Area Guide

While south side of the city zone (Kannai and Yamate hills) can be said old town with scent of history and local enthusiasm, Minato-mirai is the most modernized area with high-rise office building apartments built in this 30 years. The central Yokohama attracts tourists for beautiful scenery of oceans, seaside parks, large shopping malls, baseball stadium of Yokohama Baystars and the world safest China town. If you would say that “I live in Yokohama,” this is the most suitable area.

Other zones of Yokohama can be classified by railways. North-east side: where JR Tokaido line and Keikyu lines run between Shinagawa and Yokohama, along seashore. It is mostly industry zone. West side: Where Sotetsu line runs. It is hilly and much more local town. South-east side: Where Keikyu line runs between Yokosuka, and Yokohama. Flat area is factory and distribution storage zone, and hill side is residential zone represented by Kanazawa-bunko station.

Located between Tokyo and Yokohama city, Kawasaki has two features as city, heavy industry and commuters’ dwelling. Because it stretches to east and west along south side of Tama River, those two totally different features stand together. For a long time, the city name is referred as industrial zone for factories and iron mills built on seashore, yet nowadays, residential zone located in center and west side become popular for good access to center of Tokyo by Denen-toshi line and Toyoko line. Particularly, Musashi-kosugi of Toyoko line comes under the local spotlight by re-development around the station with high-rise apartments and fashionable shopping malls. The city has a competitive J-League football team, Kawasaki Frontale, that has Todoroki Stadium as its home ground.

The seashore of Sagami bay and west side of Yokosuka peninsula is known as Shonan. The first samurai government was located in Kamakura, and this historical venue attracts tourist from all over the world. Enoshima, Kamakura, Zushi and Hayama located along the Route 134 that runs seaside features ocean resorts near from Tokyo. While Kamakura is a possible choice as commuter town of Tokyo, Hayama and its vicinity are much more of resort zone represented by Imperial Villa. Because the Yokosuka Naval Base is located on the east side of peninsula, this area is favored by U.S. military personnel as off-base housing zone.

U.S. Zama Camp is located in mid Kanagawa, where is much more rural area of Kanagawa prefecture. There runs Tomei highway and Odakyu Line, yet there are not many large houses or apartments in this area. Expats and military personnel who works in this area (Sagamihara city has factory and distribution center zone) and seek larger residence tend to live in Yokohama or Kawasaki area for better house choice.