Give Me Chocolate 8: Memories of the Port Town, Yokohama
"Give me chocolate!"
These were the words children shouted at American soldiers in Japan shortly after the war.
As I grew up and walked through port towns, I began to understand the background of these words little by little.
Yokohama, a port town I want to visit again and again, still retains a strong sense of exotic charm.
Today, I would like to unravel the reasons why.
It was one spring. Even though I was officially a ronin (a student waiting for another chance at university entrance exams), my parents gave me travel money.
After the graduation ceremony, I was able to go to Yokohama with a friend as promised.
I remember being moved by the sight of the still-new Bay Bridge.
For my second attempt at the entrance exams, I also applied to schools in the Kanto region, so I stayed in Yokohama by myself.
There was a package for examinees at a hotel where I could see the Marine Tower.
The Marine Tower, which opened in 1961, was a symbolic presence that welcomed foreign ships as an observation tower with lighthouse functions.
When the tower lights up, hotel staff would bring ginger pork or hamburger steak set meals to my room. They treated me like a proper guest, and although I was studying, it felt like a dreamlike time.
My hometown also has the Port of Nagoya, but because it is industrialized, a "port town" like Yokohama was an unknown world to me. I held onto the thought that I wanted to come back.
The entrance exams didn't go well, and it was about eight years before I could return.
・Isezakicho
Due to work, I spent about two months around Sakuragicho Station. I walked to the Landmark Tower and the newly completed Red Brick Warehouse, but what left an impression on me was Isezakicho.
It was a place name I knew from popular songs, and I felt the mature atmosphere I had imagined.
Bars and cabarets catering to the occupation forces lined the streets, and it was a town where American culture took root through music and fashion. It is said that even in this area, "Give me chocolate!" could be heard right after the war ended.
When I was in elementary school and heard that story, I thought it was unbelievable that children would chase after soldiers of an enemy nation.
However, as I became an adult, I learned about foreign countries, and in particular, I came to know the exceptional brightness and kindness of Americans.
It is usually Americans who speak to me on my travels, and I feel a great sense of familiarity with them, and I feel like I understand a little bit why the children ran up to the American soldiers.
That is why, now, there are times when I want to say those words myself.
This series looks at what colonial rule left behind from the perspective of a traveler,
and this is the reason why I chose "Give Me Chocolate" as the title.
・Kannai
I walked a little further and stopped by a Greek restaurant.
The scent of olives and the tartness of lemon.
The fact that this restaurant exists means that Greek sailors also came to Yokohama.
The interior is based on white and blue.
It was like wandering into Santorini. I hope to visit there in the future.
・Bashamichi
Bashamichi was once a main street connecting the foreign settlement to the port.
It is also known as the place where Japan's first ice cream and gas lamps were introduced.
It is a symbolic area of the Meiji Restoration.
Walking down the street lined with red brick buildings, Western-style banks, and lights, I feel the remnants of the Meiji era, as well as the fact that Yokohama has always been a point of contact with foreign countries.
Next time, I would like to go to a retro cafe.
・Chinatown
If you walk further, you reach Chinatown.
Its roots lie in the residential area for Chinese people who gathered shortly after the port opened, and it still strongly retains the memories of maritime trade.
I am surprised by the splendor of the Kanteibyo Temple.
The steam from meat buns and the scent of star anise fill the air, and it is always crowded with people.
Mooncakes and medicinal ingredients are lined up in front of the shops.
I have even eaten shark fin ice cream.
I bought a qipao, but I haven't been able to bring myself to try an ao dai.
・Yamashita Park
The ship whistles and the cute seagulls enhance the travel mood.
At Osanbashi Pier, there were times when passenger ships larger than hotels were docked.
On my third visit, I went into a long-established hotel and ordered the original pudding a la mode.
Fruit was piled onto an oblong glass plate. There was even ice cream on top.
Whipped cream formed a small mountain, and when I put my spoon in, a sweet aroma spread.
I felt like I was placing myself in a long history, and my heart raced.
And then to the "Doll Museum."
Ethnic dolls collected from all over the world are lined up quietly.
Dolls from Asia wearing colorful costumes, ones made of porcelain representing European children, and dolls from Africa carved from wood.
They are cute, and a little bit scary. Because they look like they are alive.
It exhibits pieces of the world that have crossed the sea.
・Yamate
Yamate developed as a foreign settlement, and it is said that consulates and Western-style houses from various countries stood in rows. As I climbed the hill, the moment my view opened up, I saw the blue sea and white ships.
Walking through the Foreign General Cemetery on foot, I felt that the people sleeping here had created the history of this town.
People who crossed the sea and ended their lives in a foreign land called Japan. What are they thinking now?
I was allowed to see the gravestones where their names were engraved.
I had viewed Yokohama as a tourist destination. I even thought about wanting to live there, but
I had not understood its history since the opening of the port, nor its significance as a crossroads of culture.
Years have passed since then, and fragmented memories have begun to connect as the starting point of my travels.
Yokohama is a positive town.
Instead of being occupied, it has actively incorporated foreign cultures and developed.
It is a story that began with reaching out a hand with a smile to a stranger.
