Not THAT Yokohama? Japan’s Secret Seaside Town – Japan Road Trip 16 🎌

Not THAT Yokohama? Japan’s Secret Seaside Town – Japan Road Trip 16 🎌

Good morning. Good morning. Morning. We’re going to have a bit of fun today. We’re actually going to do a tour of this pretty little town of Yokohama. Simple local town in northern Japan. And Michelle and I find these place charming. We wonder whether you might as well. Ahead of us on the right is a little supermarket with the blue signage there. And I can highly recommend if you come to Yokohama, go to that supermarket. They have the best bento boxes and the most delicious onigiri I have had so far in Japan. Trust me, you must go there. So, we’re going to have a little drive around now Yokohama. Uh we’re going to play a bit of ice spy as well as we as we drive around. So, if you might be familiar with our ice spy game, I think we’ve done a couple already on the channel. So, the things I want you to be looking for, I spy with my little eye, a tory gate. So, look for a tory gate. Does it have to be red? I think so. Let’s call it a red to gate. Red gate. There’s going to be a few things. There’s going to be a list of things you can look out. Red Tory gate. I spy with my little eye. First one to spot a yellow K car. So, yellow kar I spy with my little eye. First one to spot a fishing boat. Okay. And I think we are in a fishing town here. So, you may spot a fishing boat. What was the other one we mentioned? I spy with my little eye. Um, somebody on a bicycle. Somebody on a bicycle. They have to be riding the bicycle. And I’ll throw one more in. So, we’ll have five. Even Michelle and I might struggle to remember all of these. I spy with my little eye. First one to spot a train crossing. All right. Okay. So, we’re going to have a little drive now slowly. We might talk. If you don’t want to hear us talking, you can put a little bit of music in on in the background, but uh it’s it’s a bright and sunny day. We are in August or just in August of 2025. If you’re from Yokohama, please comment down below. Let us know what we might have missed. But we’re right in the heart. Best supermarket in Yokohama by far. Lovely staff. Highly recommend. If you come here, do not miss that supermarket. And make sure absolutely make Oi. Oi. Oi. Uh, onigiri. So, should we go left here? So, the supermarket has a plenty of parking at the front and some vending machines. We didn’t put vending machines. Sunglasses. Glasses on the wall. Glasses on the wall. So, let’s have a drive down. And I think we’re getting to the end of the town here, but we’ll come back through. We’re not going to leave this town. So, we’re just going to have a look around. A typical seaside town. This is not, I don’t think, a tourist town. Don’t think so. It’s probably a little sleepy. It’s u mid to late morning. The road definitely bypasses it, doesn’t it, though? It does. Yeah. This is one of those towns that uh have a good solid bypass that people don’t come in. So we find most people stop at the Minoeki to the uh land side of this town and very few come down and use that supermarket. So it’s a gem. So they have a little petrol station here, little service station. I can’t see the prices. So but I think they’re quite reasonable here. You know, you tend to think they’d be more expensive, but we can’t see them. So anyway, let’s drive on. So don’t forget I spy if you spot anything. And if you’re not playing along with this and you just put a bit of music on, well, you won’t hear me say this. No. Okay. There’s a fishing port to our left. So, we might drive down there in a minute. I suspect the first eye spy might get uh called. How are you this morning, Michelle? I’m good. I’m very good. Well, look at that pile of boys there. Oh, yeah. Up against the um the breaker. That’s a home depot. A home depot. A home home convenini. It says home comini. Okay. So, you can tell it’s a fishing town because there boys outside every house and nets piled up high. So, we might find ourselves here. Don’t think we going to the edge of the town, but we’ll do it anyway. We’ve got plenty of time if you’ve got time to join us. We saw something very strange this morning cuz we actually parked in the Minoki this morning and a huge amount of what looked like carnival trucks. Yes. Rocked up. Oh, very colorful. And uh I’d say probably 20 or 30 all gay painted. I might have taken a few photos, so I’d drop them in if I did, but I don’t want to make this about carnival trucks. What do you notice about the houses? An eclectic mix of houses. all different styles and patterns. I am just going to pull over briefly and let the traffic go by. There’s a car behind me, so let’s just let him uh let him pass. Stop there. Not a busy town, but uh unfair for me to be crawling around and talking. And there’s a little motor scooter coming as well. So, we’ll let him we’ll let him pass. It’s a Posty. Ah, good morning, Posty. It’s on a little Posty bike. Must have got that from Australia, I think. very similar little Honda 125 Cubs. I think they use them here as well. It might be a Suzuki, but So, they’re right on the edge of the They’re very up the coast, but they’ve got that barrier. Yes. Must obviously have big winds and waves. So, we are coming now to the end of town. Do a turn around. I’m going to do a loop if I can. So, we go out into open fields of crops. I’m going to do a little U-turn. There’s a police car before the police come. You’re going to let them go. He has got his lights on. So, let’s just pause here a minute. Now, it’s interesting cuz we’ve seen these police cars many times before, whizzing through the country