Yokohama Minato Mirai 21 aerial panorama

A great travel destination, Minato Mirai 21 from Yokohama should be one of the must see Japanese places... And not only because here you can visit the tallest building from Japan, the spectacular the Yokohama Landmark Tower, but also because it's a place of great beauty and an excellent example of a perfect modern urban development.

It is less known that Minato Mirai 21 is now completely different from what it was 30 years ago... At the time, here was just an industrial zone owned by several large companies, like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yokohama Shipyard or Japanese National Railways... But after it was proposed as a major development in 1965, the construction started in 1983 and with the adding of some reclaimed land, the area was used in 1989 for the exposition held for the 100th anniversary of Yokohama's city status and the 130th anniversary of the Yokohama Port. After that, commercial areas, amusement parks, convention halls, restaurants and hotels were built, creating the today's Minato Mirai 21, name that can be translated as "Port of the Future in the 21st century".

Here's an aerial panorama with the area towards the Cosmo World amusement park, with its famous Ferris wheel, taken from the Landmark Tower observatory. On the left side of this photo, in the front you can see the Queen's Towers, PACIFICO Yokohama convention center and the Intercontinental Hotel. On the island to the right, you can see the World Porters Mall, Red Brick Warehouses and in the distance is the port area and the Yokohama Bay Bridge.