Japan Guide
Around Tokyo
Chinatown
Founded in 1863, Yokohama's Chinatown is the largest in Japan; its streets contain roughly two hundred restaurants and over three hundred shops, while some eighteen million tourists pass through its narrow byways every year to browse stores peddling Chinese herbs or cooking utensils, groceries and garish souvenirs. Few leave without tasting what's on offer, from steaming savoury dumplings to a full-blown meal in one of the famous speciality restaurants.
The focus of community life is Kantei-byō (daily 9am–7pm; free), a shrine dedicated to Guan Yu, a former general and guardian deity of Chinatown. The building is a bit cramped, but impressive nonetheless, with a colourful ornamental gateway and writhing dragons wherever you look. Inside, a red-faced, long-haired Guan Yu sits on the main altar, gazing over the heads of supplicants petitioning for health and prosperity. The best times to visit are during the major festivities surrounding Chinese New Year (Jan or Feb), Guan Yu's birthday (the 24th day of the sixth lunar month; June or July) and Chinese National Day (Oct 1).