at sort of breakneck speeds of 20 km an hour. Their red lights are flashing and they’ll come to traffic light stops and they’ll just stop. So, I don’t know what the emergency is, but they do tend to have a little trail of traffic behind them honoring the speed limit, which uh very few Japanese people do. Am I being unfair to say that, Michelle? So, there goes the police car, and there goes the frustrated drivers wishing they could do just a little bit over the speed limit. Off we go. Now, we talked many times before about the architecture in Japan and the unusually steep 80° roofs um which you’ll see. You can’t see one here. Actually, I was looking they will be there. Now, my thoughts are I’ve talked about this, but I’m going to put my theory over is most of those very steep roofs and it’s more so in snow country than than anywhere else. I think they’re to do with keeping the buildup of snow on entrances. So, uh, garage entrances, uh, front door entrances, so that you don’t get a sudden drop of snow. There’s one just over there. There is one over there, Michelle, but we won’t be able to see if my theory is correct. But I think you will you will spot them much steeper roofs when they’re near um gateways, entrances, garage entrances, and uh yeah, take a look out for that. Have we spotted anything yet? I haven’t. Not yet. So, I’m not going to go all the way down the same route. Or should I? We are taking a full tour of the town. It is very small town, so we may not be that long. We could turn down. Going down to the waterfront here. I saw a little road going down. You got to come back. So, here is the home conveni hardware store maybe I think. So, yeah, it’s obviously a home center of some sort. Yeah. Oh. Oh, dab. So, there’s a turning coming up. I think this one. Yeah, we’ll go down this one here. We got a little bow. Little bow from who did we get the little bow from? From the lady on the bicycle who got the ice spy there. Michelle’s learning she’s not shouting out as soon as she sees it, which she did on the first game. I did. Never going to live that one down. You’re never going to live that one down. I wanted to play. Oh. Uh, now I’m doing it. Did you catch another one of the eye spies? I wonder now if you get an eye spy, if you get one right, write in the comments down below the timestamp and what you saw so we know that you’ve got it. There’s no cheating in this game. You can’t just have a stab. If it’s not on the timestamp, it’s not a win. Yeah. So, you probably seeing to the right of me now a lot of fishing boats. That was one of our ice spies, wasn’t it? But there was one a little bit further back. There was one earlier. So, did you observe the early one? I didn’t actually I did make a little noise. So, that was a little unfair. So, two down, three to go. Can you remember what they are? Yeah, I’m struggling. Yellow K card. Now, that’s interesting. I’m just going to reverse up a little bit there. I don’t think anyone’s behind me, but um I see a lot on the seafront. And I think to the to the right of us here is where the fish catch comes in, but you’ll see these um little conveyor. So, I don’t know if I’ve got a I can turn just so you’ll see these little conveyors here. They use for loading fish on and off of the the boats. If they’ve got a smooth surface and they haven’t got the the rubber traction on them, then they’re a chute to go onto the boat. And that’s quite often to put ice onto the boat. These ones are for taking fish off of the boat and a little toilet there. But I don’t know if you noticed they were they were tied shut. Have to go back. I passed them. Sorry. All sorts of tools. All sorts of uh fish fishery equipment. Absolutely. Do you think I can get through up here? Uh maybe that way. That way or this way? Let’s have a little look. So, which one looks most interesting? We’ll go this that way. Michelle’s made the choice. We’re going right. Michelle would have said right, but she probably I was just checking it was the right. Right. Lefties, righties. Yes. So, we have a yellow K car. We’re looking for a red Tory gate. And what’s the other one? I can remember. You can remember? Yeah. Good. Cuz I can’t at the moment. Oh, well. You will have to wait and see if you can chew choo choo choos. Oh, look. There’s a group of people doing some putting up a swimming pool. Putting up a paddling pool. You can’t see it and I can’t turn the camera. It will be disrespectful. Absolutely. There’s a family there putting a paddling pool. Did you get my hint then, Michelle? Yes. Yes, I do. I have remembered. Only just then. You had to juke. I knew you gave me a clue, but I couldn’t get it. So, we’re in a right little Yeah. rock and rolling road. It’s probably a foot path. We’re probably not meant to be on it at all, but uh we did do one of these roads before, didn’t we? Cars are here. So, yes. Yes. One of these roads where we went along the river quite a long way. We suddenly turned off of a main road. Wasn’t quite as jolly as this one, but yeah, was very similar. Yeah, these are roots. So, that’s a little K car, yellow number plate. It’s a real old beatenabout K car. So, we’re back on to the what we’re going to call for one of no other understanding. We’re going to call this the high street. Although, I think there’s another road that’s Oops. And we’ll just go on on the right side of the road. Steven, there’s the postman Pat. Postman Pat. Should have had him in the eye spy, Michelle. Yeah. Well, he was in the last one. The barber’s pole to the left. Yeah, we did play Ice Spy a few days back and we chose Postman Pat uh red van and we it didn’t turn up, did