Minato Mirai

'Harbour of the Future'......Minato Mirai......a development whose construction began in 1983, is built mainly on reclaimed land. Located in Yokohama, it's home to about 1,200 companies and 7,000 residents. This beautiful area boasts the famous Cosmo World Ferris Wheel, Landmark Tower (Japan's tallest skyscraper), Yokohama Museum of Art, Queen's Towers Shopping Mall, many large hotels and a huge convention centre to name but a few.

It is always a gorgeous place to wander around, particularly at night when trees festooned with fairy lights illuminate the walkways and tall buildings and the ferris wheel light the sky. During the long, hot summer an evening stroll offered a brief, but welcome, respite. Living in Chinatown, adjacent to Minato Mirai and Yamashita Park, we have an extensive view of the area from our perch on the 16th floor of Leyton House. It was from this perch that we also enjoyed many firework displays over summer. Living so close means it's a place we often frequent, both on foot and on bike!

Landmark Tower, the obvious centre piece of the area, was built in 1993 and is 927 feet or 296 metres tall. It is a magnificent building, very glamorous really, and is home to the world's first circular escalator.

Its interior is stunning and, on a clear day, a trip to the Observation Deck gives you 360 degree views of Yokohama, Yokohama Bay and in the distance Tokyo and of course Mt Fuji. Fuji San is shy though and hides behind clouds most of the time! The photo below shows Cosmo World with the ferris wheel and in the left foreground the Pacifico Hotel. World Porters is to the right of the wheel.

Now here's a 'Where's Wally?' Look carefully at the photo below. The Yokohama Stadium can be seen in the middle, there is a small cluster of tall buildings behind and slightly to the left of the stadium......keep looking......there is a lone tall building slightly to the left again and a little behind that cluster with its upper level set back and green behind it......that's us!! Leyton House.....can you see it??

To herald the arrival of Autumn and advertise the Edgar Degas Exhibition at the Art Gallery there was a beautiful display on one of Landmark Tower's upper floors.

When you leave Landmark Tower on the waterfront side you can cross directly to Queen's Towers or take a detour to the Yokohama Museum of Art and an attractive boulevard complete with fountains and cherry trees. As is the norm throughout the area, there are many beautiful stainless steel sculptures.

The Red Brick Buildings are always a popular spot and offer many shops and places to eat. World Porters, next to Cosmo World, is a great place to shop and eat. We often eat an Indonesian Restaurant, Sura Baya, on the 5th floor. World Porters has six floors, with each one dedicated to a certain theme. From the ground floor up, they are food, fashion, sports and hobby, home and living, cinema and restaurants, relaxation and interiors. If you are keen movie goer, the big cinema offers many movies in English with Japanese sub titles (a very useful feature). The food floor includes an extensive supermarket which is surprisingly is quite well priced.

Collette Mare adjacent to the Sakuragicho Station offers many eating places on its upper floors and the views are nothing less than stunning. Even if you are not really hungry, it's a great place to just sit, sip on a wine and look. If you are a 'shopaholic' this place, and everywhere else in Tokyo and Yokohama, is for you.

The Nippon Maru a beautiful old sailing ship, built in 1930, is permanently docked at Minato Mirai and is open to the public. Located adjacent to Landmark Tower and Cosmo World it is a beautiful sight. Nearby is the Yokohama Port Museum, a place which to date I have not visited.

One of my most recent missions has been to thoroughly explore the whole Minato Mirai area. On my trustworthy bicycle I can cover a wide area very quickly. Usually  free to roam at will,  everyones' movements mine included, were hugely compromised by the APEC Summit which was held at the Pacifico Hotel. That's the building with the curved top.

Japan took a very serious approach to security and mobilised 21,000 police to the area. The number of VIP's being protected was.....80.....not a bad ratio!! The huge numbers of police were housed in hotels across the Kanagawa Prefecture and hundreds of buses were used to ferry the them throughout Yokohama. Without a doubt I have never seen such intense police presence. 

Consider this.......Australia with an area of 7, 659, 861 sq km's has 59,000 police......Yokohama with an area of 437 sq km's, of which Minato Mirai occupies 88 acres......had 21,000 police. Just a bit of silly number crunching on my part but it's interesting to see the comparison. Naturally the place was teeming with police cars, buses, armoured cars and patrol boats.

A ride around Minato Mirai meant limited access to many places. Residents had been notified.....unattended bikes forbidden in the area....failure to obey....bye bye bike.....impounded!! The ferris wheel lay idle, Cosmo World was silent and the entire area around the Nippon Maru was cordoned off. I enjoyed poking around discovering where I could and couldn't go. 

Observed photographing a group of policemen one day, I was quickly approached. Uh oh!!!... would it be "Show me your camera"?.... no......instead I heard " Please show your alien card or passport!!" Alien card quickly produced....no longer a terrorist threat...... move along!!

With the closing of APEC the residents of Yokohama breathed a collective sigh of relief.  It is over.....security extreme to the maximum has returned to normal!! Police cars patrolling constantly with incessant sirens and loud hailers blaring, a sky full of helicopters, a sea crowded with ships and patrol boats, 100's of police buses, even more cars, all those police....but wait.....we did see President Obama go past! At least we think we did...there was more than enough security around this particular car...it's the Presidential car with the American flag!! Who knows....??

What an amazing 'Japanese spectacular'!!! Finally peace......what will it be next....maybe Christmas? Maybe I will get a bike like this for Christmas!!

Minato Mirai....this has been but a glimpse of another location in Japan. All I can say is thank goodness for digital cameras......a compulsion to take photographs is only ever limited by the patience of those who are accompanying you. Constantly left behind because I am taking yet another shot of fairy lights or the ferris wheel or the buildings or............well everything!!!! 
I don't apologise because I am totally addicted!