On its southern borders Tokyo merges with Yokohama,\u00a0Japan<\/strong>\u2019s second most populous city and a major international port. When you step aground from your MSC cruise you will find that\u00a0Yokohama<\/strong>\u00a0feels far more spacious and airy than the capital, thanks to its\u00a0open harbour frontage<\/strong>\u00a0and generally\u00a0low-rise skyline<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When Commodore Perry sailed his \u201cBlack Ships\u201d into Tokyo Bay in 1853, Yokohama was a mere\u00a0fishing village<\/strong>\u00a0of some eighty houses on the distant shore. But it was this harbour, well out of harm\u2019s way as far as the Japanese were concerned, that the shogun designated one of the five treaty ports open to foreign trade in 1858. From the early 1860s until the first decades of the twentieth century, Yokohama flourished on the back of\u00a0raw silk exports<\/strong>, a trade dominated by British merchants.<\/p>\n During this period the city provided the main conduit for new ideas and inventions into Japan: the first bakery, photographers\u2019, ice-cream shop, brewery and \u2013 perhaps most importantly \u2013 the first railway line, which linked today\u2019s Sakuragich\u014d with Shimbashi in central Tokyo in 1872. The Great Earthquake<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>TOKYO CRUISE VIA YOKOHAMA<\/h1>\n
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A Welcoming City<\/h3>\n