As you may have noticed from the Google Doodle for February 5, today is the Lantern Festival, the last day of the Chinese New Year—or Lunar New Year, for other cultures. It’s become a point of contention how to even refer to this holiday, with the actual Chinese name for it being the Spring Festival, since it marks the beginning of spring.
While Yokohama Chukugai isn’t decorated with as many lanterns as you would see in the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, it has both Nagasaki and Kobe beat as the biggest Chinatown in Japan. And there are still some scattered installations and plenty of hanging lanterns that you can see there during the Spring Festival.
Happy New Year (Again)
I was in the area on Thursday, so I took a little time to walk around Yokohama Chinatown before and after sunset. Though I’d been there a few times already, seeing it with the New Year’s/Spring Festival lantern decorations was a first for me. While the weather wasn’t the best, it was nice to have a little more breathing room than when we were there on Christmas (back before the other New Year’s, on January 1).
Christmas fell on a Sunday in 2022, and that day, we lined up for takeout food at a couple of places on the outskirts of Yokohama Chinatown. But seemingly everyone else in the Kanto area had the same idea we did, and it was so insanely crowded that, instead of venturing in further, we just walked over to Yamashita Park and ate there instead. I wouldn’t recommend visiting Chinatown when it’s a weekend holiday like that.
The difference on Thursday was drastic. This time, there was no line at Wangfujing and I was able to stride right up to the counter for another order of fried xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). After that, I walked over to Masobyo, a Taoist temple with a huge, ornate entrance gate.
As chanting droned on in the background, people were carrying lit incense sticks up the temple steps and placing them in numbered burners as part of a set prayer course. I took some time to admire the stone lions and architecture before ducking down the narrow Hong Kong Road and other streets filled with elaborate signage.
After a visit to the nearby Yokohama Marine Tower and Gundam Factory, I returned to Chinatown to see some of the glowing dragons and other lantern figures at night.
Getting to Yokohama Chinatown from Shinjuku, Tokyo
One way to access Yokohama Chinatown from Shinjuku is via the Shonan-Shinjuku Line (then, a transfer to the Minatomirai Line), but in my experience, that train always seems to be delayed or down for some reason. It was temporarily out of service on Thursday, so I took the Fukutoshin Line from Shinjuku-sanchome subway station instead.
The nice thing about the Fukutoshin Line is that its Express F Liner train will take you straight through to Yokohama Chinatown in less than an hour, with Motomachi-Chukugai being the last stop.