Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse

The Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, or Aka Renga Soko, is one of the city's most beloved landmarks: two handsome red-brick buildings standing on the harbour's edge, once part of the busy customs port and now reborn as a cultural and shopping complex. Built in the late Meiji and early Taisho periods and completed in 1911 and 1913, the warehouses were among the most advanced structures of their day, equipped with freight elevators, fire doors and sprinkler systems, and they handled cargo passing through Japan's most important international port.

Time and disaster took their toll. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 damaged the buildings, wartime and the postwar decades saw them fall into disuse, and by the 1980s they stood empty and neglected. Rather than demolish them, the city undertook a careful restoration, preserving the original brickwork and industrial character while adapting the interiors for new uses. The complex reopened in 2002 and has been a waterfront anchor ever since.

Today the two warehouses play distinct roles. Warehouse No. 1 is a cultural venue with a hall and event spaces used for concerts, theatre, exhibitions and markets, along with a scattering of craft and souvenir shops. Warehouse No. 2 is the livelier retail building, filled with fashion boutiques, homeware and design stores, and a wide choice of cafes and restaurants, many with terraces overlooking the harbour. Between and around them stretch open brick plazas and lawns that host a famously busy calendar of seasonal events.

It is those events that give the warehouses their special place in Yokohama life. In winter an outdoor ice-skating rink and a German-style Christmas market with a tall illuminated tree draw big crowds; spring and autumn bring food festivals celebrating everything from Oktoberfest beer to strawberries and craft sausages; and summer nights fill the plaza with beer gardens. Whatever the season, the buildings are beautifully lit after dark, their warm brick facades and arched windows reflecting in the water.

The setting is as much an attraction as the buildings. The warehouses sit on a spit of harbour land with open views across to the Minato Mirai skyline, the Cosmo Clock Ferris wheel and the Bay Bridge, and the surrounding Zou-no-hana Park and waterfront promenades make for an easy, scenic stroll. Photographers prize the contrast of century-old industrial brick against the futuristic glass towers behind.

Entry to the buildings and grounds is free, and the complex links smoothly on foot to the wider Minato Mirai district, Yamashita Park and Chinatown. Reached in a few minutes from Bashamichi or Nihon-odori stations, the Red Brick Warehouse rewards a relaxed hour or two of browsing, eating and harbour-gazing, and is at its most atmospheric in the evening glow.