The Hindu Business Line : At the Future Port

To get a closer look at the exposed sedimentary rock layers, I manoeuvred the R22 Beta helicopter close to the rim of the Grand Canyon and hovered there. It was spectacular to watch the steep-walled sculptures meeting the canyon floor as I slowly pulled the pitch lever. The ten-minute ride coming to an end, I got out of the Canyon and off the helicopter too. An attendant gave me a grade card with individual points for my hovering skills. I got a ‘C’ grade, scor ing 52 out of 100 points in the simulator.

The Mitsubishi Minatomirai Museum is home to many exhibits such as the replica of the huge tunnel-cutting blades used in the Euro tunnel, a detailed model of the SHINKAI underwater vessel and an interesting display of noodle cups shrunk to different sizes at different underwater pressures. As seen in any Japanese museum, there is an environment section here too that tries to familiarise young minds with the idea of energy conservation.

Minato Mirai 21

Coming out of the museum, we were facing the uniquely tapered Landmark building, the tallest tower in Japan. The egg-shaped streamlined elevator travels 273 metres in just under 40 seconds. A display inside the lift indicated a maximum speed of about 740 metres/minute. From the 69th floor we were able to get clear views of the Yokohama stadium, the crescent-shaped Yokohama Bay, including sea jetties like the Grand Pier, and even the distant Tokyo’s Disneyland, Haneda Airport and altogether, the Miura Peninsula. An early entry to the top could have ensured us a glimpse of Mt. Fuji, which was covered by clouds when we reached there. Back to the basement, we browsed through the Queen’s Mall, which had an exciting collection of branded items. The Landmark building, Queen’s Mall and other high-rise buildings are located in the “Minato Mirai 21” district. The ‘Future Port of the 21st century’ was a project designed to relocate the old shipyards and warehouses, thereby using the reclaimed land to transform the old harbour-town into a modern port. The reclaimed land became the Minato Mirai district housing tall buildings, sports complexes, amusement centres like the Cosmoworld, with a roller-coaster, water games and Ferris wheel.

At the Bluff

We took the rail line to Ishikawa-cho to reach the Bluff, a small hill in the south of Yokohama. The steep narrow roads took us to the top of the Bluff where many churches are located. A walk led us to the famed foreign cemetery, where around 4,500 foreigners and sailors from around 40 countries who had contributed to Japan’s development, were buried. Even though we were not allowed to go inside, a hall near the cemetery explained some of the graveyard details through a collection of photos.

The end of the Bluff gave us a prominent view of the old shipping village close to the sea. A walk along the side of the hill through an alley led us to the shopping area of Motomachi Chugai and still further to Chinatown. Chinese foods are popular among the Japanese who come in droves to have a bite. We settled for “curry rice”, a large bowl of rice on the left side and spicy curry on the right side, the nearest we could find resembling an Indian dish.

The mainline took us to Negishi and we boarded a bus for the tramport, a street car museum. The bus driver, a woman, enthusiastically talked about her visit to India and her experiences with Ayurvedic massages. The tramport starts with a video presentation of scenes from the old city with criss-crossing trams. However it was in Japanese and we were not able to relate them to any of the places in today’s Yokohama. The tramport has a collection of around 10 original trams from the 1930s. Young children were busy playing with toy trains in a miniature setting of Yokohama.

It is worth taking a stroll by the sea at the Yamanashi Park in the evening. By the seaside, two street performers were enthralling the crowd with fire-eating tricks. The Hikawa Maru, a once famed luxury liner which crossed the rough Pacific to Seattle as many as 238 times, is anchored here. The ship retains the special guestroom used by Charlie Chaplin and the Japanese royalty when they travelled in it before the world war.

At the extreme end of the park is the Indian Drinking Fountain, capped by a dome and supported by pillars. It was presented by the Indian community to the city of Yokohama in memory of the Indians who died in the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake.

Finally, we walked over to the Yokohama International Harbour Terminal on Osanbashi Pier and went over the wooden plank roof of the harbour; it was nice to watch the ships dock. As the wind blew across, we felt that this harbour city was more serene compared to its bustling counterpart Tokyo, just 30 km away.

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