Yokohama has always been Japan’s most international city. After the opening of the country’s borders in the 19th century, it served as the gateway to Japan for ships and people from all over the world, and its architecture quickly started to reflect that. Today, you can find foreign influences all over the city, from its famous Red Brick Warehouse to the Mitsui Outlet Park Yokohama Bayside, a mall whose look was inspired by the houses of Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, US. And while you’re there admiring the outlet’s open-façade-facing-the-water concept, you might as well take advantage of their upcoming Spring Fair.

Shop Semi-Outdoors for Your Whatever-Door Needs

Thanks to its spacious, open design that makes social distancing easier, the Mitsui Outlet Park Yokohama Bayside will be going ahead with its planned Spring Fair 2021. The event will be a sale focusing on summer goods—many of them brand items—including everything from fashion to everyday goods and more. The theme of the Spring Fair is “the outdoors” so you can probably expect special offers on items that fit that general category. The sale will last from March 19 to April 4.

New Bus Line ‘Bout to Drop

From March 13 to March 26, Yokohama will be testing a new loop bus line connecting Sakuragicho Station with the East Exit of Yokohama Station. The new line seems to be an attempt to create a more modern-oriented alternative to the popular “Akai Kutsu” loop bus line that takes passengers through the city’s more historic areas. In contrast, the “Minato Mirai Loop Bus” will focus more on such areas as Landmark Tower, the Pacifico Yokohama convention hall, or the Sogo Yokohama department store. The bus fare has been set at 100 yen.

Coffee and Community at Tully’s Coffee KU

In these times of self-isolation and social distancing, offering a bit of human connection with your product sounds like an exceedingly smart idea. That’s what Tully’s Coffee is offering with their brand-new concept café: Tully’s Coffee KU. It was envisioned as a community space that will help connect the locals with the student population of the nearby Kanagawa University (KU) by creating a space that will be available for lectures, seminars, and other events that bring people together. Tully’s Coffee KU is a joint venture between Tully’s and the Tokyu Corporation and will operate from March 5 following an opening ceremony the previous day.

Work from the Shin Yokohama Prince Hotel with the “My Workroom” Plan

Some people simply cannot work from home. There are some tricks you can try to remedy that like playing office sounds in the background to help your brain switch to Work Mode but it just doesn’t work for everyone. It still beats having to go into work and risk catching Covid-19 but maybe there’s a way to split the difference? This is where the Shin Yokohama Prince Hotel comes into play. For a limited time, the hotel will allow you to rent one of their rooms and use it as a personal office for five days straight for a ridiculously low price.

The “My Workroom” plan allows you to use a room at the Shin Yokohama Prince Hotel from 9 am to 6 pm every day for five days. During this time, you won’t receive any hotel services besides garbage collection and new towels after you leave for the day, so that you can minimize contact with other people as much as possible. But although you’ll be alone in a room with a great view, the fact that there is a clock on your stay there may motivate your brain to settle down and do some work. That is a pretty good deal for just 15,000 yen. The offer ends on March 31.

Celebrate Earth Hour 2021 in Yokohama

Earth Hour is the annual event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature when individuals and businesses turn off their non-essential electric lights as a symbol to their commitment to leave behind a better Earth. Yokohama has been participating in Earth Hour since 2014, and will continue to do so in 2021, with many places all around the Minato Mirai area and farther going dark on March 27, 8:30 pm. The event will be broadcast online by World Wide Fund for Nature Japan.

See what else is new in and around Tokyo: