Yokohama is where ramen, gyoza and Western beer entered Japan. Eat your way from Chinatown's 500-odd restaurants to Noge's alley izakaya, a ramen museum with regional bowls, and the Honmoku hills where iekei ramen was invented in 1974.
Working wholesale market since 1931 on the Kanagawa waterfront. The Kanko Sushi and Shokudo blocks open to the public from 05:00; tuna, shirasu whitebait and set breakfasts run ¥900-2,200. Saturdays bring the public 'Ichiba Matsuri' stalls.
Opened 1994 in a recreated 1958 Shitamachi street set in the basement. Nine rotating shops from Hokkaido to Kumamoto serve half-size 'mini' bowls (¥700-1,100) so you can eat three in a sitting. Entry ¥380 adults, open 11:00-21:00.
The less-photographed north lane of Chūkagai, lined with grocers selling dried scallop, Sichuan peppercorn and pork buns. Edosei sells the original 1950s butaman for ¥600; Yaowang and Kaikatei do steamed shumai counters from ¥400 a portion.
Post-war black-market quarter behind Sakuragichō with roughly 600 tiny bars and yakitori counters across five blocks. Standing-only shops open at 15:00; Noge Beer Hall pours Yokohama craft, Momotarō grills motsu skewers at ¥180 a stick.
On the site linked to Japan's brewing origins in Yamate, the Namamugi plant runs 70-minute guided tours ending with three tasting glasses of Ichiban Shibori. Reservations online, ¥500 per adult, tours from 10:00, closed Mondays.
The 1974 birthplace of iekei ramen: pork-bone-and-soy broth, thick Sakai-seimen noodles, spinach and nori. Bowls ¥900, extra rice ¥150. You specify noodle firmness, oil volume and broth strength at the ticket machine. Queues form by 11:00.
Cantonese house founded 1892, the oldest surviving restaurant in Chūkagai, in a red-and-gold building on Minamimon Silk Road. Lunch courses ¥3,300, dim sum à la carte from ¥800; the roast duck and shark-fin dumplings are the signature orders.
Yokohama claims Japan's first beef-eating restaurants after 1859; gyūnabe (the proto-sukiyaki, miso-based, with Kanagawa beef) is the local survivor. Iron pots for two from ¥4,800 a head, served in a wooden machiya-style room near the old settlement.
A 400-metre covered shōtengai of about 130 shops near Hakuraku Station: taiyaki at ¥180, korokke at ¥120, fresh tofu and pickled-vegetable stalls. Morning is when the greengrocers call prices out; most shops shut Wednesdays.
The main east-west lane packs takeaway windows: Rō Shōki's pork buns ¥550, Kōfukumon's egg tarts ¥250, Peking-duck rolls at ¥600 and tapioca stands. Roughly 620 businesses operate inside the ten-block quarter, most open 11:00-20:00.
The 1860 foreign-residents' shopping lane, still the home of Yokohama's Western baking. Kitamura and Uchiki Pan — Japan's oldest bread bakery, opened 1888 — sell the England-style 'Igirisu pan' loaf at ¥480; Kikuya sells beef curry pan at ¥320.
Yokohama Beer, founded 1994, brews in the Bashamichi block and taps pilsner and Yokohama Pale Ale from ¥750 a half-litre alongside Kanagawa sake from Izumibashi and Kumazawa. Food is Miura peninsula seafood; open until 23:00.