer breweries, including Spring Valley Brewery (now Kirin), which opened in 1870. Yokohama also has several respectable craft breweries, and roughly two dozen craft beer specialty bars, most of them within a few blocks of each other in Naka-ku. Shinya Suzuki, founder-brewer of Yokohama Bay Brewing, is the festival’s organizer–yep, it’s locally run and not exactly corporate. It’s not a dull three days, either. 32 Japanese…
Noge has been an entertainment district for decades, known for cheap eats and drinks… and also for being a little decadent. It has largely cleaned up, due partly to new entrepreneurs moving in with updated restaurants that appeal to a newer generation, such as Noge West End. This cozy little joint a minute from Miyakobashi offers tasty grilled food, craft beer and domestic cider–yes, you heard that right. Japan’s fine alcohol producers (sake, whisky, craft beer) are making headlines internationally. Perhaps domestic cider producers will achieve the same. It’s time to explore. The menu features five rotating ciders for ¥900.…
When searching for a place to set up base, many entrepreneurs and small business operators immediately flock to Tokyo and end up spending excessively on rent and operations costs. Unfortunately, most are unaware of the quality workspaces Yokohama has to offer due to a notable lack of publicity, especially in languages other than Japanese. One place in the city that we can recommend in particular is Work Factory Yokohama. It was founded by Yokohama native, real estate guru, and entrepreneur Tomoya Yamada. Yamada wanted people to be “proud of their lifestyle”. He opened the space to enable people to optimize…
2017 marks the 350th anniversary of the Yoshidamachi area of Yokohama. Originally a field of rice paddies built on reclaimed land, it flourished when the Port of Yokohama was opened to the West in 1859. Like many historic parts of Yokohama, this lead to large-scale, cross-cultural exchange which transformed these areas into what they are today. Yoshidamachi is full of bars, restaurants, galleries and shops of all sorts. You can experience everything from the traditional to the modern in a highly concentrated area. It’s a particularly popular place for Hamakko (Yokohama locals) to hang out. A short 5-minute walk from…