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| Yokohama Air Cabin |
I recently visited Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture, as I had something to do. After finishing my meeting, I stopped by the Minato-Mirai area to see an urban-type aerial lift line, which was freshly opened on April 22nd, 2021.
The new aerial lift is called "Yokohama Air Cabin". It's a single rope - automatic circulation type gondola lift. Connecting Sakuragicho and Unga Park stations, its route length is 630 meters. The highest points is about 40 meters above the ground. There are five struts on the route. The gondolas are built by Nippon Cable. They are operated clockwise with a speed of 2.5 meters per second. It takes five minutes to go one way. Each gondola has an air conditioner, and can accommodate up to eight passengers. 36 cabins in total are operated. Although it was during the Covid-19 pandemic, 50 passengers were getting in line, so, I gave up the ride, and just took a gondola photo.
For your information, Yokohama is located about 25 km south of Tokyo, and is the main city of Kanagawa Prefecture. It's the second largest city in Japan in population after Tokyo. Yokohama was developed rapidly as Japan's prominent port city after opening up the country in the 19th century, because while it was being opened, the government aggressively accepted Western culture and technology. You can still see, for example, the historic ex-red brick warehouse in the Minato Mirai area. It's currently popular among visitors as a fashionable shopping mall.
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| The historic ex-red brick warehouse in the Minato Mirai area |