Saturday 27 April 2019

Early Spring in Yokohama

Set Y502 poster train of the EMU Yokohama Minatomirai Railway 500 series

Just one week before the sakura (cherry blossoms) season, I visited Yokohama City to look for a herald of spring. My destination was Yamashita Park in the downtown area.

It was a sunny and warm weekend. I saw many families and couples in the park. They were chatting, napping, eating lunch and so on. The park offered them a refreshing place and a relaxing time. I also found a large vessel lying alongside the pier. It was Asuka II, Japan's largest cruise ship. Asuka II was built by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1990 under the name of Crystal Harmony. In 2006, it was transferred to Nippon Yusen Kaisha and her name was changed to Asuka II. Currently, her port of registry is Yokohama. She has a length of 241 meters, a breadth of 29.6 meters, and a maximum speed of 21 knots.

On the way back home, I came across a special poster train on the subway Minatomirai Line of Yokohama Minatomirai Railway. It was set Y502 of the EMU Y500 series celebrating the 15th anniversary of Yokohama Minatomirai Railway. Set Y502 was decorated with strawberry stickers and plates. Why Strawberry? It is just a Japanese pun. Strawberry is called ichi-go in Japanese. Ichi means one and go means five. One five is fifteen. That's it, no more. For your information, the Y500 series is a sister train of the EMU Tokyu 5000 series. A total of 6 sets, 48 units, were built by Tokyu Sharyo.

Japan's largest cruise ship, Asuka II, anchors in Yokohama port