it? No, we saw two before we chose them, but we didn’t see them again. So, there’s a little steep roof all round on that house there, but that doesn’t really count. That doesn’t show what I was talking about. And this house here covered in vines. That looks like um an IKEA, doesn’t it? An abandoned house. For those of you who don’t know, there are thousands. I won’t stop just there cuz that’s on a corner and it might give the guy behind me some trouble. But he was coming at speed. So, I’m just going to pull over and let this car pass again. you know, they don’t want them remembering the uh the YouTubers in town causing havoc and congestion. So, an IKEA is an abandoned home that’s often for sale in Japan. There are apparently many millions of them, and they’re super cheap. You can buy them as foreigners even, but they often need quite a lot of work doing to them, and they’re often in quite remote uh remote locations. That gentleman just gave us a little wave. Yeah. Big smile. So, I’m not going to go much further. If I can find a left turn here, cuz I think we’ll be out of the town. So, let’s see if we can get up upper road. Upper road. By the way, the uh K car today. It can be parked. Okay. Because I think it most likely will be parked. That’s where the police car was rushing off to. Oh, yeah. Getting back to the office. Police station. It’s obviously coffee time. Don’t be disrespectful to the police here in Japan. Michelle, please have the time guests. He’s deserved his coffee break. Most certainly. So now out here they’re like a a lotment ground or or planting ground. I’m not sure. They’re not planting rice here. It’s not a rice field, but there’s some something growing. Something growing. Daido. Uh Daido’s white flag. So, here is a maybe community center. Community center, maybe. Now, we’re going to head down what I can only call the second high street of Yoko Yokohama look it up on the map, you’ll know exactly where we are. You might have to zoom in a little bit cuz it isn’t very big. It’s kind of tiny, but it’s kind of cute. We like it. And it certainly has the best supermarket that I’ve been to. It’s a small supermarket. Oh, here’s the fire station. Ah, yes. Ahead of us is uh So, it has a police station and a fire station. Now, the fire station is much bigger than the police station. Yep. And the ambulance is in there as well. It’s got fulls size fire engines as well. Quite often in small towns see these tiny little fire fire engine. I’m just going to do a little little Uturn just to see so you can see the fire station and the trucks. They are cool. Very good. Nice. Let’s check the traffic. And ahead of us, I think this might be the town hall or some sort of uh what do I say? Public building maybe. Maybe. So, somebody else has got a paddling pool filled up. So, everyone’s enjoying the paddling pools in their driveways and gardens. Getting the kids in, cooling down. It’s been a super hot summer. 40° plus close to I think 100° degrees in Fahrenheit and very humid. Little tractor ahead. Little tractor ahead. I won’t speed up to catch him. So, the soil there is quite dark. It is not not as dark as what you have seen. No. A little further south from here. I got out of the car to film the soil. It was so black. You can see here to the right. The soil is very rich in this area. And also I can see these mirrors. So I can see left and right and see if vehicles are coming. I think the tractor is uh going to be making a turn. He’s slowing down. Or is that his full speed? Beautiful soil. Absolutely gorgeous. Very rich. This is almost black soil. Almost. Yeah. I’m just going to um Oh, let’s see that tractor turning. We’ll follow the tractor in a minute, guys. But let me just um come back cuz I want to I want you to see if it’s possible. Anyway, I’ll come back a little bit. Got a reversing camera. If you can possibly see just how rich and dark this soil looks. How beautiful is that? I mean, absolutely anything will grow in soil that uh that rich. It’s quite lomy when you lift it in your hand, but it’s also almost stained your fingers. And I don’t think it’s a fertilizer. Okay, this guy I don’t know far. No, I think he’s going to go in. And so I’m just going to also reverse up again. Excuse me, but I want to get an angle so you can see the farmer. I think he’s about to turn this soil over, actually. You think? Yeah. Now, I’m probably wasting our time, but I’m going to cut across this property’s gravel line here, and you’re going to see nothing, unfortunately. But you might see it if I turn around and come back. So, look, there he is. Is he going to be turning over this soil? Even on the wheels there, it’s sort of rich, dark soil. Yes, he is. Put it down. He’s going to be turning over the soil. Okay, we’re going to go back and we’re going to turn around and get you a look at this beautiful little tractor doing his work. Again, I’ve got mirrors on the road so I can see ahead. No, he’s got out. Oh, he’s actually You can’t see, but he’s just actually put the um the the plow down. He’s got out and gone home. So, doesn’t matter. We’ve got a new little road to go down. Wow. Is it a road? Does it go anywhere? Probably just someone’s house. Five. I think it is. I Yeah. Yeah. I think we’re just in someone’s home here. So, we’re going to reverse up and just do a little uh little turn around. Car thinks we’re close to that post, but we’re okay. Sorry, uh, family. Probably not having many vehicles turning around. At least you’ll get to see the tractor parked because I am going to take a little right here. I love the little h little houses. These are big houses. They are big houses. you