3 Best Sights in Side Trips from Tokyo, Japan

This museum is housed in one of the few Yokohama buildings to have survived both the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and World War II. Although most exhibits have no explanations in English, the third-floor galleries showcase some remarkable medieval wooden sculptures (including one of the first Kamakura shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo), hanging scrolls, portraits, and armor. The exhibits of prehistory and of Yokohama in the early modern period are of much less interest.

Built in the 1920s as a traditional inn (ryokan), this creaking old building south of JR Ito Station is now a local history museum and culture center. It's worth the small fee just to see the tatami-mat ryokan rooms and their traditional decor, but you can also pay extra for a soak in Tokaikan's modest hot-spring baths.

Within the archives, housed in a small complex that once also included the British Consulate, are two rooms of items recording the history of Yokohama since the opening of the port to international trade in the mid-19th century. It's worth a quick look if you like old photos and newspaper clippings. Across the street is a monument to the U.S.–Japanese Friendship Treaty.