Ten years ago this summer I spent two months in Yokohama, subletting the apartment of a friend of a friend and attending a Japanese language program for North American grad students. I met a great group of people, a number of whom are still friends, and made a whole lot of amazing memories. The school was in a beautiful spot overlooking the water, right by Queen's Square and the Landmark Tower, only a few minutes from Sakuragicho station.
In the ten years since then Sakuragicho has changed - new shopping complexes, more stores, new developments... I hardly recognized it when I went last week. But looking at the Nagasaki University's Metadatabase of Japanese Old Photographs it has changed even more in the past 100 years...
What is now Sakuragicho station is on the site of what was the first Yokohama station.
The station is now dwarfed by the surrounding buildings and almost hidden, but the sky was a lovely shade of blue and I enjoyed doing a bit of reminiscing...
The station itself got in on the now and then - it is decorated with old photographs, maps, and descriptions of what the area used to look like.
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