know, have a tendency to say, “I love the little houses, but they’re big homes, unlike in some of the cities.” So, yeah, he parked up there, dropped what he was towing, and headed back for a little tea break. So, were we coming down this road? I think we were, weren’t we? Going that way. Yes. get over the river. That actually looks like the guy Yes. who was driving. I don’t know if you saw the signs there and I got to see the farmer’s face. I got a feeling that was his face. Or maybe they’re all, you know, similar looking families, family resemblances maybe. So that little car can’t even fit in the garage. is um partially in the post office there. That’s the post office. Now, we’ve got a theory that we might be able to get some cash out of the post office. We’ll check that out later on off camera. That guy has a whale’s tail on the back of his t-shirt. Probably too far away for you to see. I only just caught that. Okay. There’s the graveyard. A little in my car tells me when there’s a stop sign. So that little sound was saying there’s a stop sign ahead of you. You have to do a full stop. Let the traffic by. Another barber shop there. And here to the right of me, it’s a pretty little shrine. And I think we can just pull in there. So, we will. Okay. There are vehicles in there. Oh, yes. How beautiful are these gardens? Look at those. the toprier on those bushes there and this very pretty shrine. This is a burial a burial area I think. So we won’t be going in but we will just have a little look. And to the ahead of you there are some buckets and waters for purifying and cleaning your hands and cleaning your mouth before you go into the temple. Oh, and there’s the temple gate. Very nice. Gorgeous wood carving. Remember this is a very small town. I would say the population maybe maybe 10 15,000. I don’t know. Maybe somebody can check the population. Yeah. And the reason I wanted such a small town to do this today was because it’ll if the town was too big, it would take us hours to drive around. This shouldn’t take us too long. No. So, I think I might Michelle let this car go. Go right here. Yeah. Go up. Go up there and see. And what are you doing? He’s not sure. He saw I indicated. to this little road here. Are we lost yet? Are we retracing our steps at all? No, we’re not not retracing our steps. So, up here I have to make a stop. Why do I have to make a stop? Come on. Another stop. And you, all Japanese cars stop. They look left and right because if you’re playing I spy, it’s a railway track. It is. So, we’re crossing the railway track and we’re heading out of town. Slightly slightly heading out of town. I probably do a Uturn here. Oh, I thought that was going to be a yellow K car, but it’s not. No, it’s not. It’s not. Can I do a U-turn or shall I go slightly different way? I think I’ll do a U-turn because this heads out onto the main road. Yeah. So, guest room Kawasaki Giko. Ah, so that’s where we are if you need to look on the map. Gardens are so pretty. People keep their gardens so well manicured. So, you don’t get uh a second guess, but uh did anyone write down railway track? And if so, pop it in the timeline. See if you’re the first to spot it. So, again, we’ve got to stop. Stop. Check it out. Check. Now, I’m not sure if they do it because they don’t trust the lines. And to be frank, you can’t see. No. If a train is coming because there’s often a lot of greenery and shrubbery, but you can’t see. But people do it. There’s sort of like the everywhere, the gesture of stopping everywhere on railway crossings. Even if you can see from quite some distance away, there’s a tendency for people to stop. There’s a gentleman. And that’s the sound. on my car’s telling me there’s a stop sign coming up. You can see the mirrors on the post there. So, I can see both right and left. It’s nice and clear. Which way you going to go? Straight over and we can come down here. Oh, is this a dead end? It is a dead end. Let’s just uh let’s just back up. Done it again, Michelle. Yeah. So, get to see things twice. So, I think there somebody’s home or see if I can now. I haven’t got mirrors this time. So, I’m going to have to reverse onto the road very carefully and gingerely and try not to uh get struck by an oncoming speeding cop car. Oh, there we are. Back on the road. Okay, nobody there. So, that’s good. So, we go down here. And it’s probably a good time to say, “Did you spy?” Did you spy? It was there. What did you spy? It was there. Let’s let this little uh He’s letting me come first. come in. I give him a little bow. Little thank you bow. And he gave me a little thank you bow. Did you spot the red Tory gate? Come on. It was there. It was there. Very clear. Very clearly there. Absolutely. So now we are back on the high street. I suspect that we’ve just about done the town. Michelle, we have. And that elusive little yellow K car has not been spotted. Michelle and I are going to end it here. We’re going to go into our favorite little supermarket. Anyone can translate the name of that supermarket. It’s called that. It is, trust me, superb. You are going to absolutely love it if you come here. I think it’s called Fish Market. Supermarket. Fish market. Supermarket. Yeah, that’s what it says up there. And that’s what it says on that sign. So, I’m just coming around to the camera. Love this town. Yokohama. You’ll love it, too. All we need is a place to be and a few good friends for some company. If you’d like to stay, you don’t have to leave. We’ll leave the lights on and the door unlocked. If you drop on by, you don’t have to knock. We’re happy to share whatever we’ve got. [Music]

