It is home to more than four million people, but did you know this massive city with a stunning skyline packed with bright illuminations has no airport?
Yokohama in Japan may not be the first place tourists look to when planning a trip to the Asian country, with Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto all topping the bucket lists, but the city offers a tourist-free insight into life in the country.
While travellers would think its lack of an airport would make it a difficult place to visit, the city is easily reachable from the centre of Tokyo, which is served by Haneda and Narita airports, within 40 minutes.
The city boasts some great attractions including the impressive Gundam Factory, where an 18-metre walking mech robot is displayed. Visitors can watch on as the giant structure powers up and moves around the city’s Yamashita Pier.
Yokohama is also home to one of the most bizarre attractions in the world, the CupNoodles Museum, which houses more than 3,000 different noodles packages and allows visitors to make their own noodles and learn about the history of instant ramen.
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Animal lovers are able to sample Capybara Land, a petting zoo dedicated to the giant rodents, while thrill seekers can visit Yokohama Cosmo World, which once had the tallest ferris wheel in the world and features tons of rides packed into a small space. Its rollercoaster even spills out of the theme park and over the pavement.
In the city centre, Yokohama’s streets feature all the bright advertising boards travellers would associate with Japan, with its noisy Pachinko parlours offering visitors a taste of one of Japan’s most popular pastimes.
The arcade game, which is similar to pinball, can be tough to get used to for foreigners, but many of the parlours have instructions in English to help newcomers get used to the game.
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The city’s port area, featuring the tranquil Yamashita Park, makes for a great nighttime stroll with numerous food and drink offerings along the way, while Mount Fuji is sometimes visible from some parts of the city.
Yokohama has one of the world’s largest Chinatowns and its Yamate area is filled with western-style homes where foreign merchants once stayed during the 1850s.
The Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, located on an island to the south of the city, an underwater theme park displaying a wide array of sea creatures with the opportunity to pet a walrus.
Other massive cities with no airport are Jerusalem with a population of more than one million, which saw its airport close down in 2000 after the outbreak of the Second Intifada, Kampala, which is the capital of Uganda, and one of the UK’s largest cities without an airport is Sheffield after its Sheffield City Airport closed in 2008.
There are even a number of countries which do not have an airport including Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein.
Those wishing to visit Yokohama can book a flight to Tokyo’s Narita Airport from London for around £700 for a return.
Once they have landed in Tokyo, travellers can get to Yokohama using the Narita Express train, which takes about an hour.
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