Yokohama’s Jazz Hub
As a jazz lover and a HUGE fan of “hideouts,” I must post Tomoko Otake’s (Japan Times) story on Yokohama and the roots of the city’s jazz scene. Yokohama will celebrate its 150-year anniversary this summer. With 79,000 people of overseas origin, including Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Brazilians and Americans, it truly is an international city. As pointed out in the story, Yokohama is a “place where people of different ethnic backgrounds have mixed. And it’s the music that connects them, because it knows no language barriers! What are your favorite jazz clubs?
As one of Japan’s longest-standing maritime gateways to the world, Yokohama has absorbed many cultures from the West over the last 150 years — not least its abiding love of jazz.
Indeed, many residents of this metropolis — known in Japan and worldwide for its friendly attitude toward anything foreign or new — take pride in the fact that Yokohama is truly the birthplace of jazz in Japan. Click here to read more.
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Yokohama a truly international city? Friendly attitude towards everything foreign? With all due respect to your awesome blog, that’s not been my experience at all. Lived there for 2 years and didn’t really have a good time. From my experience: 1) unlike Tokyo, you do have to speak average to above average Japanese to have a conversation with most people. Anyone will tell you the English speakers are in Tokyo. 2) There are about 4 active US military bases in Yokohama city limits, and in the past there were even more than that. The residents like their privacy and love the fact that the US military (gaijin) are leaving. Look the wrong way and you may be mistaken for one, without any chance to prove otherwise. And 3) Yokohama use to be bustling with clubs and nightlife outings years ago, especially the Motomachi district. But since the closing of two really significant clubs (Pure and Gas Panic), the diaspora of clubbers and other young people to Tokyo as a consequence, and the extraordinary attempts of the Mayor, Nakada-shi
, to turn the Landmark Tower area into a cash cow instead of cultivating this once great place for Nihon-jin/Gaijin coexistence, Yokohama is a shell of what it use to be. Literally, you’ll have to scour the back alleys for years to find places like these, and it’ll be few and far between.
Sorry for my pessimistic tone, but I’d hate for someone to read this article, think Yokohama is this hot-bed of awesomeness, and be disappointed (as I was) when they come to Yokohama expecting great things but find themselves constantly on the JR line to Tokyo every weekend looking for excitement.