Yokohama & Chinatown - Private Day Tour from Tokyo

Yokohama is forty minutes from Tokyo and most visitors never see it. That is a mistake. It was Japan’s first port opened to the world in 1859, and it still feels like a harbour city: wide streets, sea air, brick warehouses and the biggest Chinatown in Asia.

We collect you in Tokyo and start at Minato Mirai, the waterfront district of towers and the Cosmo Clock Ferris wheel. The Red Brick Warehouse, two customs buildings from 1911, are now shops and cafes with the harbour behind them. From there it is a short drive to Yamashita Park and the Hikawa Maru, the 1930s liner moored on the seafront.

Lunch is in Chinatown, six hundred restaurants inside four painted gates. Your guide takes you to a place locals use, or you walk the streets and eat from the stalls – steamed buns, sesame balls, Peking duck wraps.

In the afternoon we drive out to Sankeien Garden, a silk merchant’s private estate where he collected historic buildings from across Japan – a three-storey pagoda, tea houses and a farmhouse from Shirakawa-go – and set them around a lake. If your group has children, we swap the garden for the Cup Noodle Museum, where you design and fill your own instant noodle cup.

What you pay is what you pay

The price is one fixed amount for your whole group: the private van, fuel, tolls, parking and your driver-guide for the day. There are no per-person supplements and no booking fees. Garden or museum entry and your lunch are paid by each guest on the day.

Good to know

The order of stops changes with traffic. Chinatown is busiest at weekends and around Chinese New Year.

Flexible day

This is your private tour, so the day is flexible. If you want to skip a stop, stay longer somewhere or add a place nearby, write it in the booking notes or tell your driver-guide on the day and we will adjust the route where time allows.