Take a drive with us through the other Yokohama — not the bustling city, but a sleepy little seaside town in northern Japan. 🌊🚗We explore quiet streets, spot fishing boats and bicycles, admire eclectic houses, and play a fun round of I Spy along the way. From the best little supermarket (with bento and onigiri worth the trip!) to hidden shrines and paddling pools in driveways, this is small-town Japan at its most charming.
Join us as we drive through narrow roads, rich farmland, quirky architecture, and seaside views — discovering everyday life far off the tourist trail.

00:00 – Welcome to “Not That Yokohama”
00:31 – Best supermarket & amazing onigiri
00:52 – The I Spy game begins
03:35 – Fishing town vibes
05:29 – Police cars & steep roofs
08:13 – Yellow K-car & paddling pool fun
12:54 – Abandoned “Ikea” houses
14:30 – Fire station & public buildings
16:47 – Rich farmland & local farming
21:49 – Small shrine & town size
28:06 – Wrapping up at the supermarket

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCKFt7y9MS8BjPlpVHAdYwA/join

☕️☕️ Buy us a Coffee 👍 http://paypal.me/ThanksSteve

📌 Stay Connected!
🌍 Website: [steves-kitchen.com]
📷 Instagram: [@steveskitchen]
🐦 Twitter/X: [@steves_kitchen]
📘 Facebook: [Steve’s Kitchen]
Stay tuned for more fun content and don’t forget to leave your questions and suggestions in the comments!

Catch up on our Travel Videos all in one playlist
↪︎ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn97RAtUadvmtsSdELIbOWBurCTdFivW7

OR Check out All my Recipes
↪︎ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn97RAtUadvnrUflqpFhQofoYUGrUThYt

🧡 Did you know? you can show your love and support HERE
↪︎ http://paypal.me/ThanksSteve
It’s really simple.. 👍
Thanks for watching 👍💕

Send a small monthly support through https://www.patreon.com/SteveOwens

🛒 Do you shop on Amazon?
If you use Amazon click this link. You won’t pay a penny extra but we earn a tiny commission whenever you buy something. Thank you..🧡
USA – https://amzn.to/3iFHOZe
UK – https://amzn.to/31Os6nS

🎬 If you’d like to know what gear we use, you will find most of it here. Also for a full list of our world travel kit, again using this link earns us a tiny commission, so a huge thank you. 🧡
USA – https://amzn.to/3gYfOQ4
UK – https://amzn.to/3g0R0Wu

Thanks to the VPN that lets us share these videos 👍 https://surfshark.club/friend/QFptnzvF
Our musical inspirations inspired by https://audiio.com/partner?oid=1&affid=914

#japan #Travel #game